The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 30

2D The Miami Herald Saturday October 3 1987 Grenade suspect was family man musician i i play at a Leesburg High reunion said Stinson who added Skinner appear to have changed But neighbors sure quite what to make of Skinner "He was kind of said a Titusville neighbor who asked not to be identified Skinner who most recently worked as a car salesman until April had had a federal license to deal in firearms In 1982 he was convicted of selling guns illegally and falsifying records and sentenced to six probation He was prohibited from owning firearms said Mike Hegerfeld of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms Authorities found 37 automatic weapons in his car TITUSVILLE (AP) Neighbors and friends of a man who had a hand grenade that exploded during a struggle with two deputies in Orlando say the movements in and around his hometown here were strange Less than a year ago Ronald Skinner moved into the neighborhood with his wife young son and newborn baby Neighbors say they wondered about his frequent comings and goings and the strange cars that periodically parked at his home A few days ago one neighbor said she saw Skinner's car backed up to his garage and when she looked he stopped loading and just stared knew he was a salesman so I thought he was loading up something to sell I had a funny feeling about it though He never did anything like that she said Skinner was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree attempted murder after he grabbed a grenade from his weapon-packed car Tuesday and pulled the pin Skinner and two Orange County deputies were injured in the explosion The deputies remained hospitalized Friday Earlier Skinner had threatened a gas-station attendant with a machine gun police said Deputy Gary Jones was in fair condition at Florida Hospital in Orlando with burns cuts and bruises from shrapnel on his face arms stomach and legs hospital officials said Sgt James Wilkerson who tried to grab the grenade was in serious condition and Skinner was in fair condition Friday at Orlando Regional Medical Center Doctors amputated right hand and two fingers off the left hand and Skinner lost his right hand Friends of Skinner said they found it hard to believe that the 41 -year-old is the same man who graduated from high school and the University of South Florida in Tampa with honors and worked for the public office in Bartow "He was very talented" said James Stinson of Tavares who met Skinner at Lake Sumter Junior College in Leesburg and joined rock roll band The Shadows The band reunited a year ago to Ronald Skinner: Neighbors hardly knew him NASA-Bisney exhibit to study space farming attempting to prepare for that to ensure that these missions will be carried out safely and Averner said the United States is about a decade behind the Soviet Union in research on such life support systems Along with the bioregenerative system research project scientists at The Land also are conducting research to determine if lunar soil can support crops for possible moon bases in the next century Despite the success of the Apollo moon program there is little moon soil on Earth and scientists at The Land are working on ways to develop a simulation that will mimic the real properties Currently wheat and soybeans are growing in the fake moon soil and experiments are focusing on what nutrients are present which are needed and how the plants influence soil development United Press International ORLANDO (UPI) The space agency and scientists with Walt Disney World dedicated a joint exhibit Friday to study futuristic agricultural methods that one day might feed astronauts on the way to Mars or allow lunar prospectors to enjoy home-grown garden salads researchers said Housed in exhibit a six-acre Epcot Center educational attraction billed as largest display of food and fiber crops under one the new exhibit is a joint project between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Walt Disney World going to be after the turn of the century before we end up utilizing any of the technology that developing right said astronaut Stephen Oswald "But somebody needs to do that and a good thing got folks working in that The project sponsored by Kraft focuses on studying ways to build life support systems that use plants for food as well as to produce oxygen for astronauts on long-duration missions Such systems would completely recycle food water air and waste products to provide a environment research at The Land may someday ensure healthy crops on the moon or even fresh-picked salads for the long voyage to Mars" said Henry Robitaille an agricultural systems manager "Our joint venture with NASA on astroponics for space living gives us the opportunity not only to participate in state-of-the-art research but also to share this exciting work with A manned flight to Mars for example would take more than a year and developing such bioregenerative food systems is considered crucial to minimizing design problems Such systems also would be useful for astronauts based at an outpost on the moon a project recently endorsed by a NASA study group headed by former astronaut Sally Ride are very ambitious goals and there are some obvious technical problems that need to be Oswald said of those is how do you supply food for the crew people and how do you revitalize the air and the water Six 9-foot-tall built with spare parts from ongoing research projects at the Kennedy Space Center were installed in The Land exhibit where researchers will grow lettuce wheat soybeans potatoes sugar beets and other plants The plants are being grown in an aqueous solution under high intensity sodium vapor lights and one of the goals of the research is to determine how varying light levels and nutrients affects specific root diseases that could threaten growth in the weightlessness of space are currently thinking that manned exploration of the solar system is a clear goal that NASA will adopt said Maurice Averner a NASA program manager based in Washington Associated Press Going in circles Brick mason Colin Tenney is silhouetted in in a circular window in Gainesville part the morning sun as he touches up some work of a crew building a plumbing warehouse Lawyer charged with trying to solicit suit over bus crash Hoopla Second-grader Ronnie Felter gets hung up by his Hula Hoop during physical education class at Garner Elementary School in Winter Haven Minority attorneys urge defeat wife at Shands Teaching Hospital in Gainesville The victim and her husband were not identified The driver of a school bus and five students died Aug 28 when their vehicle was rammed broadside by a truck that had run a stop sign Families of the victims complained they were harassed by lawyers within hours of the tragedy The Florida Bar has begun an investigation that could lead to suspension or reprimand of the lawyers case is the first to involve criminal charges in connection with the Housing aid flap kills debate GAINESVILLE (UPI) State insurance investigators and State Attorney Eugene Whitworth filed felony charges Friday against a Jacksonville lawyer for allegedly trying to solicit a lawsuit from victims of a fatal school bus crash Forrest Johnson 33 was accused of two counts of illegal solicitation involving victims of the wreck in Bronson that killed five students and the bus driver Each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison Department of Insurance officials said Johnson was to surrender late Friday or Saturday following his return from an Atlanta business trip State law prohibits a lawyer from approaching a victim of a motor vehicle accident and trying to persuade him or her to file a personal injury lawsuit The practice also violates canons of conduct for lawyers established by the Florida Bar and state Supreme Court Johnson was accused of trying to get the husband of a woman hurt in the bus crash to file a lawsuit approaching the man twice while he was visiting his blacks and minorities in his Sutton said Elaine Jones the congressional liaison said she was encouraged by events Thursday when Pennsylvania Sen Arlen Specter and three Southern Democrats declared their opposition to President nominee The National Bar Association the oldest and largest organization of minority lawyers held the press conference during its quarterly Board of Governors meeting at the Breakers The organization had another item on its agenda: the possible impeachment of Alcee Hastings first black federal judge Hastings who attended the quarterly meeting but not the press conference was acquitted four years ago of charges that he agreed with a Washington defense lawyer to accept a $150000 bribe in exchange for reducing the sentences of two racketeers By MARK KRIEGEL Herald Staff Writer The National Bar Association lambasted Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork Friday as a jurist who sought to put the Constitution back 200 years when slavery was a legally accepted practice Bork is the leading theoretician of the conservative legal movement which purports to return the US Constitution to its original intent The original intent of the Constitution condoned slavery and classified blacks as three-fifths of a association President William Sutton Jr said in a prepared statement released in Palm Beach When asked if he meant that Bork had no constitutional objections to slavery Sutton qualified his statement Sutton a corporate counsel for Texas Instruments in Dallas acknowledged that he had used strong words My point is that he really does not include received loans while Ferre was mayor said he has not yet decided who he will support in this campaign Martinez and one of his partners in one project Rolando Barrero are members of the Latin Builders Association Barrero has been the contractor on Little Haiti project and is the contractor on two projects one in Little Havana and one in Liberty City In the Liberty City project partner is Patrick Range whose mother former Commissioner Athalie Range has publicly praised mayoral bid FERRE from ID to Suarez supporters who are members of the association Pelaez termed allegations as and said tactics are divide and He said the association even voted yet on who it will endorse in the election City records show that while Ferre was mayor some of his supporters received housing rehabilitation loans too Ferre counted $42 million in loans awarded to companies controlled by Aristedes Martinez as evidence of money given to a Suarez supporter But Martinez a longtime Ferre supporter who Pilot ejects before crash Crash kin settle with Delta United Press Internationa The husband and son of a Boca Raton woman who died in the August 1985 Delta Airlines crash at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport have received about $900000 in an out-of-court settlement The decision reached Thursday was the first settlement to result from special mediation conferences that were held in September to help resolve legal stalemates that could otherwise lead to jury trials Connie Jaylene Shaw 41 was one of 137 people killed in the crash of Delta Flight 191 which took off from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Aug 2 1985 Her husband Dean and 14-year-old son Vance filed a lawsuit accusing the Atlanta-based airline of negligence In the out-of-court settlement Dean Shaw received $682666 and his son received $217333 The Shaw case was one of 11 scheduled for special settlement conferences in which a panel of three retired judges met with attorneys from both sides Liability in the crash will be determined in a trial that begins in federal court in Fort Worth on Nov 16 Lawsuits by survivors and relatives of victims against Delta have been consolidated with lawsuits filed by Delta against air traffic controllers and the National Weather Service APALACHICOLA (AP) The pilot of an Air Force F-15 Eagle survived the crash of his jet fighter Friday in an unpopulated area northeast of this Gulf Coast town Air Force officials said Maj JT Greene of Langley Air Force Base Va ejected from the jet before it went down during a training mission said Capt Carolyn Hodge chief of media relations at Tyndall Air Force Base where the plane took off She said Greene was rescued by helicopter and taken to hospital where he was reported in good condition Greene was able to report his position over a radio that was part of his survival gear but the wreckage was not immediately found Hodge said It apparently went down in or near the Apalachicola National Forest Tyndall is about 50 miles northwest of Apalachicola Greene was assigned to the 48th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron at Langley and was on temporary duty at the Tyndall detachment United Press International Can do Orville Fry of Orlando rides along with a hefty haul of aluminum cans headed toward a recycling center It takes beyween three to four hours for him to get such a load for which he earns about $15.