pound.
lDauraoce Lonnie Baker
told an iDq panel convened by
Nlcbo and FBI in tf to , he
.. Sharp e ins P eu, and bad
got Involved'll he told Sharp that
Powell hiding near a h con­
tainer.
Baker aid he Po ell alive on
the ground and he moved out of the
way. "I didn't the man getti
shot. I didn't know who got bot, . .1
w just 0 stunned that the gun went
off," said Baker.
Tbe boo in of a bopllftl
''''pect Ju e 18, by an In­
diananapoll police 'officer b
prompted the ocaI NAACP chapter
to demand a overhaul of police
department.
Edmund
lathe fore
who d c him down.
Tbe County Coroner Dennis
Icholu ay' the auto y how
Powell w true in the h d by
bullet fired from above. Powell w
taller than S ,0 Nichol con-
cluded be �hot wbll on the
SHARP, 40, id the gun fi�
ccidentally when Powell struck him
with a board.
The NAACP wan 'Sharp and
Police Chief Paul Annee to be fired,
and it wan a federal In ti tion
of all fatal sbooting by t In- ,
d I Police Depanment in the
tlO .
We need a pol ee depll1ment
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,j
88M HARBOR - The
drownln death of Eric Mc­
Ginnis, 6, bo 'II lut aeen
, alive on May 17. remains a mystery.
Berrien County ProIecutor Den­
nis Wiley released a tatement to the
p on June 14, almost a month
after the boy'. body w found in tbe
St. Joeeph River on May 22.
The Prosecutor told the preas that
pollce bad at that time, "logged in
of 300 hoWl in an effort to
explain the disappearance and
death" ofMcOfnnJI.
,; ,The lack of information from
'authorities continues to fuel rumors
in t racia�ly divided southwest
Michipn communities of Benton
Hatbor and S1. Joseph.
Wiley lilted a number of aUega­
dooa aDd rumo tbat continue to cit­
culate and, have "contributed greatly
to not only diverting tbe attention of
inveatiption from its normal
path, but also lOwed ( le) to create
unnceuary racial tension in both
,communfd " he lald.
McGinnis, a' resident of Benton
Harbor, 93 * Btack and Michigan'.
aooreatcommunity, w droppedotI
dance club in downtown St.
.JJ ph Friday evenina May 17 by his
fatber. St. Joseph, a city across the
river from BenlOO Harbor is both
't'bfte and aftluent with alona hlatory
of hostility to Blacka.
n OWNING,
OME
Red tape
straps program
by D RRlCK c. LEWIS
Staff Writer
He aid priority is given to the
first applicant, and the other must
tart the application process over
again with a different property ..
Part of the blame given to th .:
low amount of occupancy permits
can be attributed to frustration
from all of the red tape . d.
One woman said she knew of two
people who have tried to obtain a
house for over a year. She said the
proce involves a lot of work and
per everance.
A testimonial to the work in­
volved in obtaining an abandoned
home WJlS given by LaRochelle
Cook, a single working parent.
She told of having a house he
applied for in 1989 isqualificd be­
cause someone else got there first,
and finally having a contract for
another house approved by the city
council. '
had to spend the night in. car out-
e side of her house to make sure no
one broke in, after omeone had
brokin in earlier and tole some
paint and a latter.
-Sbe also said he finds wine bot­
tles around the home when she
comes to work on it.
work, but urged people to "keep
going."
CEDD can provide a "forgivable
loan" of $7,000 to applicants,
providing they stay in the house at
least five years after they 0 tain an '
occupancy permit.
Even after obtaining financing,
Cook till faced obstacles in
renovating her home. She said she
After' over 10,000 inspection
and 5,460 applications for aban­
doned housing with the city'
Nuisance Abatement program,
only 83 occupanty permit have
been awarded since the program
began in 1988.
Contract have been awarded to
386 people for them to begin
renovation of bandoned property.
People who receive contracts to
renovate an abandoned home must
bring it up to code before they are
given an occupancy permit.
Some of the participants in the
Nuisance Abate-Repair & Own
Workshop at the 4th Annual Hous­
ing Conference, hosted by State
Representative Raymond Murphy
last Friday, expressed disbelief at
the low number of people who ac­
tually obtained an occupancy per-
mit. '
SeeHOMES, 3
$9 Billion 'In Aid Unspent
In recent tudie, most tember.
Americans do not know that nearly The problem is that when eon ...
$9 billion in United States aid to gre approves aid to a country, the
other countries is currently unused. money goes into an account. The
Due to this money being un- U.S. Agency for International
claimed, there is a growing concep- Development sometimes spen
tion in Congress to constrict the the money immediately'.
number of years that funds are un- But other times, the receiviag
used in the Foreign Aid Pipeline. country may have to provide mate-
Republican Toby Roth said, "At a ing funds that it cannot promptly
time when program for Americans raise, or the U .S. Agency may
are being cutb ck, like Medicare decide to hold their funds until that
and housing, the foreign aid countrie' next election.
pipeline is an imult to the people Diosdado Oracio Jr., Minister­
we are here to erve." ragures of un- counselor in the Philippines &n­
spent aid were recently calculated bassy aid "Sometimes we have to
howing an increase of about $6 bil- come up with the same amount in
lion in 1981 to $8.8 billion last ep- '"Oiii'"" currency to match the U.s.
CU N11., Y. GYPT ,eU
more U.S. aid than any otber
country except lareal. ElYpt .
rece� total of S2.G4 •• •
unspent money. P . the
secoad Jaraeat ai� , . ell eIcalatecl
by more than $16 million to $756.7
million in 1990.
UNSftNr, 3
COO SAID SHE put all of her
financial resources into the house
to bring it up to code, and when that
money ran out, he went to the city'
Community Economic Develop­
ment Department (CBDD) for al­
ternate financing.
She de cribed the process
bcing very slow, with a lot of paper-
JOE SALOMONE, the city's ac­
ting as istant chief of Ho . g,
Buildings Safety and E . cering
. Department, attribute the low
number of permits ssued to
3 hundreds of people ap . for the
. same abandoned prope