The Michigan Daily-Friday, September 7, 1979-Page 9-B
Council may approve sale of
city cable TV to Denver firm
By SARA ANSPACH
Ann Arbor City Council will vote
Monday night on whether to approve a
franchise agreement to sell the city's
bankrupt cable television system to a
Denver-based firm.
If its purchase bid is approved,
Daniels and Associates, Inc. told Coun-
cil it would spend about $5 million to
expand the network and pick up debts
owed by Ann Arbor Cablevision, the
system's current operator.
COUNCIL TABLED the vote at last
month's meeting because some mem-
bers wanted to study. last-minute
technical revisions in the resolution,
according to Council member Louis
Senunas (R-Third Ward).
Under the agreement, Daniels and
Associates, Inc. would spend ap-
proximately $2,700,000 to upgrade the
system and pay about $4.5 million in
Cablevision's debts, including $322,000
the firm owes the city in back taxes.
Cablevision is in the midst of bankrup-
tcy proceedings in Los Angeles.
Specifically, the plan offered by
Daniels and Associates Inc. includes:
" expanding service to 2,500 more
homes;
" increasing the number of channels
from 26 to 34;
" constructing an earth-station satellite
receiver;
* expanding reception to include a
station from Chicago and Atlanta;
" adding special sports coverage from
Madison Square Garden; and
" adding a 24-hour news channel.
Democratic Council members and
David Fisher (R-Fourth Ward) voted
against the franchise agreement last
month, objecting to the fact that the
plan does not include warning systems
for tornadoes, fire, or burglary.
IF THE agreement is approved, the
sale of the system would not be closed
until April 1, 1980, said Charlene Ladd,
director of the city's Cablecasting
Commission.
Last June Council approved revisions
in the city's cable television ordinance
which were crucial to the sale of the
financially troubled system. The
revised ordinance was in part written
by Daniels and Associates, Inc. and in-
cludes changes which allow the buyer
to set its own subscription rates and
reduce the franchise fee.
Council first rejected the ordinance
revision last May because some mem-
bers were concerned the city would be
giving away a valuable public utility
without retaining some right to
regulate the system and rates.
Daniels and Associates, Inc.
originally backed out of the deal when
the ordinance revision was defeated in
May, but regained interest when the
revisions were approved one month
later.
Kurt Waldheim, former foreign
minister of Austria, is the fourth
Secretary-General of the United
Nations. His predecessors were Trygve
Lie of Norway, Dag Hammarskjold of
Sweden, and U Thant of Burma.
I Outreach
By SHELLEY WOLSON
While plans approved last May called
for less student involvement in Project
Outreach (Psychology 201), a summer
restructuring of the plans will keep
student participation at last year's
level, an Outreach administrator said
Wednesday.
According to Outreach Ad-
ministrative Director Georgie Ferris,
the original outline of changes passed
by the LSA Executive Committee
calling for less student supervision was
revised this summer. The plan was
changed after Outreach Faculty Direc-
tor Bob Pachella consulted with LSA
Dean John Knott about the revisions.
"WE ABIDED by the LSA Executive
Committee's rulings, but also main-
tained our structure, which put studen-
ts in leadership roles," Ferris said.
Knott said he felt the changes
Pachella was working out "met the
spirit of the Executive Committee's ob-
jections to the program. I felt that he
was making a serious effort to develop
to keep stu
new ideas and enlist faculty input into
the program, meeting the spirit of the
College's recommendations."
Project Outreach is a program which
combines community service with
learning.
FERRIS EXPLAINED that Outreach
used to be divided into 36 different
projects with a different setting for
each project. "Now Outreach has been
restructured into 11 projects with
several settings listed under each one,"
Ferris said.
The administrator also said the
department hired 11 graduate students
who are responsible for grading the
students taking the course and for
providing topics for a weekly lecture
series. The final changes altered the
standard format of the course to: four
hours spent in the field placement set-
ting; one hour in group discussion; and
one hour in lecture, all of which counts
for two credits.
The credit allowed for Outreach has
been reduced from 12 to six hours and
dent help 1
students will only be allowed to repeat
projects which require a commitment
of more than one semester.
In addition, 11 faculty members have
been recruited for the program with
one assigned to each project. All are
Psychology Department members and
will grade the student coordinators.
They will also be providing the bulk of
the lecture material, Ferris said.
Another change in the program is
that any new settings proposed for
projects must go through a psychology
college board for approval.
Ferris said everyone was excited
about the changes in Outreach and
were happy about the addition of the
psychology professors to the program.
"Now we have experts to help us out in
dealing with academic issues.
"The Committee's ruling made the
Psych. Department become aware of
academic issues and was a stepping
stone to involving them. Now that
they're involved, we're really happy
that it happened," said Ferris.
-I,
RESEARCHERS DISCOVER NEW COMPOUND:
Chemical could improve memory
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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Creighton
University researchers say they have
discovered an organic chemical com-
pound which apparently improves
memory and intellectual performance
that normally deteriorate with aging.
Dr. Nikolaus Hansl, associate
professor of medical chemistry and a~
menber of the team of scientists, said
the compound, known as PRL-8-53,
counters the destruction of certain
chemical pathways in the brain by
"making up the slack chemically."
IN A CLINICAL study at Creighton,
Hansl said, 58 college students perfor-
med better on intellectual tasks when
they were given the compound, which
he described as similar to an amino
acid.
Americans
understating
income, IRS
.hief says
' WASHINGTON (AP) - The head of
:ohe Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
ays Americans are understating their
income by as much as $135 billion and
that the government is losing as much
as $35 billion a year in taxes as a result.
Jerome Kurtz told a House subcom-
mittee Wednesday that an IRS study of
4976 income indicated that revenues
collected through legal activities by
;Americans but not reported on income
tax returns totalled somewhere bet-
ween $75 billion and $100 billion.
INADDITION, he estimated that
:omewhere between $25 billion and $35
illion was earned through illegal ac-
ivities such as narcotics, illegal gam-
bling and prostitution but was not
reported to the government.
Wednesday's appearance was the fir-
st by any IRS officer before a
eCongressional committee since the
agency made the data available last
eek.
Kurtz presented little material which
bad not already been released. Much of
his time was spent in explaining how
the data was accumulated and how the
estimates were made.
AND HIS TESTIMONY at times was
so technical that he aroused the ire of
tRep. Benjamin Rosenthal (D-N.Y.), the
.;ead of the House Government Affairs
subcommittee on commerce, consumer
:and monetary affairs.
k Rosenthal interrupted Kurtz'
prepared testimony when the Com-
missioner said, "We are trying to im-
prove our methodology for selecting
non-filer cases by developing a
predictive model to detect non-filers."
"At some point I hope you will tell us
.what that means, that you will put it in
plain English," replied Rosenthal.
"YOU KNOW, we've just come back
from meeting with our constituents.
The public is just furious with all of us
and then we come back and listen to you
talking about TCMP (the acronym used
by Kurtz for the Taxpayer Compliance
Measurement Program).
"Go easy so we can tell our people
what it means," Rosenthal said.
Kurtz replied that he thought he had
been clear but added with a laugh that
;maybe "I've been working in the
government too long."
THE IRS STUDY found that 97 per
cent or 98 per cent of the wages and
salaries earned by Americans was
i /
He said the effect of the compound
lasted about seven hours, and added
that even after the effect faded,
memory was better.
"Experiences from the past that
were fading were recalled better," with
no detectable side effects, he said.
HANSL SAID the compound could
help "the 'geriatric population -
anyone over 30 - such as the elderly
man who forgets his glasses or loses a
thought in mid-sentence. I would like to
make them more self-sufficient."
Another use, he said, could aid those
in intellectual stress situations, such
as a businessman or student to perform
tasks better."
HE SAID THE research team is
working on a related compound which
could produce even better results.
Hansl, who has been involved in the
research project for more than 15
years, said the chemical is one of a
group of compounds that were studied
in the search for a new tranquilizer that
would not slow down intellectual fun-
ctions.
Although the field of memory resear-
ch has been studied for many years,
Hansl said, up to now, there has been
"no yardstick" to compare the effects
on man.
The study was presented to the
American Society for Pharmacology
and Experimental Therapeutics. Mem-
bers of the research team include Dr.
Beverly Mead, professor of Psychiatry,
and Hansl's wife, Adele, who has
degrees in pharmacy and psychology.
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