The Modesto Bee from Modesto, California • 1

Friday The Modesto Bee November 7 1975 Modesto California Final edition 1 5t Mi When legislators travel first class all the way By George Baker McClatchy Newspapers Service WASHINGTON Once every two or three weeks Rep William Ket-chum R-Bakersfield boards a plane Friday afternoon at Dulles Airport to fly to his Bakersfield district for the usual round of speech-making and politicking While most passengers including perhaps some of constituents squeeze into the coach section where the seats are three abreast Ketchum plunks down in the more spacious first class section There sitting in a wider seat he can enjoy the gracious attention of two stewardesses a full array of agency survives the public and secondly the House in May increased the number of trips home from 18 to 26 a year Oddly some of the most frequent users of first class flights are conservative Republicans such as Ketchum who often are found on the House floor railing against wasteful or extravagant federal spending And the most frugal members are liberal Democratic freshmen who have been depicted by the GOP as free-spending looters of the public treasury Most members say they travel first class because it gives them time to See A-2 col 3 Consumer bill barely WASHINGTON A bill to establish a new federal agency for consumer protection cleared the House Thursday by a surprisingly narrow 9-vote margin indicating the growth of antibureaucracy in Congress While the 208-to-199 vote was the first time in its 6-year life the bill has cleared both houses of Congress the promise of a presidential veto makes it unlikely in light of the close House vote that the bill will become law On the vote 80 Democrats including 13 of the 75 freshmen joined 119 Republicans in voting against the bill Twenty Republicans joined 188 Democrats in voting for it Splitting almost entirely along party lines the California delegation voted 27 to 13 for the measure Twenty-six Democrats and one Republican Rep Paul McCloskey of San Mateo County supported the bill All California no votes were cast by Republicans Three members of the delegation missed the rollcall They are Reps Phillip Burton D-San Francisco McClatchy and Newspapers Service Times-Post Thomas Rees D-Los Angeles and Andrew Hinshaw R-Newport Beach Though the bill passed the Senate in May by more than two-thirds margin 61 to 28 the close vote in the House shows a considerable loss of support in the last few months This can be partly attributed to strong opposition by the President and heavy lobbying against it by business groups like the Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers But it also indicates anti-big government antibureaucracy sentiment is rapidly gaining widespread acceptance in Congress Opponents of the measure argued over and over that last thing we need is another federal costing taxpayers money and getting bogged down in red tape Rep John Erlenborn R-Ill said the agencies were created to serve the public interest If not doing the job the answer refreshments and cocktails and what sometimes passes as gourmet food But there is a bigger difference between coach and first class travel than more legroom or a full carafe of California wine A round trip ticket to Bakersfield home and to most other California cities costs $364 on coach and $488 on first class a difference of $154 But Ketchum and other California lawmakers who fly first class pay any more for their ticket Under House rules the taxpayer picks up the tab for all travel expenses regardless of whether coach or first class accommodations are used as straight line in aerial photo of San additional peach production acreage The families claimed Del Monte through foreclosure proceedings and foreclosure threats forced them to lose all of their farm properties including home ranches unencumbered prior to the contracts and one plaintiff Thomas Ellerd to lose his health The complaint accused the defendants of making false representations and entering into a conspiracy to defraud the families in order to profit by secretly acquiring ownership of the homes and farms at less than market value Defendants in addition to Del Monte are Co and Braden Farms both corporations BJR Ranches a partnership and BJR Ranches a limited partnership and Richard Braden Gary Jones and Richard Reinitz all of Hughson Leroy Myers Berkeley a Del Monte official Arthur Reynolds Patterson Delbert See A-2 col 2 Judge: Hearst is fit for trial SAN FRANCISCO (AP) A federal judge today declared Patricia Hearst is competent to stand trial on bank robbery charges San Andreas Fault appears Ceres brothers 4 and 6 are rescued from burning home Suit against Del Monte is settled outside court By Jim McClung Bee staff writer A Bee survey of the travel records of the state's 43 House members from January through June of this year showed that nearly all of them travel first class at the expense Of the nearly 240 one-way or round trips taken all but about 40 were first class Had coach accommodations been used instead there would have been a saving of nearly $25000 This works out to $50000 over a one-year period and nearly $100000 for the two-year Congress But the potential saving is actually understated for two reasons: all the trips taken from January-June are not listed in a published document and current records are not available to Joaquin Valley near Taft AP laserphoto Solons plan to reverse tax break measure WASHINGTON (AP) -Congressional tax writers plan to reverse their approval of a tax cut bill amendment aiding high income investors who suffer large losses congressional sources said today The amendment reportedly would give Texas businessman Ross Perot a $15 million refund Sponsored by Rep Phil Landrum D-Ga and adopted 20 to 14 by the House Ways and Means Committee the amendment would provide $165 million in tax refunds next year and $35 million the following year for some high-income investors including those who lost in last stock market decline The amendment was a late addition Tuesday to the Ways and Means general tax cut bill that is being withheld from final committee approval while different factions jockey lo build majorities and fence over a key procedural question The Wall Street Journal reported today that when the committee acted it unnoticed that the Landrum amendment represents what may be the most gigantic tax break in history for one person That person is Ross See A-2 col 4 Miss car then saw a man walk up to Mallory Seconds later he heard a shot Mallory lay on the pavement and a car sped away Miss purse was found in her car An all points bulletin was put out for car The police said Bettencourt abducted Miss Campbell about two weeks ago after she got off work broke her jaw in a struggle and drove her to the San Joaquin Valley They were stopped by officers but because Miss Campbell refused to press charges and he was released from the MerceeCJail a week ago Miss Campbell took part in a letter exchange program with prisoners and was linked as a pen pal to Bettencourt during his stay in Soledad the police said Bettencourt was convicted of the burglary charge in San Diego County but had lived in the Merced-Winton area before See A-2 col 1 When the first engine from the Ceres Fire Department arrived firemen John Weber jumped from the vehicle and rushed inside He had been alerted by radio that child might be trapped in the home He dashed into the smoke-filled bedroom opened a closet door and found Richard unconscious on the floor He gathered the boy in his arms and ran outside to a waiting resuscitator Both boys were revived by firemen before a paramedic ambulance team arrived Fire Chief Truman Showen said if the boys had remained in the smoke filled room couple of minutes it would have been too late When asked why he looked in the closet for the boy Weber said "That usually is where they are They try to hide from the The firemen limited fire damage to the bedroom Only the flooring and bunk beds were severely damaged However smoke damaged most of the four-bedroom dwelling Chief Showen said one of his fire fighters drove the pregnant woman who discovered the blaze to her home because of her Experts propose early quake warning system SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Citing the new feasibility of earthquake forecasts federal officials propose a nationwide early warning system designed to minimize death and destruction realize that the transition to the age of earthquake prediction will be difficult a carefully developed plan however can certainly ease those VE McKelvey US Geological Survey director told the Interior on Earthquake in a speech prepared for delivery today McKelvey said the plan for issuing quake predictions and warnings was being submitted for the consideration of state and local agencies and was subject to change Jack Carlson assistant Interior secretary for energy and minerals opened the conference and said in prepared remarks: the past three years seismologists and geophysicists in government laboratories and universities have made remarkable progress toward an astounding goal: the ability to reliably forecast the place time and size of future earthquakes Noting 31 million Americans live in the zone of greatest earthquake danger Carlson said San Francisco Los Angeles Seattle and Anchorage areas hit hard by past temblors See A-2 col 1 Joblessness dips in state rises in nation From McClatchy Newspapers Service and AP The California unemployment rate dropped to 10 per cent last month from 103 per cent in September according to the state Employment Development Department The number of unemployed was 862300 department figures showed During September 882600 Californians were out of work Nationwide unemployment rose from 83 to 86 per cent of the labor force in October reversing a four month decline the government reported today The bleak job report following announcement of a new spurt of inflation last month was a double blow to the Ford administration which is certain to face new questions over its efforts to pull the economy from the worst recession since the 1930s Index Cloudy Final stocks RTS RO End junior Sunday Variable through tomorrow temperature low 66 42 this Two unconscious boys ages 4 and 6 were rescued from a burning home at 2048 Grayson Road Ceres at 11 am today after the blaze was spotted and an alarm sounded by the wife of a Westport fireman Treated for smoke inhalation at Memorial Hospital Ceres were Richard Thompson 6 and his brother Michael 4 Their mother Mrs Florence Thompson said the children were not burned Firemen said the blaze apparently was started by the boys playing with matches while sitting on a bunk bed in their bedroom Smoke was spotted coming from the home by a motorist who telephoned the Ceres Fire Department and identified herself only as the wife of a Westport Mrs Thompson was awakened shortly thereafter by neighbors pounding on her front door She saw the smoke opened the front door and returned to the bedroom with Dave Chiebe a neighbor and picked Michael from the floor and rushed him outside A search failed to produce Richard An out-of-court settlement has been reached in a $12 million suit filed by three Stanislaus County farm families against Del Monte Corp and 12 other corporations partnerships and individuals accused of conspiring to defraud them of their property and businesses The amount and terms of the settlement were not disclosed although one plaintiff Gerald Marquis of Oakdale commented am happy with my portion of the The Stanislaus County Superior Court case was ordered dismissed with prejudice meaning the action cannot be refiled Other plaintiffs were wife Barbara and father Glen Marquis both of Oakdale Thomas Ellerd his wife Alma their son Norval Ellerd and his wife Lilly all of Modesto and Willard Ward and his wife Mary formerly of Modesto now living at Mi-Wuk Village near Sonora In their complaint filed in April 1974 they charged that before 1960 and through 1968 Del Monte enticed cling peach growers to enter into contracts committing growers to sell all of their peaches produced in future years to Del Monte in exchange for Del providing total financing for acquisition and development of Merced ex-convict is sought in San Jose murder kidnap comes mysteriously Maryjane Dahl 16 shown at a 1974 prom was suffering from disease and died last when her life-sustaining respirator was mysteriously unplugged See GIRL page A-7 McClatchy Newspapers Service SAN JOSE Roger Bettencourt 24 of Merced is sought as the killer of a San Jose man and the kidnaper of a girl who was a pen pal to Bettencourt while he was in prison According to the police Bettencourt had been hounding her since his release from prison and abducted her last month but she refused to press charges against him The police said Bettencourt paroled from Soledad Prison Sept 2 after serving a four-year term for burglary is believed to be the man who shot-gunned Tom Mallory 20 on the parking lot of the Valley Fair Shopping Center then abducted Patricia Ruth Campbell 19 of Sunnyvale Officers said Mallory works in the shopping center and rode his bicycle to work Miss Campbell drove her car to the shopping center to meet Mallory when he got off work about 10 pm One witness told officers he saw Mallory put the bicycle in the trunk of cloudiness with chance of showers and northwesterly winds range 43 to 65 high and low 45 Chuckle A stitch in time saves nothing unless your needle is threaded AP laserphoto AGENT REACTS A secret service agent right foreground grabbed an American flag out of the hands of a small boy and threw it to the ground after an incident in Springfield Mass where President Ford was poked in the forehead The President was shaking hands in the crowd when the youngster pushed the flag staff into his face There was no blood and the President showed no sign of injury 1.