'Tis the season for The Michigan Daily-Friday, April 17, 1981-Page 3 romance, sublets... and bouncing checks By KATHY ROUBEKAS Although tracking down bad checks is an expensive hassle all year round for local merchants, spring seems the season for an especially acute rash of check-bouncing. Many store-owners complain that checks bouncing off recently-closed accounts come April as students pack up and head for home are a perennial problem. CHECK BOUNCING "is one of the worst problems because 90 percent of it deals with parents' money, so the students just don't care," said Village Corners check manager Sara Wood. However, Jim Leonard, Discount Records manager, said, "Students are not the biggest check bouncers. It's the people who have zodiac signs on their checks and people who don't have 'real' first names." Schoolkids Records manager Michael Lang agreed, saying, "Bad check writers are usually not students. They are people who do it as a second profession." WHOEVER THE offender is, bounced checks cost Ann Arbor merchants big money: University Cellar manager John Sappington said the bookstore wrote off $16,000 in bad checks last year, and expects to write off $18,000 in 1981. As preventive measures, many clerks and salespeople ask for a picture ID (preferably a drivers license), and a currently valid student ID. A check unaccompanied with validated ID must be written from a local bank with the customers local address and telephone number on it. Once a check has gone bad, the "bouncer" may have to dole out an additional $5 to the store as well as the usual $7 or $8 fee required by many banks. IF THE MERCHANTS fail to get their money, they can choose to utilize check reclaiming services and even take the offender to court.w. For checks written for under $50, -a convicted of- fender could be sentenced to a maximum of 90 days inw jail and/or a $100 fine. For three bad checks written in 10 ,days, the maximum sentence is two years in jail. Writing checks without an account is a felony, and the maximum sentence is also two years. ALMOST ALL merchants recently surveyed keep "bad check" lists. If a person's name is on such a list, he or she may never cash a check at that particular store again. If they don't have any problems collecting the money, the majority of store-owners will erase the customer's name, but a few maintain a permanent list. "Some people view bouncing checks as some sort of outstanding loan," Schoolkids manager Lang said. "We don't prefer to deal with people like that." ........ ....... r........ +,.....+...... .. ..n......... r.......,.....x ..... r ..... n...n........n......"- w............ .....4 h ....................... \r ...v .4... .: .... .... .....r .. .. ...tir...... ,,. : ............ n T............ n.......... ..:::: ........, ...x...: ....1". ............ r.. ..... .r.....:. 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A. .... ...hn.........,..r ... :.. n.t .....+....n +rr.t"... t... : .. x.1 ............. n.., ::: :"- v........: '':i . Late night P ackard blaze hurts two students .................. -------- ------------- AP Photo ASTRONAUT ROBERT CRIPPEN takes advantage of zero gravity to do some acrobatics aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia while in Earth orbit. The photo was taken by fellow astronaut John Young. Space shuttle a glowig success By ANN MARIE FAZIO Fire gutted a two-bedroom apartment at 526 Packard Rd. early yesterday morning. Firefighters battled for nearly two hours before extinguishing the blaze at 4:15 a.m., according to Deputy Fire Marshall Ben Zahn. The top floor apartment of the 21%-story building was vir- tually destroyed, Fire Inspector Lee Larson said. FOUR UNIVERSITY students who lived in the apartment were apparently sleeping when the fire started in the living room. The fire department is still investigating the cause of the fire, but arson is not suspected, Zahn said. Larson said the fire department is investigating the possibility of an electrical problem. The management of the nine-unit apartment building, Modern Management, has made temporary living arrangements for the four women residents, according to one resident, LSA junior Nancy Stoll. STOLL, AND ROOMMATE Michele Richards, an LSA sophomore, escaped the blaze unharmed. LSA sophomore Monica Andonian injured her ankle when she jumped from the apartment balcony. Linda Costini, also an LSA sophomore, burned her hand and wrist on the front door han- dle when she tried to open it. Nearly all the personal property in the apartment was damaged, according to Stoll. Red Cross official Richard Smoot said his organization assisted the women by giving them money for food and uten- sils. ,r , . .."... n... ,{\ u ............... ................. 'v ....v ....... r.. vvv::::: --...v..; "v:... +.". ... v: n+.:.v:.. .. ... ....... v .... ., v. ..v.. .. v ..............v......:... 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".:...........u ..:..... ?...................... .............. .... ff . .. .... ......... -.. .................. v...} r.. }......v........:v ....{.. .... n.............. v ........:...} .r... v......, v ..... v...... }.v r. '?Yv, v::: r{::.: .. .....vv.. .v r. .............. ....v:.... ...... .. ........ .... .r.... r...v,... r.... ... ... .v .} ........ . .................... r....,..... ....... ...r..t..v...,..........i"::.vw ::.vv,{{{v:.:::: w ::::::.v.x v.v::.v::.u\"}:"}:{v}:{ "}:..v .\r...... . .... .. v:.,........: }.4.::v.:".vv.v: v:: "".vv Rad*ock accepts a dminist I rative job at USC From UPI and AP HOUSTON - Space shuttle astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen, returning to regular hours af- ter years of 12- to 18-hour training days, yesterday began preparing pilot repor- ts on the maiden flight of the Columbia. "After three years of training for this thing, it's a big change in their lifestyle to work 8 to 5 and be off weekends," Johnson Space Center spokesman John Lawrence said. LAWRENCE SAID re-examiniation of flight data and assessments of the astronauts' experience so far bolstered the judgement that the flight was a complete success. "It continues to look awfully good," Lawrence said. In fact, the space agency is seriously considering accelerating the space shuttle project. because of the pilots' glowing reports, officials reported yesterday. THE SPACE AGENCY would like, if possible, to eliminate one of Columbia's three remaining test missions, which could advance by several months the day when the winged ship can begin operations as a space-faring cargo ship, moving routinely and repeatedly bet- ween Earth and orbit. Officials at the Johnson Space Center said a decision whether to cut one of the test flights may not be made until after Columbia's second trip - set for August or September. They said the initial debriefing of the astronauts who flew the first test has been very en- couraging. Astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen met for a second day yesterday with technical experts to discuss in detail the operation of the ship's steering jets, electronics, computers, and other systems during the 2 -day flight that ended Tuesday with a pin- point landing on a desert runway at Edwards Air Force base in California. COLUMBIA IS THE first craft to return to Earth like an airliner, and is scheduled to be used again, perhaps 100 or more times. The present schedule calls for Columbia to become operational in Sep- tember, 1982, with a communications satellite as its first commercial ayload. Michael Radock, vice president for University relations and development, was named yesterday to a high ad- ministrative job at the University of Southern California. He will assume the new post in late June. As senior vice president for develop- ment and university relations at USC, Radock will be responsible for fund raising, public affairs, and almuni relations. The 63-year-old vice president's ap- pointment was announced by USC President James Zumberge, a geology professor at the University of Michigan from 1950 to 1962. RADOCK, WHOSE NEW post will be similar to the one he currently holds, announced in early February that he would retire as a University vice president at the end of 1981. He has been the University's chief fundraiser and public relations official since 1961. "Michael Radock is one of the most highly regarded professionals in the field of higher education today. His record of accomplishments and con- tributions is simply superb," said USC's Zumberge. "We are indeed-for- tunate and privileged to have him join the new administrative team at USC as the university begins its second cen- tury." THE APPOINTMENT marks the second of three senior positions to be filled at USC since Zumberge first an- nounced plans last December to reorganize the central administration at USC. Jon Strauss of the University of Pennsylvania was appointed senior vice president for administration on March 30. Radock, Strauss, and a still-to-be named senior vice president for academic affairs, together with Zum- berge, will constitute an executive committee of the university. Prisoner's death may spur German riots From UPI and AP BONN, West Germany - Twenty-five West German terrorists .ended a two- month hunger strike yesterday, signaling an end to weeks of violence by their supporters. The fast ended several hours after 38-year-old Sigurd Debus, the first of the strikers, died of kstarvation in a Hamburg hospital. A lawyer for the terrorists said of- ficials met the prisoners' demand to meet in groups and promised none would be held in isolation. The terrorists, who had been pressing for recognition as political prisoners, were held in single cells in jails across West Germany. Government officials withheld im- mediate comment on possible changes in the conditions of imprisonment. Police in Stuttgart, who had prepared for the possibility of riots following Debus' death, announced that a rally in support of the hunger strikers was called off. Mayor Hans-Jochen Vogel of Berlin, where a premature rumor of Deubs' death sparked a riot Sunday in which stores and banks were smashed, war- ned against more violence and ap- pealed to all to keep the peace. "Violence destroys, it can't change things or make anything any better," Vogel told a news conference. "We cannot allow the state, we cannot allow our city, to be oppressed by violence." Debus' death has sparked fears of a leftist terror campaign timed to hit U.S. military installations in West Germany over the Easter weekend. Just before authorities in Hamburg announced the death of Debus, a home- made time bomb was found hanging by a rope in the U.S. Army community headquarters in Wiesbaden. The bomb squad defused the device - a fire extinguisher packed with 8. pounds of explosives - after hundreds of Americans were evacuated from the building, which houses the military comand in Wiesbaden and a children's nursery. An Army spokesman said a document was found nearby declaring, "Death to Yankee imperialism," urging "fulfillment of the hunger strike demands" and calling for support of the Red Army Faction terror gang founded by Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof. The movement founded by Baader and Miss Meinhof, both prison suicides, grew out of the student rebellion in the late 1960s, and was augmented by radicals disappointed by futile univer- sity revolts. $n of Bamboo Presents TIMIPF UESKEISTSU