Birmingham Post-Herald from Birmingham, Alabama • 1

I Apollo re-entry slightly shallow officials warn Hanging Them In for the Red Mountain Expressway Thursday In the background cars wait to move through the gigantic cut in Red Mountain in the first group to travel officially on the roadway (Photo by Jim Ware) Gov Albert Brewer speaks from under a tent to several hundred persons who got a little damp at the formal opening ceremonies Happiness is an expressway didn't completely protect the invited guests from the elements It was a happy one tecause the expressway was being opened But it was sad te-cause will everyone complain about Brewer quipped 1 Although there were a lot of complaints about the downpour Operation New Birmingham wasn't about to postpone the debut of a child it has been raising more than 10 years "Today is just the Brewer said keeping his speech brief He said $40 million in construction contracts will te awarded this year to complete the freeway system in JeffersonCounty One will extend the expressway from Second-av where it now ends to Second-av Bids for that project will be opened April 24 Brewer said He also announced Bur au of Public Roads approval of the design for the Green Eddie Gilmore and Tom Pinson Mayors Waldrop and councilmen frm Home-wood Mayor Allen Rushtnn and councilmen from Brook: Mayor Bob Guil-olt and councilmen from Ycs-tavia Mayor George Seitels and the Birmingham City Council A campaign to make the cut a tourist alttraction because of its geological significance was announced by William 51 Spencer civic leader He said Hie exposures in the cut date back 400 million years spanning a 200 million-year period of development The amount of geophysical history exposed to view in the cut is unequaled on the North American continent except at Grand Canyon Spencer said He said one of the most extensive geological excavations on earth and has attracted the attention of many geologists and gnlogy buffs The cut is 1850 feet long 120 feet wide at the bottom and 210 feel deep Wants arms assistance Cambodia appeals directly to US fc BY CLAUDE 1frUNCAN Some of this stuff might be worth a column But it isn't worth the trouble for a Friday So some potpourri about people and things PEOPLE: At least one of Birmingham's major industrial polluters has reportedly commissioned its brainiest advertising men to come up with some propaganda to try to offset recent public interest in air pollution The expensive ad campaign will argue that the filth coming from smokestacks around iown isn't the main cause of air pollution And say the filth as dangerous as people might think Money talks a good story when put to use by good advertising men And the ads cost as much as antipollution devices THINGS: guar anteeing the fish you catch in polluted Alabama waters will be safe to eat But according to Martin Darity's Stale Bureau of Publicity and Information the size of Alabama fish is source of constant amazement to out-of-state guests" Seems that Alabama holds four present and two past record fish catches Current records include the largest Bluegill Redear Sun-fish Spotted Bass and Redeye Bass ever caught in these United States enough to make your heart tingle And what's more the state holds past records for the largest Smallmouth Bass and Spotted Bass PEOPLE AND THINGS: Gov Albert Brewer has been so busy lately telling people how a full-time governor that he apparently had time to perform one of the most challenging springtime duties a chief executive has to face At last report the governor still come up with a frog to enter in the fabled Calaveras County Jumping Frog Contest held each May in California Last year's entry named by the governor made such a bad showing in the contest that officials decided to leave him out in California and pretend the whole disgrace never happened Although Albert" was born and reared in a Conservation Department fish hatchery near Anniston the governor this year is reportedly looking for a less-sophisticated country-bred jumper At least one of jidcs has reportedly been beating bushes around the Pea River near Elba looking for a champion jumper No reports yet on what name Gov Brewer will choose for his entry PEOPLE: Beautiful people Students from 10 Birmingham dancing schools are putting on a show at the City Auditorium at 8 tonight to raise money for St Jude Research Hospital The hospital founded in 1963 by comedian Danny Thomas is open free of Sec PEOPLE Page 2 Pollution count Here is air pollution count in the number of micrograms of solid pollution particles per cubic meter of atmosphere sampled: Norwood Park 22913 Wahouma 17374 Huffman 9646 Number of Jefferson County respiratory deaths last week six The national urban average particulate count is 97 while the national non-urban average is 35 A count of 80 or more has an adverse effect on health according to the Public Health Service and a count of 200 is considered a critical level Speaks in Tuscaloosa RY EDWARD DEIONG SPACE CENTER 1IOIS-TON (I PI) The crew or crippled Apollo 13 spaceship ws given final instructions for an emergency landing Friday and Flight Director Jerry Griffin said "From here on men and equipment performing I think we'll make it" Officials said the spacecraft currying lames A tevcll John Swigcrt and Fred liaise was coming on at slightlyloo shallow an angle and would require another course correction about five hours tefore re-entry The pilots aimed for a spot in the Pacific Ocean about 620 miles southeast of Pago Pago in the American Samoas They are due to plop down at 12:08 pm CST Friday If they come in on target and if there is a last minute break in the weather the world may te able to watch via color television A cloud blanket and possible thundershowers were forecast for the recovery area The late Thursday night prediction was an abrupt change from earlier forecasts when officials said the weather would te good" Shallowest Angle The shallowest allowable angle for a safe re-entry was 59 degrees Apollo 13 was on a course headed in at 605 degrees but Griffin said it would te tetter if the spacecraft re-entered at between 625 and 675 degrees and thus an additional course correction was planned The proper reentry angle is needed to keep the heat shield on the command ship from overheating and consuming the spaceship in flame The friction of the space craft moving through the atmosphere heats gases in front of the heat shield to 5000 degrees Griffin said if there was no additional course correction "The entry would be a little bit hotter than normal" but added "It's in the corridor It's See RE-ENTRY Page 2 Chance of rain will decrease If it rains today don't give up hope for a good weekend The chance of showers will decrease tonight with dear skies and warm temperatures promised for Saturday The official forecast calls for "cloudy and warmer today with a slight chance of showers clearing and warm tonight and The high temperature ex-jieclcd for today is near 8(1 with a low tonight in the high 50s the same low predicted for this morning The probability of rain is 20 per cent today Winds will lie southerly at 8 to 15 miles xr hour today Thursday's temperatures: 1 pm 2 pm 3 pm 4 pm 5 pm 6 pm 61 7 pm 63 8 pm 65 9 pm 66 10 pm 69 77 pm 67 Midnight 64 61 61 62 64 63 Dothan businessman Charles V'oixls was on the Gulf Coast where he told a Baldwin County audience the state is Itclng run by corrupt political machine" He also poked fun at Gov Brewer's Ethics Commission Asa Carter tixik a breather from the stump to spend the day taping radio and television shows lie said he plans a "ixior man's at Andalusia Saturday replete with country music sky diving and snereh by him Candidates Ralph (Shorty) Price and Coleman Brown announced no itineraries Wallace who said his election would assure completion final phase of the expressway an interchange with 1-59 near 26th-st and 12th-av Elton Stephens cochairman of ONB's Interstate and Primary Highway Committee was pres nted a mounted etching of the cut through Red Mountain with skyline in the background by ONB President Albert Mills Mills said it was ONB's way of saying thanks to the man who did so much and worked so hard to see the expressway finished Red Mountain Expressway is a symbol of a new spirit in the Birmingham area a spirit which says: If needed we can do it and we will work together and get it done" Stephens said Attending the ribbon-cutting cervinony in addition to Brewer Stephens and Mills were formcr Gov John Patterson under whose administration the expressway project was born' County Commissioners Coopr form bill which was agreed to earlier in the day by both government and union Blount said the bill is no different from the one he wrote for Congress last May He said the reform bill is a plan for reorganization of Hie entire Post Office Deapriment and represents historical significance Three important parts of the bill outlined by Blount are: 1 It converts the Post Office Department to an independent establishment in the executive branch of the government so that it liecomes a self contained system with responsible management and control over its rates 2 It provides the framework for employes to set up bargaining sessions 3 It increases the pay' for postal employes 8 per cent over the 6 per cent raise that all federal employes get Blount blasted the recent stoppage" by postal Blount predicts Blackmun will be confirmed for court BY ELAINE HOBSON MILLER The Red Mountain Expressway is open The ribbn used in the ceremcnif5 may have been saggy irjii the pouring rain but several hundred citizens turned out to listen to Gov Altert Brewer and other officials who helped push the project to completion It was both a happy and sad occasion Brewer said from under the tent erected on the flatbed truck-platform that Welfare 1 i I program approved WASHINGTON (UPI) -The House passed Thursday President $44 billion welfare program of cash for the working poor job registration for welfare adults and higher payments to the aged blind and crippled The bill was approved on a 243-155 roll call vote Supporters praised tin key feature annual payments for up to 13 million people in poor working families as a breakthrough to end the poverty-welfare cycle Critics however condemened annual stipends as a annual income" which could destroy the will to work Most costly plan his most costly domestic program went to the Senate where literals want to increase the basic $1600 annual allotment to a family of four The $44 billion annual price tag made welfare reforms Nixon's biggest and most costly domestic bill If every poor working family signed up for supplementary income payments 13 million in those families would be added to welfare rolls now numbering 10 million The total costs of welfare could double to nearly $9 billion in the first 12 months after the program is scheduled to start July 1 1971 Administration spokesmen argue however that paying supplementary payments to poor working families would encourage adults on welfare to take jobs Now welfare adults are penalized when they go to work through the See WELFARE Page 3 On the ten Nol announced that Cambodia would accept all unconditional foreign assistance from any source "for the national The report of the attack on Takeo 40 miles south of Phnom Penh came as a See VIETS Page 5 Terrorist grenade kills 1 Gl SAIGON (UPI) A hand grenade thrown by a terrorist exploded among a group of American and South Vietnamese soldiers watching a movie Thursday night killing one GI and wounding 20 It was the fourth serious guerrilla incident in two days Military spokesmen said the grenade attack happened at a military position near An Loc 56 miles northwest of Saigon The shrapnel which ripped through the crowd also wounded three South Vietnamese civilians Casualties among South Vietnamese troops at the site were described as light with no fatalities The latest incident followed a South Vietnamese government report which said a record 530 terrorist attacks were carried out by the Viet Cong last week The report said the attacks killed 383 civilians also a one-week record Earlier Thursday a homemade Claymore Mine explod-! ed prematurely in sist'-r city of Cholon The mine which apparently was' being transimrted by a terrorist blew up in a three-wheeled minibus on a busy street' during the evening rush hour The explosion killed the driver and a woman who was passing by on a motorscooter Seven otter persons 1 were injured RY GLENN'E CURRIE PHNOM PENH (UPI) -Cambodia appealed directly to the United States Thursday for arms and assistance as the government's effort to drive Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops out of the country moved toward the crisis point An American Embassy spokesman said Friday the appeal was received Thursday and passed on directly to the State Department in Washington Other Western nations were understood to have received similar direct appeals of aid The Cambodian call for help came as Communist troops attacked Takeo Town early Thursday in the first reported Communist assault on a Cambodian provincial capital Informed sources said Cambodian troops killed 15 Vietnamese prisoners during the assault The embassy spokesman said the appeal for American arms aid was not "a shopping He said the request did not specify what sort of arms aid was required It was in effect a call for help he said The Cambodians are known to te short of military equipment test Monday Premier of a statewide mental retardation treatment network said in three years not one building has been completed in the project "We built 27 trade schools and 18 junior colleges in the time it has taken to get this program started" he added Wallace also renewed his pledge to increase old age pensions saying he carried (nit a similar pledge during his last administration Brewer who cut the riblmn formally oiiening Birmingham's long-awaited Red Mountain Expressway headed downs! ate saying his industrial development program See 5 OF 7 Page 7 BY JIMMY ADAMS P-II Correspondent TUSCALOOSA Postmaster General Winton Blount predicted here Thursday night that Judge Harry A Blackmun of Minnesota will be confirmed as a member of the Supreme Court while telling postal employes that checks giving them a substantial raise were put in the mail earlier in the day Speaking at the annual meeting of the Alabama Chapter of the National Association of Postmasters Blount expressed regret that both Judges Clement Haynes-worth and Harrold Carswell had been rejected for the high court Pointing out that Nixon has promised to put strict constitutional constructionists on the court Rlount said the President's future appointments will replace men who the Constitution as a vehicle for social change He said Judge Blackmun represents men are dedicated to change in a constitutional Discussing the postal re inside ELI WHITNEY WAS ALLERGIC TO VOO employes calling it illegal "I am definitely going to stand fast in my position of not negotiating with illegal strikers" the Alabamian said He said he received cooperation from all seven of the postal employes union presidents in getting the postal workers to go back to wort so that bargaining sessions could begin sad thing is if we had gotten reform legislation in a reasonable time we would have teen at the negotiating table with these people (postal employes) a long time ago and there would not have been an illegal work stoppage" Blount said since he has See CONFIRMATION Page 2 Comic dictionary IDLER The man who is never too busy to tell you how busy he is CAMPAIGN press conferences a practice he added kept citizens informed and one that would be continued Former Gov Jim Folsom holding the second of his "front porch" gel-togclhcrs in Montgomery demanded again that attorneys give up their license to practice law when they become memhers of the Legislature charging to remain is a conflict of interest 5 governor candidates unleash volleys BY JAMES BENNETT P-II Government Editor Voters heard a full volley of campaign vows from the stump Thursday as five of the seven Democratic candidates for governor were active Former Gov George Wallace seeking support in northwest Alabama renewed his charge that the Brewer Ad-ministraton had let dust settle on a $15 million mental retardation program tegun by his late wife's administration in 1967 Gov Albert Brewer moving from Birmingham into Alabama's peach belt said hr is the only governor in the I history to hold weekly ri it Jl I t- ft JLjrf-Sat.