Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 46

Boy, 15, held in beating of ear-old girL Page 12 A. Page 3A Mi Tlsday, October 27, 1992 I II Vs3, HUGH filCDlARfillD Morris Gleicher, force in state politics, dies He guided for rights Feisty polluter claims victory Gelman, state end bitter legal battle "There isn't a good cause in this city that hasn't been shaped by Mor-rie Gleicher over the decades," said longtime friend Howard Simon, executive director of the Michigan ACLU. "There is just nobody around who can fill his shoes." Gleicher began his political activism at the University of Michigan in the 1930s, joining other students in a campaign to integrate Ann Arbor's restaurants. Over the next halfcentury, he was deeply involved in most progressive causes in the United States. He fought McCarthyism and led demonstrations in support of convicted atomic spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

He raised money for the civil rights struggle in the South and actively opposed the Vietnam War and Morris Gleicher hugs his grandson just nobody around who can fill his Howard Simon, executive director U.S. intervention in Central America. But he was perhaps best known for his political consulting. MG and Casey, the former firm he headed with Jack Casey, advised Detroit Mayor Coleman Young in his first run for office in 1973. U.S.

Rep. John Conyers, 7, BY WILLIAM KLEIXKXECHT Free Press Sufl Wntrt Morris Gleicher, 75, a prominent political consultant and champion of civil rights and social justice for more than 50 years, died of heart failure Monday at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak. Gleicher, whose clients read like a Who's Who of progressive Michigan politicians, had been advising a number of candidates in this year's races. He was admitted to the hospital Friday with a minor heart attack and died of heart failure Monday afternoon. His death provoked shock and sadness in Detroit's liberal community, where Gleicher was regarded as a tireless fighter for racial equality and social causes.

He never assisted a candidate he wouldn't vote for. 3 i -VhK. i VI 'J I A I 2 IVrot keeps election bizarre and buzzing week to go and the story is H. Ross Bizarre. Panic? Delirium? Paranoia? Well, a little of each.

Suddenly, Democrats are breathing heavy, Republicans are dreaming of a miracle and hard-core Perotistas oh, hell, they've known it all along: Ross is the story. And what about his wacky, ribald, unsubstantiated conspiracy charges against George Bush and the Republicans (see Page 1 for details), the ones Bill Saffire of the New York Times referred to on Monday as "this knee to Mr. Bush's Oh, nonsense, the diehards say, Ross has got it absolutely right. Anyway, the Perot story is very big in this final campaign week, and Michigan provides a perfect backdrop. On Sunday George Bush did Detroit, preaching to a noisy, adoring choir of chiefs of police; Bill Clinton did Saginaw and Sterling Heights, preaching to noisy, adoring choirs of blue collar types and ex-Reagan Democrats.

Both did spirited work, Bush socking it to Clinton on crime, and Clinton socking it to Bush on the busy economy. And their pictures made all the Michigan nightly news shows and Monday's papers. But you know what' The traveling press, the political junkies, the campaign gurus, etc. seemed not nearly so interested in Bush and Clinton as they were about the little man who wasn't there, to wit, Ross. They had two big questions: First, would the Perot surge principally at Clinton's expense continue and, if so, could it screw Clinton out of the presidency and let Bush slide back in? And, second, what effect would Perot's "dirty tricks" charges against Bush and the GOP have in the campaign's remaining week? I was asked these questions over and over because the campaigns were tramping through Michigan and I was wearing a "Detroit Free Press" tag.

"You're asking me?" I stammered. "Hey, I dunno." But on Monday I asked around. For example: Colleen Pero: She's Bush's Michigan campaign director and readilv acknowledged that most of the Perot surge is coming "right out of the Clinton base, and we are being assisted by that." She predicted that, "if it starts to slip" (either because it's out of gas or, possibly, because of negative reaction to Perot's unsubstantiated charges), "many of the Perot people may come back to us." Why so? "Because once you've decided "against Clinton and begun looking at the issues as many of these people say they are doing they're going to find they are a whole lot closer to 'Bush." Steve Weiss: He's Clinton's Michigan campaign director who acknowledges that Perot's gain has been Clinton's loss. He says, though cautiously, that the rise in Perot support appears to be stalling and predicts that, while "diehard Perot people will subscribe to his conspiracy theories" and continue their suppo.t, others (perhaps half of the potential Perot voters) will take another look. And? "I think many of them will pause, realize they have to take their votes seriously, think about whether they really want to see George Bush re-.

elected, and go with Clinton." Susan Essen She heads Perot's Michigan volunteer office in Lansing where, she says, "the fever and virus gets more frenetic every day" and where there was a "give 'em hell, Harry" reaction to Perot's dirty tricks charges. Her own gut reaction? "I wasn't a bit surprised," she said, charging that, in Michigan, both Republicans and Democrats have used such tactics against the Perot campaign. So, who gets hurt the most by Terot's surge? "In lower Michigan, mostly Democrats," she said. "In northern Michigan, I don't know of anyone I who's voting for Bush." And so on. So, who's right in aU this, Colleen Pero, Steve Weiss or Susan Esser? And what effect will Perot have on Tuesday's outcome? Answer I still dunno.

But I sure was tickled Monday by Marlin Fitzwater's description of oT Ross: "A paranoid person who simply has delusions." He got that one right. PAULINE LUBENSDetrott Free Press B.C. Tines, an advocate for the homeless, protests outside Detroit Mayor Coleman Young's office Monday afternoon. About 50 people from three advocacy groups protested the city's alleged failure to place homeless people in renovated public housing units. Housing protesters try to see Young PAULINE LUBENSDetrort Free Press Joseph earlier this year.

"There is shoes," said longtime friend of the Michigan ACLU. U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, Detroit City Council President Maryann Mahaffey and Secretary of State Richard Austin were among his many clients. "He really felt that politics made a See GLEICHER, Page 12A l-i tr homeless at five public housing developments.

Of those, 449 are now occupied by formerly homeless individuals and families. It was unclear Monday why the remaining 191 renovated units have not been allocated to homeless people. Occupancy of public housing, according to city and HUD figures, has increased from 56 percent to about 60 percent in the past year. But in June, HUD froze the city's renovation funds because the city failed to meet federal requirements for how it was spent. In August, Sims was given a pre-rental form by the city housing department that promised him a Jeffries unit once it was rehabilitated.

He said he was later told the city ran out of renovation money. Staff Writer Jon Jeter contributed to this report. i i DAVE vf BY EMILIA ASKARI Free Press Environment Writer One of the state's longest and most bitter legal battles against a polluter ended Monday with Washtenaw County businessman Charles Gelman claiming victory and planning a celebratory trip to Bermuda. Six years ago, when the state first asked Gelman to clean up contaminated underground water beneath his Scio Township filter manufacturing plant, the cost would have been $80 million to $90 million and the company would have gone bankrupt, according to Gelman. Under settlements filed Monday in Washtenaw County Circuit Court and U.S.

District Court in Detroit, the cleanup method will be less rigorous than the state originally demanded. The cost to Gelman: $5 million. The settlements end a case that made Michigan legal history and turned Gelman into a self-proclaimed hero of business people who believe pollution regulations have gone too far. The state also claimed victory. "I am pleased that Gelman Sciences has now entered into these agreements to fully clean up the pollution at one of Michigan's most notorious contamination sites," state Attorney General Frank Kelley said in a statement.

"I am also gratified that Michigan citizens will not bear the costs." Kelley spokesman Chris DeWitt said, "Finally, we're able to get them to own up to their problems," Gelman's cost estimate for the original cleanup was exaggerated, DeWitt said. "Whatever it costs today, it would have cost a lot less if he had started the cleanup years ago instead of delaying in court." Said Gary Klepper, the state Department of Natural Resources supervisor who will oversee the cleanup: "I don't see it as a win for anybody until the remedies are in place and are shown to be effective." Gelman started his $76-million business as a graduate student at the University of Michigan School of Pub-he Health. When his company turned up third on the staters polluters list in 1986, Gelman went on the offensive. He sued the state for failure to issue rules and regulations under its own pollution laws and won, dropping the suit several years ago after a judge ordered the state to write the rules. Under those rules and new state ranking procedures, Gelman Sciences now stands around 120th on the list of 3,000 polluters.

And that is before the cleanup begins in earnest, though modest efforts to remove some See GELMAN, Page 12A Auction employees RoxAnn Reed, left, and Sherri Bey display a Klan robe, part of the memorabilia that will be up for bids Saturday. CARLSONAssociated Press Homeless say Detroit fails on promise i means getting arrested for trespassing, we'll come back tomorrow. This is not going away." Bob Berg, the mayor's press secretary, said Monday that there were no plans to evict the protesters from the City County Building. He said Shakoor didn't meet with them because he could only accommodate two representatives and they wanted five people to talk to him. "They had a chance to talk to our representative and they declined.

There are no plans to meet with them," Berg said. Since Nov. 1, the city, working with the Department of Housing and Urban Development has renovated 640 of 945 vacant public housing units targeted for the by Zachare Ball Free Press Staff Writer Last year during a takeover of the Jeffries Homes by homeless people and their advocates, Herbert Sims filled out an application for public housing. He did it again in August during the city's push to fill renovated public housing units. On Monday, clutching a tattered, two-month-old city pre-rental agreement, Sims was still homeless.

"I go down there every day," said Sims, 32. "They tell me to come back tomorrow. I'm never goin? to get a place." jns was one of about 50 people trom three groups Detroit Wayne County Union for the Homeless, Preserve Low-income Affordable housing Now (PLAN) and Michigan Up and Out of Poverty who camped outside Mayor Coleman Young's office for several hours Monday. Protesters, toting sandwiches and blankets, said they were angry because the city has failed to place homeless people as promised in the 640 public housing units renovated since the homeless takeover last Oct. 29.

"We're not going nowhere until they talk to us," said Ruth Williams, a Herman Gardens resident and PLAN cochairwoman. Deputy Mayor Adam Shakoor, who encountered the protesters in the hallway, said he would meet with them later on Monday. But by early evening Monday, he had not returned. "He has no intention of speaking to us today," said Wayne Pippin, president of the homeless union. "We intend to stay, and if that dress but with their faces showing.

The Klan material can be traced to Ledford Anderson, secretary-treasurer of the Klan's Newaygo chapter, who died in 1986. When his brother Carl and sister-in-law Jean Anderson were married 63 years ago, they remodeled a second-story bedroom, closing off the attic. Carl Anderson died in 1982. "Coming from a Christian perspective," Jean Anderson's niece Louise Slager said, "we find this very offensive." But from a historical perspective, it's a major find. Ken Scheffel, field representative from the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, said Monday: "I'm not aware of a corpus collection anywhere like this in the country.

Klan information is very, very difficult to find because it Klan relics from the 1920s found Farmhouse attic trove going on Newaygo County auction block Associated Press FREMONT A surprise find in a farmhouse attic will put the Ku Klux Klan's history in Newaygo County on the auction block Saturday. Klan robes, photographs and records from the 1920s came to light when auction service employees pried open an attic boarded up for more than 60 years. Tucked away in three trunks were four water-stained white muslin robes and hoods, as well as photos of a Klan funeral and records listing 679 paid members. The roster included the county sheriff, clergymen, probate court and district judges, lawyers, farmers, mechanics, painters, retailers and a man who listed himself as "cow tester." Several 8-by-10 photos show a funeral with Klan members in full was a secret organization." For sale are membership rolls, correspondence, the chapter's letter of incorporation and a charter dated Sept 9, 1925, and the minutes of two meetings from 1925-26 of Klan No. 29.

Glenn Jeansonne, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professor, said the KKK re-emerged from its post-Civil War days in the early 1920s and took hold in small Midwestern communities. "Surprisingly enough, the Klan of the '20s was more of a mainstream organization," he said, calling it a self-styled "law-and-order" group whose "version of law was to enforce vigilante justice." Klan members burned crosses in front of Detroit's City Hall and the Wayne County Building in 1924. The a.m. Saturday at the Maple Island Road (M-20) farmhouse, south of Hesperia. Free Press Staff Writers David McKay and Stephen Jones contributed to this report Washington Post in 1930 reported that in 1925 Michigan had the nation's largest state Klan membership at 875,000.

The farm, its inventory and the Klan material go on the block at 10 I.