Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 3

Saturday, September 13, 1997 Page 3A Outlaws motorcycle club rai III I I Vl MCDIARMID Politics tied. Hi iiV 4A til Agents also go into Grosse Pointe Farms home A Detroit police officer, with dog, heads into the club's compound on Mt Elliott on Friday. Neighbors said the place was usually quiet Will Blanchard run? He never says new 1 comes Jim Blanchard. (J What, pray tell, are you talking about? I I Well, it's clear the ex-guv II is running for something, isn't it? I mean he's kicking off a political action committee called Next Century Michigan on Monday night in West Bloomfield Township, which he will chair, the invitations say "many of our old gang will be he and i i BYJOESWICKARD Free Press Staff Writer In coordinated strikes Friday morning, armed federal agents raided the Outlaws motorcycle club's Detroit headquarters and the Grosse Pointe Farms home of the organization's national president. Agents used a tank to smash through an 8-foot Ull surrounding the Detroit chapter's headquarters on Mt.

Elliott. The compound was protected with razor wire, surveillance cameras and floodlights. Agents also raided a tidy brick home with a neatly tended border of impatiens and a concrete goost wearing a flowered dress and matching bonnet along tree-lined Mt. Vernon Street in the lakefront suburb. The house, with two small American flags in the front, is the home of Harry (Taco) Bowman, the club's national president, said authorities who declined to be identified.

Residents on Mt Vernon one of whom was trying to hold a garage sale while agents in black jumpsuits and FBI windbreakers ducked in and out of the house had little to say about their neighbors. "They're really nice," said one resident. "And I don't want to say anything else." People living on Mt. Elliott said the bikers were unobtrusive, except for an annual gathering. "They have a party once a year with about 100 motorcycles," said neighbor Eddie Washington.

"But other than that, they're pretty quiet." A rooftop patio was encased in chicken wire, neighbors said, to keep beer bottles and other objects from being tossed from or onto the clubhouse. Friday's morning stillness was shattered, Washington said, when a Detroit Police Department tank battered the wall surrounding the club grounds. The tank was used despite a notice on the wall advising law enforcement officials that force was unnecessary to enter the property. The notice listed telephone numbers to call for admittance. A man who returned a call at one of the numbers declined to identify himself, but denounced the raid.

"They won't find anything there," the man said. "This is just police harassment" The Detroit and Grosse Pointe Farms raids were conducted by FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration agents, backed up by local police. The raiders were serving search warrants, but the court records detailing items being sought have been sealed. Agents at the two raids declined to comment, but dogs for sniffing out drugs and bombs were taken through the clubhouse and surrounding yard. A rental truck was backed into the driveway of the Grosse Pointe Farms home.

No arrests were made. The raids are part of a nationwide drive against the biker group, whose members are under indictment in Florida, Illinois, Wisconsin and North Carolina, according to persons familiar with investigations. Those federal cases include charges involving homicide, extortion and drugs. Members of the Outlaws origi- ALAN R. KAMUDADetroit Free Press the gang are planning a big fund-raiser for the PAC in Greektown next month, just like in the old days; and and Hold it.

Hold it Blanchard may indeed be nally a Chicago club that shifted its base to Ft Lauderdale, Fla. have been linked over the years to numerous crimes including murder, drug-dealing, weapons sales and assaults. The club drew the wrath of Florida officials in 1967, when then-Gov. Claud Kirk vowed to wipe it out after a teenage girl had her hands nailed to a tree, allegedly for not giving her boyfriend $10. "These people were always very dangerous," said former FBI agent Paul Miller, who acted as the bureau's spokesman in southeast Florida.

"Drug trafficking and dealing in weapons always seemed to be their forte," said Miller, who is now spokesman for the Palm Beach, Sheriff's Department. Die Miami Herald contributed to this report. Jim Blanchard 7 (a) Better think twice new area codes, addresses take effect Theater hoisted for move Gem almost ready for trip to new home a change setting up a new PAC. But he says its first priority is to assure that Speaker Curtis Hertel, D-Detroit, retains his Democratic majority in the Michigan House of Representatives in 1998, especially amid the chaos of term limits (65 of 110 members have to give up their seats). Yes, but He says he spoke at a House Democratic retreat a few months back and promised Hertel and the others that he'd help in any way he could.

He says the PAC is proof that he's keeping his word. Yes, but He says the PAC also will support Democratic state Senate candidates next year and that other priorities, if any, are yet to be determined, although he says it's unlikely the PAC will get involved in Democratic primary elections. Incidentally, in the Democratic primary for governor, Blanchard says it's his intention, for now at least, not to take sides. Yes. (hit Willi tfcs No more procrastinating.

Beginning today, if you call your friends almost anywhere in Oakland won i gei inem. oounry ana smaii seaions oi aqoming counues using ine oiu area coae, you You'll get a recording instead asking you to hang up and dial again, using 248 You'll also be able to find your way around more easily. Addresses on Woodward Avenue will progress numerically from Detroit to Pontiac. Previously, several cities in southern Oakland County had incompatible address systems. I Qomm stCWr BlCOMriElJ 1vR "LUutfrlLLlW Also.

Rlanrhard. who was President Bill Clinton's ambassador i i.1 Bigfeavef Quarton 10 canaua ior neany uiree years until March 1996, insists that he's verv. verv busv lecturine and jy MaVwood ST, JSJ.V i mm ww) I writing a book on "relations, serving on corporate Mable Mapfe uucuua cuiu ui aiming law in -fi. I 1 Michigan and Washimrton with the i iDu.iinm-fff jtaitjgi Washington firm, Verner, Liipfert Mile" J' bS'' CAS Bernhard, McPherson and Hand. Remember, cellular phones and pagers will retain their existing area codes if it was 810 before, it still rtr rrr I IN I IK CT1II 0 Normandy VSllf Vl OUII aj dap mm iir viv nil- j-iv i tivi1! t.t hi nn BY HUGH MCDIARMID JR.

Free Press Staff Writer Curmudgeons and their ilk may not be pleased this morning. They'll have to adapt to a new area code for about one" million Oakland County phone lines and new addresses for nearly 2,000 locations along six miles of Woodward. Both changes become official today. Oakland to the past will be uOUnty eased into the present on the addresses mail will still get to old addresses along Woodward for about a year. But those who dial the old 810 area code will hear a recording telling them to redial, using the new 248 code.

The area code change is a necessity, the result of an explosion of fax machines, pagers, cell phones and modems that have gobbled up almost all the 810 numbers since that code was activated in 1993. The address change is for convenience's sake. Those old addresses, well, they haven't made sense since suburban sprawl connected southern Oakland County communities and their individual numbering systems to each other. The new numbers are going up in Berkley, Birmingham, Royal Oak and parts of Huntington Woods and Bloomfield Township. The system had odd and even numbers on the same side of the street addresses that jumped from the 200s to the 20000s in the same block, and numbers that ascended and then suddenly descended.

Now, they'll flow logically from downtown Detroit to Pontiac. "It's a good change. People are lost all the time, coming in here to ask directions when they needed to be in Bloomfield Township," said isTMile 13 I In Birmingham is today. Only pertecuy normal way ior me to get involved in a more organized fashion" after his relatively nnnnarrican vpare ao an amhasoarlnr Webster'" iTTV" land-line phones V7iTT7l are affected by BY PATRICIA MONTEMURRI Free Press Staff Writer The Gem Theatre got the heave-ho Friday. And self-taught, white-haired engineering wizard Peter Friesen who has designed the moves of some 5,000 build- Dpfrnit ines ransinf? from veil Ull farmhouses to lighthouses to six-story hotels once again did the heavy mental lifting.

"It takes calculus, physics and a little imagination," said Friesen, 75, who lives outside of Seattle and is in Detroit to oversee the Gem's record-breaking roll to a new home. Powered by a 72-unit hydraulic jack system that Friesen invented, the Gem gently broke away from its foundation Friday. However, gauges showed Friesen that more hydraulic jacks were needed under the building's southwest corner because the theater's stage was heavier than estimated. "There's a lot of concrete under the stage we couldn't weigh beforehand," Friesen explained. By today, the Gem will be a few inches higher than it was Friday.

Over several days, it will be lifted about 10 feet off the ground and placed atop 72 dollies with 576 tires for its five-block roll from East Columbia to a site adjacent to the Detroit Athletic Club on Madison. And once again, Friesen will be the brains behind a building move that rolls into the record books. At about 5.5 million pounds, the Please see GEM, Page 8A the change. 12 Mile Vt BERKLEY He says politics has always been in his blood and that he can Catalpa" remember "handing out leaflets for Adlai Stevenson and Soapy Williams Ul, TOKO" tl.on Ua 10 "if Mile 5imr Webster and Bloomfield Hunter Boulevard has been 12M'le changed to I Woodward Avenue. Catalpa ti Woodward '11 Mile Avenue in downtown Birmingham has been changed to 10 Mile" Nortn and South Old Woodward with addresses staying the same.

4UHIY 111 IVOi VVlll.ll 111 Q3 XV. KUNr.NGTON Yes, but Finallv. Blanchard makes it verv. -verv clear that he's not running for 16 Mile iu: i mno tjiiuirniir iir miivi 1111117 111 iyiin ana nas, nis woras, no plans to 1 1-A i1 ior anvuiine laier on, eiiner. Go ahead.

It's your turn. Well, for openers, Blanchard did say "never, ever," did he? 1' No, he did not. A 1" I 1 1 l.il RICK NEASE Detroit Free Press Got For information on the area code change, call 1-800-831-8989 anytime. For information on the Woodward address changes call 1-248-399-3933 anytime. Staff writer Hugh McDiarmid Jr.

can be reached at 1-248-691-2400. Gail Baker, assistant manager of the Royal Oak Real Estate One office at 27776 Woodward, formerly 702 Woodward. Mail carriers have familiarized themselves with the old and new, and will deliver mail with either address for about a year, according to spokesman Dan Orton. Electronic mail scanning equipment has been adapted. Police, firefighters and ambulances also will use the new numbering.

As part of the change, Woodward will no longer change into Hunter Boulevard as it passes by downtown Birmingham. Woodward will stay Woodward, and the street that splits off into downtown Birmingham will change to Old Woodward. Ana am ne or aia ne noi ai uic "onrl n( h'm "nn nlana tn run" rpmark clearly I don't rule it out in the He did. And did he not also joke about how, at age 55, he's "20 years younger than my law partner, Bob '-Dole" (who's also with Verner, Liipfert), suggesting that, if he so decides, he's got plenty of time to prelum to elective politics? Yes, he did. And is there not continuing talk Blanchard for the U.S.

Senate, 'either against Spence Abraham in I 2000 or, if Carl Levin retires after Patterson says hepatitis threat over; 20 cases confirmed this term, for Levin's seat in '02? Yes, there is. BY WENDY WENDUND Free Press Staff Writer Oakland County officials said Friday that another six cases of hepatitis A have been confirmed but that the contamination threat has passed. All 20 confirmed cases probably came from exposure to the virus in early August One man, Martin 01-shansky, 67, of West Oakland Bloomfield Township, a has died. LOUnty The 20 people became sick in late August or early September, meaning the exposure was about a month earlier. County Executive Brooks Patterson said Friday that the danger is over.

"This is an event that has already Earlier this year a hepatitis A outbreak occurred in Michigan after infected strawberries made it into school lunches. State figures show 267 people tested positive for hepatitis A in that outbreak. A total of 854 cases of hepatitis A have been reported in Michigan this year. Last year's total was 501. Oakland County typically has about 30 cases, Bird said.

For on-line information on hepatitis, try www.co.oakland.mi.ut, go to the health department portion and click on health alert, or try the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention site oRp.cdc.gov and search for hepatitis A Staff writer Wendy Wendland can be reached at 1-313-223-4792. passed. What we're trying to do is go back and document what happened," Patterson said. Hepatitis A is most often spread by putting something in the mouth that was contaminated by the feces of someone infected with the virus. Dr.

Carolyn Bird, chief of medical services for the county, said someone dying from hepatitis A usually has other medical problems as welL Oakland County health officials are interviewing victims to discover common characteristics. They believe the victims people from West Bloomfield Township, Franklin Village, Fraser, Royal Oak and Troy may have visited the same restaurant or eaten produce from the same deli grocer in West Bloomfield. ANSWERS WTiat is hepatitis A liver disease caused by a virus. How is it spread? Usually by ingesting something that came in contact with feces contaminated with the virus. What are symptoms? Abdominal pain, fever, tiredness, loss of appetite and nausea.

In severe cases, jaundice. Is it fatal? Not often. How is it treated? No medication cures it. Fluids and rest are recommended to allow the virus to run its course. How can I avoid it? Wash your hands with soap and warm water before dealing with food and after going to the bathroom.

So? So what? I So, let's end this conversation a short quote from Blanchard who was asked this week, in with his Next Century I Michigan PAC, why on earth he Z-would want to plunge back into 'active politics. 2- "I enjoy it," he said. Amen. Z'- Hugh McDiarmid can be reached -'at 1-313-223-4470..