The Michigan Daily

Vn[ XC. Nn 17-S

Ann Arbor, Michigan-

-Saturday, May 31, 1980

Ten Cents

Sixteen Pages

Conspiracy
suspected
in shooting
of Jordan

From AP and UPI
FORT WAYNE, Ind.-Police ran
ballistics test, yesterday on a .30-06
rifle seized from a motorcyclist, whilea
reinforced team of FBI agents in-
vestigated possible conspiracy in the
sniper attack on National Urban
League president Vernon Jordan.
Doctors said the 44-year-old Jordan,
who was shot in the back, was in"guar-
dedly good" condition and was expec-
ted to recover completely.
MEANWHILE, FIRE broke out
yesterday in offices of the Urban
League of Greater Miami. Officials
said five persons suffered smoke
inhalation but were released after
treatment.
A fire department spokesman said
there was no indication the fire in the
two-story building was linked to the
shooting of Jordan.

Tall ship parade
The Norwegian square-rigged Christian Radich sails into Boston Harbor in
the tall ship parade yesterday to help the city celebrate its 350th birthday.
The Boston skyline is pictured in the background.

George Biliberry, a spokesman for
the Miami Fire Department, said the
cause -had not been determined. "We
have found no relation at this point in
time" to the city's riots or the shooting
of Jordan, he said.
BUT T. WILLARD FAIR, the Urban
League's director here, said he suspec-
ted there was some relationship bet-
ween the fire, the Jordan shooting and
the recent racial violence in Miami.
In Indiana, Allen County sheriff's of-
ficers said the cyclist, John Thompson
Douglas, 40, of nearby Grabill, had
three rifles he claimed to have just pur-
chased from a friend when he was
arrested on a drunken driving charge
about 10:30 a.m. Thursday. One was of
the same caliber used to wound Jordan
at a motel parking lot hours earlier.
Douglas was held for about four hours
and released after officers checked his
story that he was at home at the time of
the Jordan shooting and decided he was
not a suspect in the case.
CITY POLICE SAID they had not
been given the opportunity to question
Douglas before he was released.
Ballistics tests were undar way to
determine whether the rifle was the one
used in the Jordan shooting.
Authorities declined to identify
Douglas' friend.
THE FBI SENT 10 more agents to
this industrial city of 175,000 people to
join 10 already here to investigate the
possibility of a conspiracy. That theory
was prompted by reports that Jordan
and a female associate who was driving
him to the motel were confronted by a
carload of youths who shouted racial
slurs just before the shooting.
Fort Wayne police confirmed the in-
cident but said the youths could not
have had time to shoot Jordan.
See POSSIBLE, Page 5

Aprl figurespoint to
steep, short recession

From AP and UPI
WASHINGTON - The government's
economic forecasting index showed a
record 4.8 per cent decline in April,
suggesting the nation is in for a steep
but short recession this year, experts in
and out of government said yesterday.
The decline in the index was the
largest since the Commerce Depar-
tment began keeping track of such
things 32 years ago. It eclipsed the
previous record of three per cent set in
September 1974 when the nation was
mired in the worst recession since the
Great Depression.
DEPUTY WHITE House press
secretary Rex Granum, in a prepared
statement read to reporters, said
President Carter "is concerned about
this." But Granum said the decline in
the index confirms "what the ad-
ministration has already said: that we
have been aware for some time that

this economic decline in April was quite
steep."
He conceded it has been steeper than
expected but added, "The events that
will help the recovery have also been
happening faster than expected. In-
terest rates have been falling more
rapidly than at any other time in our
history; the inflation rate has fallen,
and we expect it to fall more."
Nonetheless, the spokesman said,

"we do have some difficult months
ahead."
"THE RECORD April decline in the
Index of Leading Indicators, coming on
the heels of a fairly large revised 1.2 per
cent drop in March, signals a steep
decline in industrial production and
real Gross National Product during the
second quarter," said the Commerce
Department's chief economist, Cour-
- See ECONOMY, Page &

Storms soak area
Detailsinside, Page 3