Abilene Reporter-News from Abilene, Texas • 10

10-A THE ABILENE REPORTER-NEWS Abilene Texas Wed Eve Mar 28 1979 Continued from Pg 1A CBS shows to start in September Continued from Pg 1A On cable TV the station will be carried over Channel 10 he said It will operate on two-million effective radiated watti The studio building will be 11000 aquare feet with construction work to be done by Bryan and Boyd Construction Co he said Abe Allen treasurer of Rig Country TV Co said the station was another sign of Abilene's growth and represents "our confidence in the economy in the area" There will be a strong emphasis on news and public affairs with the latest electronic and videotape equipment being used for news gathering he said No personnel has been hired at the new station yet Terry said and he expects to begin interviews this summer He expects to have about 32 employees when the station begins broadcasting Big Country TV Co is owned by Abe Allen Bob Beckham Dr Jose Guerra Bob Moford Morey Millerman Syd Niblo Bill Terry Dr Zane Travis Dr Bob Trotter and Bill Wright All are Abilene residents Accidenf site Authorities at Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg Pa declared a "general emergency" today after water pump failed spewing some radioactive steam into the atmosphere There were no injuries See Story Pg 1A (AP Wire photo) Radioactive steam escaped Ginger likely pregnant again til the day before the birth and the closest guesser will receive a year's tree membership in the Abilene Zoological Society If any tics result a drawing will determine the winner If the winner also guesses the correct sex of the new arrival he or she will be given the privilege of naming the baby may be made for another female giraffe to eliminate interbreeding Buchanan said Those wishing to enter the zoo's Gestation Guessing should send a post-card to the Abilene Zoo Box 60 Abilene 79604 with the exact time and date of the birth Entries will be sccepted un test for the public Buchanan said giraffes normally have a pregnancy of 400 to 490 days It's likely that the giraffe to be born will follow his older brother to another zoo rather than staying here Buchanan said If it's a male it may be sold if it's a female a trade Continued from Pg 1A vestigate whether there was any lag" he said He said the plant would remain shut down for several days at least Blaine Fabian spokesman for Metropolitan Edison one of the consortium of utilities that runs the plant said a valve In the pressure steam system blew out Fabian said the accident automatically shut down the reactoi but some of the radiated steam vented into the atmosphere before the building was sealed Another spokesman for the utility Dave Klucsik said is absolutely no danger of a meltdown We are not in a Syndrome' situation" He referred to a current film starring Jane Fonda and Jack Lemmon about a cover-up of a near-catastrophe involving failure of a cooling mechanism at a nuclear plant The film includes a pump failure in tta plant and is showing in Abilene Karl Abraham public affairs officer for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Philadelphia said "What seeing is extremely low radiation It appears to be confined to inside the containment structure the neel reinforced concrete dome around the reactor "They have not detected any significant radiation off site" Abraham said there were no reports of any injuries or serious radistion exposures He said he did not know for certain whether anyone was near the containment structure when the accident occurred but he said that during normal operations no people are present in the containment building Abraham said plant officials declared the emergency" as part of standard operating procedure as soon as the reactor shut down State police spokesman James Cox said that Metropolitan Edison officisls had requested a state police helicopter "that will carry a monitoring He said he did not know what would be monitored State police were on the scene controlling traffic near the site The generating station employs 500 persons Miss Botvin said she did not know bow many were in the plant when the feed water pump malfunctioned tripping a safety device that shut down the unit The other generating unit already was shut down for refueling Miss Botvin said In Washington Frank Ingram a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said he knew only that there had been "some kind of accident" at the power plant Ingram aaid a team from the commission's Philadelphia regional office had been sent to the site Ingram said he did not know what the term meant and said it was not a term used by the commission The $1 billion generating station which began operating commercially in 1974 is accessible only by a bridge from the rural township of Londonderry Two security guards and a state trooper blocked the only gate to the plant "I'm sorry I can't answer any questions" one guard told a reporter Meanwhile on Tuesday commission officials had said they had no estimate on when the government would conclude its investigation of safety at five nuclear power plants in the eastern United States The NRC ordered the plants shut down two weeks ago to reevaluate the effects of earthquakes on the systems which cool the nuclear cores Involved In the shutdown orders were two nuclear units owned in Vir-ginis and single units in Pennsylvania New York State and Maine The Pennsylvania unit was the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station at Shippmgport Mexico City zoo officials said Ginger and George were separated for a month after the birth but apparently they didn't stay apart long Tom Buchanan zoo supervizor said this morning feel like she is (pregnant) but there's no guarantee" Buchanan aaid adding that there have been no radical changes in her behavior However since George has been keeping hit distance lately it's she is pregnant he said Pregnancy is not as easy to determine as it was before Buchanan said since Ginger's first birth stretched her anatomy Zoo officials aren't even sure when her gestation period atarted and are holding a con By WILLIAM WHITAZER Staff Writer George just can't keep his paws off Ginger and once again it looks as if she is in a family way Ginger a 7-year-old 13-foot-tall giraffe appears to be gaining weight and Abilene Zoo officials say she's probably pregnant again thanks to her long-necked companion It hasn't been a year since Ginger had her last offspring Geoffrey who wu delivered to the world April 22 Betides being Ginger's first it was also the first giraffe born at the local zoo Geoffrey now is in a private zoo owned by a wealthy Mexican national just south of Deaths spur recheck by Abilene firemen Witn details of give vivid robbery and had appeared to be a 36-ciliber Smith Wesson revolver tucked in his waistband" By SANDY TEST Staff Writer buy them the best equipmentsnd we give them the best training and then something like this Abilene Fire Chief James Pogue said Wednesday morning on the unexplained deaths of three Lubbock firemen Sunday don't know what killed Pogue said News reports from Lubbock point to toxic fumes but Pogue said he talked with Lubbock Fire Chief Tom Foster Monday and that nothing official has been released on cause at death Pogue said it is Abilene Fire Department policy that all oxygen maaks be visually checked daily and be checked manually once a week The face masks of the three Lubbock men had numerous pin hole-size punctures in the diaphrams and appeared to have been eaten by some type of chemical Since the Lubbock fire on Sunday Abilene firemen have been told to give their equipment thorough checks As of Wednesday morning one mask had been found faulty a small hole found in its diaphrsm he said hate to lay all the blame on the masks" Pogue said An Associsled Press story from Lubbock Wednesday morning said that the dead firemen had suspected that their tank was the problem" Pogue said the Lubbock Fire Department like the local department fills its own oxygen tanks He said the air is filtered before it goes into the tanks It is unlikely but not impossible that toxic fumes could have gotten into the tanks of the firemen he said Asked if the Lubbock Fire Police Htteportt Man serious after 2-car wreck Clifford Stevenson 46 of 3509 Willis wss in serious condition at Hendrick Medical Center this morning following a two-car collision at the intersection of South 27th and Oldham Lane Tuesday afternoon Also injured in the wreck was Cheryl Fernandez of 3302 27th the driver of me of the autos Stevenson's car was headed north on Oldham and Miss Fernandez's was moving east on South 27th when the collision occurred Man shot while cleaning gun Dais Ross of 901 Green was injured about 3:55 am Wednesday when be shot himself in the foot while cleaning his gun police reported He was treated at Hendrick Medical Center for a bullet wound to his left fool 3 arrested for pot possession Charges of felony possession of marijuana are pending against three persons arrested overnight when officers of the Special Services Bureau executed a search warrant at a south side address Arrested with more than four ounces of marijuana were a 26-year-old man his 21-year-old sister and a 21-year-old man Stove taken from gun club Police are investigating a burglary at Abilene Gun Club sometime during the weekend John Culpepper who discovered the burglary told officers- a bright red comb-shaped Franklin woodburning stove valued at $250 and a riding lawn mower were missing Truant youth damages cell A 13-year-old youth picked up by local authorities for "continuing to miss school" did about $100 worth of damage to a detention cell at the City Jail Tuesday Juvenile authorities said the youth had been held in the cell for about two hours When they went to get him they found he had scraped various writings on the wall Mask inspection Three Lubbock firemen died while wearing oxygen masks similiar to the one being inspected by Capt Jerry Williams of the Abilene Fire Department Local firemen are supposed to check their equipment manually once a week but additional inspections have been ordered following the Lubbock deaths (Staff Photo by Sandy Test) By ROY A JONES II Senior Staff Writer Prosecution witnesses gave a jury a vivid description of the Nov 24 armed robbery of a convenience store in which the alleged robber and an Abilene policemen were both wounded in a scary shootout The testimony by the "eye-and ear-witnesses" several of them Dyess AFB security policemen who remembered minute details came as the trial of Ritchard Carl Morrison 24 of Anson opened before a seven-man five-worn an 104th District Court jury this morning Morrison an ex-convict is being tried simultaneously on attempted capital murder and aggravated robbery charges The attempted murder charge alleges he attempted to kill policemen Floyd Grimm during the commission of the robbery District Attorney Pat Elliott told Judge Neil Daniel that Grimm would be the state's next witness when testimony resumed this afternoon Both of the grand jury indictments against Morrison allege he has been convicted of felony offenses on two prior occasions burglary in Jones County in 1973 and 1977 If the jury convicts him on either of the charges now on trial and finds he is the same person convicted twice before he will automatically receive a life prison term as an criminal" Not all the state's witnesses were able to identify Morrison in court today as the gunman who held up the Skinny's convenience store at South Seventh and Arnold Boulevard but all four identified a color photograph of the wounded Morrison being handcuffed in a pool of blood at the scene of the shooting as the robber The holdup victim Howard Louis Harvey said Morrison resembles the same man but I can't be sureit all happened so fast" Shown Morrison's picture he said the man who robbed me" Harvey said the man pulled a pistol and threatened him with it after he had refused the man's pleas to sell hirn a six-pack of beer about 1:30 am The clerk said he told Morrison it was against Texas law to sell beer after midnight and that Morrison argued with him for about 30 minutes before leaving briefly then returning with his gun drawn He said he gave the robber about 1120 all of which was recovered at the scene Scott MacCollum a young Dyess AFB security policeman said he and two other security policemen had stopped by Skinny's for a snack about 1 am when they observed the clerk and customer arguing MacCollum who identified Morrison in court said he was wearing "disco clothes" MacCollum said he pointed out the gun to his buddies we decided we'd depart the Once outside he said they wrote down the license numbers of all vehicles at the store then drove to the nearby Dyess Main Gate and "told the security troop on the gate to call the police Grimm answered the call minutes later and was shot once in the wrist as he entered the store evidence showed Harvey said the robber first told the officer duck or I'm going to kill you" The officer ducked and returned fire hitting Morrison three times in the face chest and arm evidence showed Grimm was treated and released at Hendrick Medical Center while Morrison was hospitalized several days Ray A Whiting another Dyess security policeman said the gunman made him lie on the floor stated he should shoot the clerk and that he was going to kill me" Whiting said he heard the gunman order another man to lay down beside him I heard a sound like a gun barrel striking flesh" The man being struck was Samuel Crumpton a young Dyess computer technician who said Morrison appeared to be angry with him "because I surprised him" innocently walking in the store during the robbery Before he was told to lie down Crumpton said Morrison told him ought to shoot you" "He pointed the pistol at me and cocked bark the hammer When he corked it I heard a double click as if there wasn't another sound in the world" Crumpton said He said he laid down as he was told but Morrison hit him over the head with the pistol was wearing a hat and it deflected the blow or shielded my head a little bit" he said He was treated and released at the Dyess Hospital and no stitches were required he said Whiting a security policeman for eight years said there were "two volleys of shots" After the first volley he said he heard the gunman saying "Don't shoot I give up I give but then said he would not siand up Crumpton said the policeman repeatedly called out it up! Put down your weapon!" He said the gunman sould respond am putting it down" but then would continue to shoot Attorney Randy Wilson is representing Morrison by court appointment seem to be more concerned then ususl for their own ssfety because of the tragedy seem to be more sware and they will do a better job of checking their equipmcntbut it would not prevent a man from going into a fire" Pogue said Department suspects sabotage Chief Pogue said that Lubbock investigators are looking into all possible causes from foul play to manufacturer defects Pogue said that the Lubbock deaths are cn all firemen's minds but that his men do not Technicality averts speeding test trial plaint for it to be valid The same decision had been cited earlier in the day by former Criminal District Attorney Ed Paynter in gaining dismissal of twe tickets (speeding and displaying an expired registration stirker) for Jack Donald Estes of 1317 Elm Trooper Deryck Pocoek said he left the tickets with Merkel JP Henry Guenther but did not swear to them A disgruntled trooper not Hill or Pocock said after the Hanna trial that the action lead to wholesale dismissal of our tickets" but Judge Newman and Assistant Criminal District Attorney George Solis said he did not expect it to Solis said the troopers can get around the ne-cesaity of having to personally swear out complaints against the motorists they stop by giving the information to the officer who actually takes the complaint to the courthouse and let him swear out the complaint In fact he said the DA's office has its investigator Otis Wiley pick up misdemeanor complaints at the police station daily then awear out the formal complaint saving the arresting officers a trip to the courthouse and time away from their Jobs And Newman said he does nut expect sny "wholesale dismissal" because In order to find out if the complaints were properly sworn to the attorneys must still get the officers to court to testify concerning the complaint Assistant Criminal District Attorney Quanah Parker did not oppose Hanna's dismissal motion after Hill researched his records and aaid he did not swear out the Hanna complaint before he said the road has been widened and otherwise improved so he planned to ask the officer what made over-55 suddenly "unreasonable and imprudent" other than the arbitrary posting of new signs There have been no jury trials in appealed speeding cases in more than three years and Judge Nathan Newman's mass dismissal of several hundred of them want of prosecution" last year made headlines and embarrassed prosecutors and law enforcement officers Since that time the appealed cases have been called for trial every Tuesday and most have resulted in guilty pleas or dismissal at the state's request Hanna who'd seen two speeding charges against him dismissed in the mass dismissals had decided to fight the ticket issued him on Feb 12 by Department of Public Safety Trooper Larry Hill Hill said he clocked Hanna on radar at (7 mph two miles south of Abilene Hanna denied he wes going that fast saying he had his cruise control set on 60 Hill said The case never got to the jury however after Hill admitted that he did not personally appear before Judge Dunwody to swear out the speeding complaint At the time Hanna was ticketed he said It was common prartice for troopers who worked all night to let the day shift troopers take the complaints to the courthouse and file them In requesting the dismissal Hanna cited a Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decision in the 1960's which said a peace officer or individual must go before a magistrate to swear out a com By ROY A JONES Senior Staff Writer An Abilene attorney's test of local jury's sentiments toward the 55 mph speed limit was sverted Tuesday when his case was thrown out of court on a legal technicality wanted an acquittal but I'll settle for a dismissal I guess" Bob Hanna said after his successful appeal of a speeding conviction for which he had been fined $1350 in Justice of the Peace Roland Dunwody's court The case cannot be refiled All attorneys' eyes were on Taylor County Court-at-Law for what waa expected to be the first test of the controversial 55 mph speed limit In several years The trial never got to the defense stage but Hanna had told the prospective jurors he would claim that 67 mph was not and imprudent" under the circumstances During questioning of prospective jurors Judge Nathan Newman disqualified three persons at Hanna's request because they said they would automatically convict anyone caught driving over the posted speed of 55 Hanna contended the law says only that driving over 55 is "prims facie" its evidence and that the real test is whether the speed is "not reasonable or prudent" Hanna said he had planned to build his defense around the fact that 70 mph had been considered "reasonable and prudent" on the same road Texas Highway 36 before the federal government dropped the national speed limit to 55 Since then Schlesinger: nuclear power safe Island nuclear power plant at Harrisburg Pa 'I will rherk on precisely on what it is" he said However Srhlesiner puffing on his pipe told reporters that atomic energy remains a safe and necessary source of power "Over the years there have been no fatalities resulting from ihc use of nurlear power Nuclear power continues to be an essential element in the nation's energy mix Failure to do that will mean growing dependence on foreign sourres ot supply and ultimately shortages that will affect the American economy" he said DALLAS (AP) Nuciear power is "unquestionably" safe enough for continued development Energy Secretary James Schlesinger said today At a news ronference following an address to the National Association of Broadcasters Convenlinn Schlesinger said hr was aware of the emergency situation at Three Mile.