Ninety-four Years
of
Editorial Freedom
E
t~43UU
tti
No suntans
It will 'be mostly cloudy today,
with a chance the sun might peek
through this afternoon. High near
20. Unsuitable for golf.
Vol. XCIV-No. 86
Copyright 1984, The Michigan Daily
Ann Arbor, Michigan - Saturday, January 14, 1984
Fifteen Cents
Eight Pages
.,
I
Blanchard
faster tax 4
PLEASANT RIDGE, Mich. (UPI) -
Gov. James Blanchard proposed
yesterday that the state begin rolling
back income taxes sooner than planned
- perhaps even as soon as next fall.
He warned, however, that any
rollback would depend on adoption of
his yet unannounced 1985 budget, which
he called the tightest plan in years.
CURRENTLY OFFICIALS are not
planning to reduce the state's 6.1 per-.
cent income tax until next Jan. 1.
Speaking from near his Pleasant Ridge
home, Blanchard proposed a three-
month speed-up to the process,
agreeing to drop taxes to 5.35 percent
on Oct. 1 of this year if the legislature
adopts the budget he is expected to an-
nounce next week.
Blanchard conceded the austerity in
the budget would not be easily
achieved, and predicted the rollback
plan would have "minimal, if any,"
impact on advocates of recall for
lawmakers supporting his 38 percent
income tax increase last year.
He could not "do anything to please"
those who have brought about recall of
two democratic lawmakers and
jeopardized Democratic control of the
Senate, he suggested.
"THOSE PEOPLE have their own
agenda. We will oppose it. We will fight
it."
Responding to economic realities of
the 1980s, he said, he will offer "the
tightest budget this state has seen in a
great many years."
"If the legislature will enact that
budget by June 1, and if the Legislature
enacts the budget without any in-
creases in spending over my recom-
mendation - without any budget
busting - we can accelerate our suc-
urges
euts
cessful plan by three months," he told
reporters at Pleasant Ridge, Flint, and
Grand Rapids.
"ANY SPEEDING up of the
scheduled tax cut must be tied directly
to spending restraint," Blanchard said.
"I must say - in no uncertain terms
- that to discuss, accelerating our
scheduled tax cuts without rigid budget
discipline in Lansing would
unquestionably undermine our state's
fiscal security and it would be a step
backward toward bankruptcy," he
said.
The plan received mixed reviews
from lawmakers. Some say they will
not give up efforts to do it even sooner.
GENERALLY, Democrats respon-
ded favorably to the governor's
proposal, saying it is an indication the
economy is improving in response to
See BLANCHARD, Page 3
Triumph AP Photo
Former KMBC-TV anchorwoman Christine Craft fields questions outside the federal building in Joplin, Mo. yesterday
after winning her fraud suit against Metromedia, Inc. Craft's attorney, Dennis Egan, left, and Sarah Hays
right ,helped her win $225,000 in actual damages and $100,000 in punitive damages. See Story, Page 3.
Nuclear plant license rejected
WASHINGTON (AP) - Government
safety regulators, citing quality
assurance failures including the
"fraudulent" performance of one con-
tractor, unconditionally denied yester-
day a license for a virtually completed
$3.35 billion atomic power plant in
Illinois.
The unanimous decision of the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission's
atomic safety and licensing board
barred the twin-reactor Byron Nuclear
Power Station near Rockford from
starting up, and marked first .time in
the quarter-century history of the
nuclear power industry that a license
was flatly refused.
THE THREE-JUDGE panel said
Commonwealth Edison Co. of Chicago,
the plant's owner and the nation's
largest nuclear utility, "has a very long
record of noncompliances with NRC
requirements."
Panel charges Illinois*
contractor with fraud,
The only previous time an NRC licen-
sing board has rejected a permitfor a
nearly completed nuclear plant was in-
June 1982. But that was a conditional
rejection in which the plant's owner
was invited to make corrections and re-
apply.
Jim Toscas, a spokesman for Com-
monwealth Edison, said the company
had planned to begin loading uranium
into the first of the plants before July
and have the plant generating elec-
tricity before 1985.
"IT'S GOT to be contingent upon the
resolution of some problem or the sup-
plying of some information," Toscas
said of the ruling. "We'll act as fast as
we can to remedy that."
But NRC officials said there is no
way, even through reinspections, to
ever provide the assurances required
by law that the construction work on the
Byron plant is satisfactory.
The electrical contractor in the
plant's construction, Hatfield Electic
Co., "has a long and bad quality
assurance record there," the NRC
board said.
"WE HAVE no confidence in the
quality of Hatfield's work . .. and we
have no confidence in the re-inspection
program either," it said.
Unsatisfactory quality control by
several other contractors on the project
also was cited by. the government
regulators.
"For example," it said, "Systems
Control Corp., a supplier of safety-
related electrical and control equip-
ment ... had a fraudulent and ineffec-
tive quality assurance program and the
Department of Justice is investigating
that matter.
David Brule, an executive and
Systems Control's headquarters in Iron
Mountain, Mich., said "We don't know
anything about it," when, asked about
the NRC ruling.
Libraries may begin
fine crackdown soon
By MARCY FLEISHER
University library officials must still
rely on students' sense of honesty to en-
sure the return of library books, but
now officitls are hoping that by the end
of next week, the threat of a fine will put
books back on the shelves.
Libraries still are not collecting most
overdue book fines, but officials said
most of the problems caused by the new
computer system, Geac, are now ironed
out.
,ut.THE GEAC computer system for
the circulation of materials has
created problems in notifying patrons
about overdue books since the begin-
ning of the'school year.
"A bug in the system programming"
prevented libraries from sending
notices for overdue books to students,
said Jim Cruse, head of circulation ser-
vice for the Graduate Library.
The reserve desk at the Un-
dergraduate Library, however, has
been keeping track of overdue books
and collecting fines, added Cruse.
CRUSE SAID officials decided not to
charge fines when books are eventually'
returned because "it would be unfair to
charge people if they are unaware that
their book is overdue.
"Although people are not being sent
notices, the system does keep track of
who has the book. Therefore, there is
potential penalty for breaking rules,"
Cruse added.
David McDonald, head of the library
systems office, said yesterday that
most of the problems with Geac have
been ironed out, except for a "few ex-
tremely minor things," and that over-
due notices may be sent out as early as
next week.
THOSE "MINOR things" will not
prevent library officials from for-
mulating a policy to begin collecting
fines again, said McDonald. Officials
plan to inform the campus comnjunity
through publicity when the fine system
will be reinstated.
"We will probably set up some sort of
grace period where patrons with over-
due books can return them free of fine,"
McDonald said.
. A book is defined as overdue based on
a number of rules that are programmed
into the computer, such as whether or
not the book is on reserve and if the
patron is a student, teaching assistant,
or professor, McDonald said.
"BEFORE THE computer produces
a notice, it looks at the criteria that the
rules are based on, such as the status of
the person who has checked out the
book, and the kind of book it is," Mc-
Donald said.
"Based on the answers to these rules,
the system determines if a notice
should be sent out," he added.
So far, 90 percent of the Geac system
has been tested, McDonald said. The
other 10 percent relates to reserve
materials and will be tested within the
next three days, he added.
STUDENTS HAVE been notified of
fines for overdue reserve books,
See GEAC, Page 2
Meeting an iguana
AP Photo,
China Premier Zhao Ziyang, right, tours the University of California's
Lawrence Hall of Science with Dr. Glen Seaborg, Nobel Laureate and
chemistry professor, yesterday in Berkeley.-Zhao is petting an iguana held
by Rachel Kram, 12, on his two-day visit to the Bay area.
Doily Photo by JEFF SCHRIER
Scurrying from flurries
Running from yesterday afternoon's snowfall,a man hovers beneath an um-
brella to battle the gusty weather near the corner of State Street and South
University Ave.
F
TODAY-
Little floods
EVERAL MARY Markley residents living on the 1st
floor of Little house got the worst that Friday the
13th had to offer. Yesterday afternoon, a student's radiator
How many letters in Schembechler?
P EOPLE WHO really want to be part of the New
Orleans scene this summer can pay $25 to have visitors
step all over them-or at least their names. For that
amount, a historical society will imprint a name on one of
the bricks being laid on sidewalks at an entertainment area
of the world's fair..The Preservation Resource Center says
only 10,000 bricks will be available for personalizing. There
can be only one name per brick, and it cannot exceed 24 let-
held out for beer. Eumarian's solution: "Bilk." The
Viroqua resident promoted his idea musically Thursday at
a hearing before the Senate Urban Affairs and Government
Operations Committee, which had also heard suggestions
for making the American water spaniel the state dog and
the tuba the state musical instrument. To the taped accom-
paniment of his copyrighted country-and-western-style
song, Eumarin literally sang the praises of "Bilk." The
lyrics facetiously suggest that Wisconsin's dairy famers
feed their cattle "some crazyweed" to give milk an in-
toxicating property, and then maybe it could fetch as high a
price as beer. E
" 1974 - A lone bandit held up the Cashier's Office in the
LSA Building at mid-day, walking off with $1,900.
* 1967 - A system in which LSA first- and second-year
students would be allowed to sign their own schedule cards
before registering was among thedproposals for reform of
the counseling system presented at a UAC-sponsored
forum.
" 1948'- The Daily reported that the J-Hop committee
signed a coitract with one local photography firm to shoot
the big dance even though another photographer submitted
a lower bid.
i
cl
i