The Atlanta Journal from Atlanta, Georgia • 18

I I I I I I 1 or The Atlanta Journal Tuesday, Here's a Glance At Assembly's Opening Session United Press international The opening session of the 136th meeting of the Georgia General Assembly at a glance: BUDGET Gov. George Busbee's $2.5 billion amended budget for 1979, which controls spending through June 31, was introduced and sent to the House Appropriations Committee. USURY A bill to raise the current ceiling on home loan interest rates from the current 10 percent to 11 percent the first of many usury measures expected this year was sent to the House Banks and Banking Committee. MOVIES "Blind bidding," the practice film distributors use in requiring theater owners to bid on booking new movies without first seeing thera, would be prohibited under a bill sent to the House Industry Committee. AGENCY Sen.

Culver Kidd, D-Milledgeville, whose district includes Central State Hospital, offered a bill to remove the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation from the huge Department of Human Resources and establish the job-training program as a separate state agency. INITIATIVE Two similar public initiative bills were introduced in both the House and Senate to allow Georgians to put an issue on the ballot if lawmakers balk at handling a controversy. BOOZE Counties could permit the sale of liquor and beer on election day under a measure introduced in the Senate by who said tourism was hurt by the law closing bars when there is an election. DRUGS A bill to exempt certain prescription drugs from the sales tax, a move designed to help the poor and elderly, was sent to the House Ways and Means Committee. KING The lobbying effort on behalf of a bill making the birthday of slain civil rights leader Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr. a state holiday continued. Meanwhile, King's niece, Alveda King Beal, took her seat in the Georgia House. ERA Backers of the anti-sex discrimination measure say they expect to introduce it before President Carter visits Atlanta later this month. But opposition to the ERA in the House remains strong.

RECALL A House bill providing a way for Georgians to oust elected officials via a recall petition and election will probably be introduced sometime next week. If passed it would be the state's first comprehensive recall law. Test From Page 1-C Collom said that state officials might eventually consider extending the law to cover all of Georgia. "If we find such a problem in the future," he said, "we'll do the same Collom said New Jersey is the only state with a statewide testing program. About six similar programs are in operation around the country, though not on a statewide basis.

January 9, 1979 Staff Photo Steve Deal Doing Dad's Work Hannah Evans scribbles something, or takes notes, as she sits in her dad's chair at the opening of the General Assembly. Her father is Sen. Todd Evans of the 37th District. Proposals Would Allow Election Day Drinking, Raise Buying Age to 20 By CYNTHIA TUCKER Journal Staff Writer Two Georgia senators have come up with proposals that would affect the imbibing of spirits: one would have less liquor-drinking and one would have more of it. The contrast in the two legislators introducing the proposals is somewhat unusual.

State Sen. Culver Kidd, a rural legislator, has introduced both a bill and a resolution in the Senate which would eliminate the traditional prohibition against the sale of alcoholic beverages on election days. Sen. Julian Bond, a liberal urban solon, is expected to introduce a measure which would raise the age limit for purchasing alcoholic beverages from -18 to 20. Bond was a supporter of the measure that lowered the adult age to 18.

Now, however, he says teen-age drinking has become a problem. "I have two teen-agers, and they've proved to me that alcohol has replaced marijuana as the drug of most he said. Kidd says he wants bars open on election day to encourage the tourist industry and get rid of the "hick" image the state has. "If it's a freeport election where only 000 people vote, then how many people passing through would know about that? They want to get a drink and they can't. They'd say, 'Gosh, that's a hick state.

I won't go through there Kidd said. A constitutional amendment would be required to end the election day prohibition. However, the resolution Kidd has introduced allows counties and municipalities to continue to enforce the prohibition if a vote of the populace endorses it. Kidd said his proposal is similar to the one that legalized restricted sales of liquor in Atlanta on Sundays. Twenty-two states have lifted the election day prohibition and two others have laws allowing political subdivisions to enforce if it they wish, Kidd said Cobb's Tax Assessors Ripped by Grand Jurors By HYDE POST Journal Staff Writer Cobb County's much-harried tax assessors have been given yet another dose of bitter medicine, this time from a Cobb grand jury panel which said it "questions the total effectiveness of the tax assessor's office." The criticism was contained in the final presentments of the November-December term of the grand jury, made available to county officials this week.

In its concluding report, the grand jury characterized assessments contained in the controversial 1977. tax digest as "unfair to some classes of real property owners." The grand jury urged that the commission and the tax assessors move "to adopt a plan to bring the assessments of all classes of property owners up to 40 percent of market value with a corresponding reduction in the millage rate." The 1977 digest originally incorporated the results of Cobb's first countywide property revaluation in 14 years. Taxpayers responded to the higher property assessments with a wave of protests and an armload of lawsuits. A formula for reducing the assessments was implemented by the county commission in the hope of quieting the protesters. The formula called for reductions on the assessment of commercial property by some 5 percent, reductions in residential property by some 10-12 percent and reductions in open land assessments by up to 27 percent.

It was the apparent inequality of those reductions that grand jurors found "unfair." After being read portions of the grand jury findings late Monday, Assessment Board Chairman E. G. Wilson Jr. said it appeared to him the jury panel "was misinformed." He declined further comment on the report but suggested if his own perusal of the findings confirmed what he had heard about them, "there certainly will be additional comment from the assessor's office later this week." Beyond its findings on the 1977 digest, the grand jury committee which investigated the assessor's office had a number of comments about office operations in general. "Personnel in the tax assessor's office appear professional and knowledgeable," the committee said.

"However, record-keeping systems seem archaic and cumbersome. "Functions within the organization appear too compartmentalized. Expensive data processing provided to the office is not used effectively." "The committee questions the total effectiveness of the tax assessor's office." The committee also chastised the assessors for failing to respond sufficiently to a recent informational request from the county school board regarding the tax digest. Criticism from school system officials, along with three taxpayer suits in recent months, have kept the assessors almost constantly in the limelight. As an aid to resolving some of the alleged problems, the grand jury recommended that the county commission "under the supervision of the court appoint a commission of knowledgeable citizens to perform an a in-depth review of the tax digest setting process and the systems and procedures utilized in the associated offices." Cobb Tax Commissioner John Chastain, one of those in an associated office, said Monday he was "not surprised one iota" by the grand jury's findings.

However, he attributed part of the assessors' problems to "an overloaded computer" and the lack of a full-time administrator for the office. The tax commissioner suggested the office needed someone who could devote his full time to handling the paperwork flow, leaving the assessors more time for their primary appraisal duties. Parents Step Up Protests To Atlanta School Closings By PETER SCOTT Journal Staff Writer As the deadline approaches for final recommendations for school closings in Atlanta, parents and neighborbood groups are stepping up their protests. Parents from the Crogman Elementary School told the board that if it had to close their school, students from Crogman should be merged with those at the Gideons Elementary School and the current Parks Middle School should be changed to an elementary school to also accept students. Another group of parents and community School urged the continued their school representatives of the Wesley, Elementary because it is located in the Edgewood neighborhood in east Atlanta where new bousing units are planned.

Still another community represenative, Bernard Loomis, urged the board date the E. P. Howell and Home Park elementary schools and use Howell as the receiving school rather than closing Howell. Atlanta Superintendent Alonzo Crim said the board will consider the suggestions, adding that the final decision will come on Feb. 12.

He said his staff will accept final proposals on Feb. 5. Crim cautioned all opponents of school closings: "We are not going to get any larger in the next five to 10 years." He said one third the school space in the city school district is not being used because of a lack of students. Billy Continued From Page 1-C The visit, a Billy Carter enterprise, was greeted by criticism from local Jewish groups concerned with Libyan leader Qaddafi's hardline anti-Israel stance, and frank caution from the Georgia Department of Industry and Trade. Carter called it simply a cordial return visit by "friends of mine." The president's brother visited North African country for a week last September, at the invitation of Libyan government contacts.

He added that the Qaddafi government is considering Atlanta as well as Houston and San Francisco as the site of a trade center in this country. He said the Libyans are scheduled to have meetings with Gov. George Busbee and Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson in their week-long Georgia visit, which will include a jaunt to the Carter family seat in Plains. At an interview in the cocktail lounge of the Atlanta hotel where he is staying, Billy Carter insisted the Libyans' visit was arranged with the approval of the State Department and his brother's knowledge. Asked if the president approved of his brother's ad hoc statecraft, Billy Carter snapped bluntly: "They're friends of mine, and he don't pick my damn friends!" The ebullient younger brother of the Plains Carters imbibed freely throughout the interview, prior to heading for Hartsfield International Airport to meet Shahati and his delegation.

Trading jokes with press aide Randy Coleman and friends from Sumter County, Carter joshed the barmaid and lavished praise on strongman Qaddafi. "He's spending all that oil money on his people. All you see are homes and apartments going up Libya was nearly destroyed in the Second World War." An bour before the delegation's scheduled 2 p.m. arrival, Carter and his entourage dropped by Atlanta Hilton to pick up Gibril Shallouf, who arrived over the weekend in advance of the main delegation. Shallouf, a rotund, courtly former ambassador to the United Nations, said the visit was not only at the invitation of his "friend Billy" but to provide some informal, out-of-channels salesmanship for the Arab point of view.

Col. Qaddafi openly supports the Palestinian Organization, the guerrilla organization which has resorted to bombings and airplane hijackings in its campaign to gain an independent Palestinian state in the Middle East. Interviewed en route to the airport, Shallouf defended the hijackings as legitimate tactics of an oppressed people. "We are not against Jews as such Arabic and Islamic peoples have been coexisting with Jews for centuries," Shallouf said. At a question about Qaddafi, Carter turned in the front seat and admonished a reporter: "The people are happy.

That's the main damn thing regardless of who he is, or what he is. "The Jewish media tears up the Arab countries full time, as you well know," Carter added. Responding to fears by Jewish groups that the Libyans are using their Billy Carter relationship to undermine the ArabIsraeli Camp David accords engineered by President Carter, the younger Carter said the impetus for the visit was set long before the historic summit. "They are here strictly as my friends there's no politics involved." Carter said. Body Found on Train Still Unidentified EATONTON Putnam County authorities are still seeking the identity of a man whose body was found in a railroad coal car at a Georgia Power plant pear Milledgeville.

Police sent fingerprints taken from the white man, be30 lieved to be about years old, to the FBI Monday. Putnam County Sheriff Eugene Resseau said an autopsy was performed on the body late Sunday but that no findings concerning cause of death had been released. the 8 Sewell Rd. Atlanta Cascade Rd. 285) 8 swepy New City Park 2 Campbellton Rd.

(Boundaries Approximate) uiqueH Staff Artwork--Mike Huey The Interior Department will give the city of Atlanta $440,000 to buy 108 acres of wooded land at Cascade and Harbin roads. The city has set aside an additional $400,000 to help pay for the land, according to city parks commissioner Ted Mastroianni. The area has been designated Cascade Springs Nature and Wildlife Park, and it includes a waterfall, creeks and historic of to a for he artifacts. Mastroianni said the city intends to keep it as a natural area for camping, hiking and wildlife study. Obituaries Funeral Set For Louie Perkerson Graveside service for Louie Verner of Monroe; and brothPerkerson, 30, of 2491 ers, Herbert Briscoe of East N.

Ridgeway Drive, Doraville, Point, Jack Briscoe Atlanta will be at p.m. Wednesday and Bill Briscoe of Decatur. at Georgia Memorial Park. Mr. Perkerson, a carpenter, died Monday.

He was a mem- Joseph Christopher ber of Morningside Baptist Church, graduated from West- Funeral for Joseph C. minister School and attended Christopber of 1111 Clairmont Vanderbilt University. Decatur, will be at Surviving are his mother, 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at Mrs. Ruth R.

Perkerson of Spring Hill, with burial in ArAtlanta: and a sister, Mrs. lington Memorial Park. Robey de Loache of Doraville. Mr. Christopher, a retired salesman, died Sunday.

He Mrs. Ann Ferguson was a former employee of General Motors and the NaFuneral for Mrs. Ann tional Bank of Commerce in Adams Branches Ferguson, 62, of 2000 Virginia. Six Drive, Roswell, was Tuesday at Saint Thomas Catholic Church, with Surviving Madison are his wife, Mrs. burial Aquinas in Crown Hill Shirley Ceme- a daughter, Mrs.

Christopher, tery in Sedalia, Mo. lor of Norfolk, and sisHarry TrayMrs. Ferguson, native of a ter, Mrs. Ruth C. Rivers of Missouri, died Sunday.

Atlanta. Surviving are husband, Dr. Wilson J. Ferguson daughters, Mrs. Linda F.

Martin of Columbia, S.C., and Jule C. Perrin Mrs. Judith F. Thom of Roswell; a son, Dr. Wilson J.

Funeral for Jule C. Perrin, Ferguson Jr. of San Diego, 70, of 3682 College and brothers, John H. Clarkston, will be at 11 a.m. Adams of Arlington, and Wednesday at Turner's Laurence Adams of Jefferson Chapel, with burial at MelCity, Mo.

wood Cemetery. Mrs. Mr. Perrin, a retired railway clerk, died Monday. He Nettie Garbutt Funeral for Mrs.

Nettie was a member of Clarkston Briscoe Garbutt, 74, of 18 Lodge No. 492 and Peachtree Ave. N.E. will be Clarkston Baptist Church. at 11 a.m.

Wednesday at Wages Oak Lawn Chapel, Surviving are his wife, Mrs. with burial at Chestnut Grove Kathryn Perrin; a daughter, Baptist Church cemetery in Mrs. Joyce Chatham of ClarkGrayson. ston; a stepson, Bruce Hinkle Mrs. Garbutt, a retired car- of Bessemer, sisters, pet company secretary, died Mrs.

M.E. Flowers of ClarkMonday. She was a native of ston and Margaret Perrin of Gwinnett County. Atlanta; and brothers, Tom S. Surviving are her husband, Perrin of Clarkston, H.C.

PerCarlyle E. Garbutt; sisters, rin of Tucker, Fred S. Perrin Mrs. Alma Bennett of Law- of Clarkston and Forrest G. renceville and Mrs.

Jack Perrin of New York City. Jewish Continued From Page 1-C New Place Nice (for Prison) Editors note: In this third and final installment from come a move woman's to a prison clean new diary, prison Deidra building tells about without the rats, wel- Prison Journal ber graduation from Mercer University after completing a double major in psychology and sociology during her prison term, ber anxious months before getting out of prison, and ber determination to start a new life. Journal reporter Leonard Ray Teel, who selected the passages from her diary, reports that she has gone on to graduate school since her release, worked with young people in Atlanta and plans to write a book about ber prison experiences. 1976 "March 10. Official notice was posted at 2 p.m.

today. We're moving from this rat and roach-infested In- health. To know something is wrong and be unable to be gram Building, into the new prison on Monday, the 15th. treated adequately, would be sheer anxiety. New rules and regulations came out for the new institu- "April 5.

Breakfast and the news started my day. tion and everything is packed in my corner except my Howard Hughes, multimillionaire and respector of his state typewriter and my thoughts. own personal privacy, is dead I wonder if there was 11. Starched, gold prison uniform and knee anyone who cried. socks.

Can I imagine that I have on anything other than "April 10. Exercise tonight, 1 must. I have been a prison uniform? There's a list which states vaguely poor about being committed to keeping my physical body what may and may not be taken to the new prison strong. (which includes 'a reasonable number of pencils and "I can find no words tonight and I have ten (postpens') After today, anything but gold dresses will be age) stamps. Be's that way, on occasion." contraband.

So long, ol' faithful blue jeans. (1976 and 1977 journal entries were scattered and "March 12. Hattie and I spent the day loading up misplaced from moving. Deidre has summarized some of school materials and taking them to the new prison. The the experiences of her last two years in prison, including place is absolutely beautiful.

It looks like a college cam- graduation from Mercer University with a degree in pus. The professors have been replaced with police so sociology. cannot really imagine that any real learning will happen 1 "At the new place, things were much more regionly intimidation. I wish it would work, but I rather mented. Even though the new place was prettier, Do oDe think it will work only for the staff members.

Sad. There ever forgot it was a prison is no middle ground. "August, 1976. Graduation. This was the year 1 "March 13.

The move is going to happen day after would graduate from Mercer. After having to cram in tomorrow. The matrons are excited. They will have last minute credit hours of Spanish, I did. Cum Laude.

actual police powers. I am not quite as excited. I am one "Mama, Daddy, Ann and Kate (my two youngest of the 300-plus women upon whom the matrons will sisters) came to pick me up at the front door of the project their new, police images. The new place is like a prison to take me away on a three day reprieve to laboratory out of 1984. graduate, to rejoin the (family) order of "March 15.

Moving day. It rained all day. The Geor- "Kate and I celebrated graduations in the same gia red clay oozed onto the sidewalks and in front of bus year, only a month apart. She would soon start college, wheels every inch of the way over to the new prison. It's and I was baffled with how I could get into graduate 5:30 and nearly all the cottages are full and I haven't seen a roach or a rat scurry across the floor in "Fall, 1976.

I wrote to West Georgia College's psythe time I've been here. Two people to a room and in chology department asking about the possibility of some rooms, four. Televisions were plugged in and professors coming a zillion miles (to prison) to study turned on the very first thing. with me on a graduate level. My letter was placed on March 21.

Last night a strange looking kind of bug the bulletin board and responded to by two very impresappeared (nine, ten, twelve, a million of them) right sive (and enthusiastic) grad students. The warden asked around the door of the cottage. They were nearly two me from where I got my nerve and questioned whether I and a half inches long and ugly as sin. They crawled all realized I was 'only' a prisoner rather than educational over the sidewalk. One of the women made the mistake coordinator of the of asking me (in my mood of extreme boredom), 1977.

"It took some time but I got enrolled into northern-born, city-fied, non-insect enthusiast, 'What is West Georgia College's graduate program, the I responded that I thought it was probably just a ment of psychology. Professors volunteered their baby alligator They found it believable and the para- time to drive the 100 miles (to and fro) twice each week. noia struck the cottage and lasted a good 10 to 15 minutes I could convince them that I was lying. Dec. 13.

So. now it was time to go. I before was ever so "March 27. Saturday morning and everyone in the afraid. The week had gone too fast.

I would move in with room figured she'd sleep late I have no illusion that a my fiance whom I was certain would protect me from prince is searching for me, in the tangles of mazes in the craziness of the outside world. There was no Milledgeville, that he might rescue me from it all tion. Nothing worked I had protecas planned (Best laid plans of I know that I haven't danced for many days of these mice and Much the same as a student fresh out of years and I know that I'm the only one who has kept my- college, 1 wanted success immediately. I wanted self from dancing. ness 24 hours.

Each day. I 3. I haven't had of wanted to save some money much an appetite all day. and a marriage that made sense. After near neurosis, My weight is fluctuating too much.

If I had any real figured there must have been something to the cliche, in the medical staff at Central State Hospital "You crawl before you walk" I faith figured the past five (where we must go with our medical problems), I'd years had been crawling enough. Not so. The beat goes chance having myself thoroughly examined. I don't dare on. And on.

Cest la vie." find out (professionally) what's right or wrong with my END OF SERIES. Carter discounted the concerns expressed by the groups. "That's not true," he said when asked whether the meeting could compromise the Camp David agreement. "These are friends of mine, I see who I want to see," Carter said. "The Jewish media tears up the Arab countries full time, as you well know." In the strongest condemnation of the three, AntiDefamation League regional director Stuart Lewengrub said he cannot separate the trade delegation from the Libyan government.

He called Libya the "godfather of international terrorism," saying it trains, bankrolls, arms and provides refuge to terrorists from Europe and Asia. Lewengrub accused Billy Carter and "a small group of Georgia businessmen and legislators" who will meet with the Libyans of winking at Libya's political stands "in order to get a piece of the petrodollar action." He said the delegation represents the Libyan government since it includes a high government official, and Lewengrub pointed out that Egyptian President Anwar Sadat has called Qadaffi a "mental case," and that a member of the delegation said America can't expect cooperation from Libya while it is "belping our enemies (Israel)." "We believe most Americans are not ready to sacrifice either Israel or our national dignity," Lewengrub said. William Gralnick, southeast regional director of the American Jewish Committee, said the issue shows "a flaw in the system," since it isn't clear whether Billy Carter is acting as an individual or as a representative of the first family. The Libyan people also could misinterpret the significance of the meeting, be said, adding, "I fear that Billy Carter will be creating a real diplomatic problem." Gralnick called the Libyan government "one cut above the present government in Uganda," and Max Rittenbaum, acting president of the welfare federation, also condemned Libya's policies. "We're very upset about it and we think that every citizen of the United States should be tip in arms about this," Rittenbaum said.

"None of us is our brother's keeper, but still to the world, he's the president's brother," he added. East Point From Page 1-C 1, WY Part of the legal arguments by Brown, the son of a former East Point mayor, was that candidates for city office have been denied an opportunity to run for office on a party slate. But one candidate, Jackson, said party affiliation meant nothing him. "Quite frankly, I wanted to run as a black to break the color line. the city of it In East Point, wouldn't have made any difference," Jackson said, whether he had qualified as a Democrat Republican..