Page 2 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, October 12, 1983 IN BRIEF On the Wagon AP Photo A relaxed James Watt chuckles as he rides along in Los Olivos, California, two days after he ended his stormy reign as secretary of the interior. Aides to President Reagan said yesterday they expect to have a new secretary confirmed by Congress by mid-November. L.A. blackout hits clothing district Secret imeetings let irns influence policy, group says WASHINGTON (UPI) - Secret meetings between corporate officials and Reagan administration regulators have influenced health and safety rules and policy at five major agencies, a research group said Monday. Administration officials "in their zeal to deregulate.. .have encouraged if not institutionalized a process of secret and one-sided business influence," said a report by Democracy Project, a non- profit research group. ALTHOUGH SIMILAR meetings took place in previous administrations, such contacts are "business as usual for Reagan's regulators," said the report. It charged, among other things, that on three occasions, the National High- way Traffic Safety Association's Office of Defects Investigation shared test results with the auto industry but not with the public. Two instances concer- ned brake problems with General Motors' X-cars and one involved a crash test failure by Ford's EXP. IN THE CASE of Ford, NHTSA Ad- ministrator Raymond Peck phoned Ford Chairman Philip Caldwell to warn him of the test failure and "invited Ford engineers to Washington to help the agency look for errors that would invalidate the test," the report said. "Occupational Health and Safety Agency deputy assistant secretary Mark Cowan gave Scott Railton, an at- torney representing companies that deal with dockworkers, a copy of the agency's final draft of a proposed lead exposure standard, which led to the in- dustry's exemption from the standard in the final rule. Rep. Richard Ottinger (D-N.Y.), commenting on the report, said, "The time has come for Congresstoin- vestigate the full scope of improper business influence onthe regulatory process. ds LOS ANGELES (AP) - A power station explosion blacked out a 2- :quare-mile section of the downtown business area for up to 17 hours, idling thousands of workers yesterday and osting companies millions of dollars in lost producion. Hardest hit was the city's bustling 'garment district, which may have lost millions of dollars in production, said Bernard Brown, chairman of the garment district, which may have lost HIGH QUALITY COPIES 3C a COPY (base overnight price for loose sheet-copying, not books) ACCU-COPY 402 Maynard 769-8338 millions of dollars in production, said Bernard Brown, chairman of the state Coalition of Apparel Industries and vice president of Koret of California. "WITHOUT electricity to operate our machines, our industry's dead," Brown said. Garment worker Ismael Perez said he lost $45 in wages because he wasn't able to work yesterday. "I don't know what I will tell my wife and my kid," said Perez, 26. The power failure plunged the area into darkness at 7:20 p.m. Monday, stopping elevators between floors and knocking out traffic lights. It lingered in some areas for more than 17 hours through midday yesterday, said Barry Tuller, spokesman for the city-owned Department of Water and Power. WORKERS in offices that remained without power hiked up stairways, hud- dled by windows or candles to do their work and functioned without electric typewriters, calculators and com- puters. An estimated 8,000 power customers in the 2-square-mile area were affected by the blackout, which began with a fiery explosion at an old power distribution station. The cause of the explosion had not yet been determined, Tuller said. Work crews worked to restore power section by section, using undamaged parts of the substation and rerouting electricity from other stations, Tuller said. Virtually all of southern California's $2 billion-a-year garment industry's production is done by contractors who work out of small shops - many of them crowded into the area affected by the blackout. Most production employees work for piece rates and it is unlikely that any of the workers - about 90 percent of whome are non-union - were paid for the day, Brown said. "There are 300 people out of work at my stores, and they've lost $10,000 in labor," said Sol Lieber, who owns two buildings next to the damaged power station. Compiled from Associated Press and United Press International reports Iran threatens to close straits BEIRUT, Lebanon - Iran yesterday threatened to close the strategic Hormuz strait if Iraq or the two superpowers hindered Iranian oil exports in the Persian Gulf. The Iraqi regime immediately warned it had "the right to strike mer- cilessly and by all means" to force Iran to negotiate an end to the 3-year war between the Moslem neighbors. The verbal blasts between the warring nations followed reports that Fran- ce delivered five Super Etendard planes to Iraq on Monday. The respected French newspaper Le Monde, however, said the planes were intended as a bargaining chip to facilitate U.N. efforts to end the Gulf War. "The Persian Gulf is secure as long as Iran carries out the normal activity of exporting its oil throughthe waterway," Hashemi Rafsanjani, Khomeini's representative and Parliament speaker, said. "But if any power - Saddam (Iraqi President Saddam Hussein) or the superpowers (United States and Soviet Union) - attempted to prevent Iran from exporting its oil, then the Persian Gulf has no importance for us," Tehran radio quoted him as saying. Soviet radar failures, confusion behind downing of Korean jet MOSCOW - An official source said yesterday that two Soviet radar failures and confusion by defense commanders allowed a South Korean jetliner to fly through Soviet airspace unnoticed for more than two hours before it was shot down. The source, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified, contradic- ted the official government version of events that led a Soviet warplane to destroy the Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 near Sakhalin Island in the Sea of Japan. He said two of three radar stations on the Kamchatka peninsula that should have detected the plane Sept. 1 were not working and that the plane's in- trusion was not confirmed until it reached the Sakhalin Island, 400 miles southwest of Kamchatka.f Air defense commanders reacted in confusion to the intruding airliner, the source said, and Soviet commanders and pilots involved in downing the plane did not know it was a civilian craft carrying 269 people. Former Japan prime minister guilty in Lockheed scandal TOKYO- A Japanese lower court found former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka guilty yesterday of accepting more than $2 million in bribes to promote the sale of Lockheed Corp. aircraft in Japan, according to Japanese news reporters in the courtroom. The Tokyo District Court ruling culminated a seven-year trial in which 16 government and airline officials and Lockheed agents were charged in Japan's biggest postwar scandal. Prosecutors in the tokyo District Court trial demanded the maximum sen- tence for Tanaka - five years in prison and a $2 million fine. Tanaka resigned as premier in 1974 in the wake of another unrelated financial scandal. But he was re-elected to the Diet parliament in 1980 and remained Japan's tp political power broker as leader of the governing Liberal Democratic Party's largest faction. The Lockheed scandal surfaced in testimony before a U.S. Senate sub- committee in February 1976 when it was disclosed that the Burbank, Calif.- based aerospace firm had set aside $12 million to purchase influence in Japan. Soviets want to halt arms talks GENEVA, Switzerland - Western officials said yesterday that the Soviet Union wants to suspend all nuclear arms negotiations with the United States because of imminent NATO deployient of new medium-range nissiles in Europe. The officials said the Soviets demanded an immediate recess at the Inter- mediate Nuclear Forces or Euromissile talks and an early break at te parallel Strategic Arms Reduction Talks. In both cases, the officials said, Soviet negotiators rejected the fixing of any resumption date. Western diplomats noted that Moscow was carefully demanding a mutually agreed recess rather than threatening a unilateral walk-out which would expose it to charges it did not want an accord. In Washington, White House spokesmanLarry Speakes told reporters the U.S. government "will do everything in its power to see that the talks con- tinue and we will strive for some sort of agreement." Lebanese factions turn down proposals for peace talks site BEIRUT, Lebanon - President Amin Gemayel and leftist Druse rebels yesterday rejected each other's proposals for a peace conference site, dim- ming hopes the talks would begin soon. The latest impasse came a day after Syria, which backs the Druse militia of Walid Jumblatt, tentatively approved Gemayel's proposal to hold the talks at the presidential palace outside Beirut. But Jumblatt reversed his decision yesterday and rejected the palace as a site. Gemayle's administration quickly turned down the leftist leader's alternative for a meeting on a Greek ship anchored offshore. In other Beirut developments, the Pentagon announced that an emergency force of about 2,000 U.S. Marines aboard three American ships had sailed out of Lebanese waters toward the Indian Ocean. The 1,200 Marines who are part of the multi-national peace-keeping force in Lebanon reamined at their posts near Beirut airport. 11 14 E -Systems continues the tradition of the world's great problem solvers. 4 'p ;r 'p ~; txS I S. 'p. I. I^ 'y. (Y. It Maxwell's electro- magnetic field theory led to huge practical scientific advances. His light theory led to his own development of one of the first color photos and the kinetic theory of gasses. Scientists and en- gineers at E-Systems are carrying on in the tradition of Maxwell's genius. Today, they are solving some of the world's toughest problems in electronically steered phased array antennas, electromagnetic scattering and solar ray concentration, using his findings as tools. E-Systems is main- taining a reputation for designing and building communications, data, antenna, intelligence and reconnaissance systems that are often the first-of-a- kind in the world. For a reprint of the Maxwell illustration and information on career opportunities with E-Sys- tems in Texas, Florida, Indiana, Utah or Virginia, write: Lloyd K. Lauderdale, V.P.-Research and Engi- neering, E-Systems, Corporate Headquarters, P.O. Box 226030, Dallas, Texas 75266. ri'E-SYSTEMS The problem solvers. An equal opportunty employer M F H V Wednesday, October 12, 1983 Vol. XCIV - No. 31 (ISSN 0745-967X) The Michigan Daily is edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan. Published daily Tuesday through Sunday mornings during the University year at 420 Maynard Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109. Sub- scription rates: $15.50 September through April (2 semestersi; $19.50 by mail outside Ann Arbor. Summer session published Tuesday through Satur- day mornings. Subscription rates: $8 in Ann Arbor; $10 by mail outside Ann Arbor. Second class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Michigan. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE MICHIGAN DAILY, 420 Maynard Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. The Michigan Daily is a member of the Associated Press and subscribes to United Press International, Pacific News Service, Los Angeles Times Syn- dicate and Field Enterprises Newspaper Syndicate. 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