THE JEWISH NEWS THIS ISSUE 60(P SERVING DETROIT'S JEWISH COMMUNITY APRIL 28, 1989 / 23 NISAN 5749 Police Probing UHS Bus Fire KIMBERLY LIFTON Staff Writer The United Hebrew Schools bus that caught fire in Royal Oak on Fri- day after its brakes allegedly malfunctioned got a clean bill of health from state inspectors, Michigan State Police records show. "The bus passed inspection with flying colors:' said state police Sgt. Louis Rice. "We know there was a bus fire. But we don't know for sure what the problem was." Police were scheduled to inspect the bus on Wednesday, Rice said. No one was injured when the bus — carrying 11 handicapped persons — burst into flames after the driver pushed the brake pedal to the floor. Driver Roosevelt Peoples evacuated the passengers when he saw flames coming from the engine. The bus was going to the New Horizons Workshop in Madison Heights. One person was treated at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak for smoke inhalation. Rice said 99 percent of United Hebrew Schools' 80 buses passed in- spection for the 1988-89 school year during the first round. Rice said he believes Friday's fire is the only inci- dent of its kind with a UHS bus dur- ing the past two years. State police keep records of bus performance for two years. UHS, which transports hundreds of children, elderly and handicapped persons on its buses each day, recent- ly purchased the 1981 General Motors Corp. vehicle. UHS leases its buses to the Jewish Community Center, Sinai Hospital, Beth Yehudah Schools, Hillel Day School, Roeper School, the New Horizons Workshop, Jewish Vocational Services and various Catholic schools. Toby Broder of the UHS transporation department said there have been no other problems with the bus fleet. During the year, she said, about 40 buses are used each day. All buses are used during the summer, when the JCC hosts its day camp, she said. Police inspect 180 items on each bus once a year, generally between spring and summer. To date, 29 UHS buses have been inspected. Of those, two failed inspections, but were repaired and back on the road the same day. Hitler's Birthday Passes Quietly ALAN HITSKY Associate Editor No incidents of vandalism in con- nection with Hitler's birthday April 20 were reported to police depart- ments in southern Oakland County or to the Michigan office of the Anti- Defamation League. Local officials were concerned that four incidents in Southfield last November on the anniversary of Krystallnacht — the Night of Broken Glass in Germany in 1938 — would be repeated on the 100th anniversary of Adolph Hitler's birth. Richard Lobenthal, Michigan region director of the ADL, theorized that police scrutiny and recent arrests of local skinheads may have helped to block any incidents. On April 15, five youths were ar- rested in Auburn Hills for assaulting two black women, a black man and a white man at a convenience store. The five youths, including two Canadians, were charged with ethnic intimida- tion under a new Michigan law based on ADL model legislation. One of the youths was later charged with obstruction of justice after he returned to the party store and threatened the clerk. Two of the three local teens, Michael Pancak, 19, of Lake Orion, and Gerald Hight, 17, of Auburn Hills, pleaded guilty last fall on charges involving a fight at Bir- mingham Groves High School. In that incident, skinheads taunted and jumped a black student. In the April 15 incident, the five were charged with assault and bat- tery and ethnic intimidation; Scott Marquart, 18, of Madison Heights, was charged with felonious assault. Nationally, the ADL office in New York reported few incidents tied to Hitler's birthday. David Lowe, the ADL's associate director of fact finding, said "things were quiet. It is Continued on Page 15 nce iscovery a box of old letters he attic changed forever one woman's life.