The Michigan Daily-Tuesday, May 11, 1982-Page 5
CONGRESS SHOULD OUTLA WBULLIES, TAXES
Kids make legislative demands
By The Associated Press
WASHINGTON- Rep. Joseph McDade (R-Pa.)
probably gets no more or no less mail than most of his
434 House colleagues, but some of it has been
unusually demanding lately.
For instance, constituent Amy Johnson suggested
McDade do more for the little people. "Can you make
a rule to tell the big kids on the bus to quit picking on
us and quit writing on the seat?" she petitioned.
Melissa Carlson, on the other hand, told her
congressman: "I am worried about taxes!!! Because
I cannot get any more fruit bars! I want you to do
something about this!"
YOU CAN'T FOOL the kids at Blossburg Elemen-
tary School in Tioga County, Pa., with rhetoric and
bromides. They know exactly what worries them and
what they expect their elected officials to do about it.
The group of 7-year-old and 8-year-old students
were asked by their teachers to write McDade on the
issues they felt were the most pressing.
'I am worried about taxes. I want
you to lower the taxes to one hun-
dred dollars.'
-Benjamin Randise
Elementary school student
From his mailbag, here are some more of their
concerns:
t "My name is Benjamin Randise. .. I am worried
about the taxes. I want you to lower the taxes to one
hundred dollars."
"MY NAME IS Juanita Seeley ... I am worried
about some people wrote on the wall Monday night.
Some good person called the police. I want you to stop
it. Will you please try to do it."
"My name is Lennie Yoder ... I am worried about
the pollution and people who throw out their garbage
in other people's yards. I un sick of it so please do
something about it."
"My name is Polly Bartlett ... I am worried about
the telephone bills. Is their anything Congress can do
about it please."
"MY NAME IS Billie-Jo Beck . . . I am worried
about people writing on the wall with paint. Will you
please make a rule saying don't write on the walls?"
McDade, who put some of the letters from his
young correspondents in the Congressional Record,
detected some significant trends developing at
Blossburg Elementary.
"As with all samples of opinion, some inter-
pretation of responses is necessary," McDade said.
"My tabulation of the problems cited is as follows:
taxes, five; pollution and littering, three; prices,
two; jobs, two; graffiti, two; crime, two; fires, two;
bullies, one; telephone bills, one; and other, one.
THEN THERE was the letter from Christine
Kreger, whom McDade surely will want to cultivate
as a future voter. "I am not worried about anything. I
think you are doing terrific.
University
bids Econ.
Building
farewell
By GREG BRUSSTAR
The charred remains of the
Economics Building were leveled by a
demolition crew yesterday, as a small
crowd of onlookers gathered to pay last
respects to the University's oldest
classroom building.
The University decided last month
that the historic building, destroyed ina
Christmas Eve blaze, would be too
costly to renovate to modern construc-
tion standards.
THE ECONOMICS department's new
RAH LEWIS home will be located in Lorch Hall,
Prof. Richard Porter, associate depar-
tment chairman, said yesterday. The
administration currently is considering
worry renovating Lorch Hall or adding a new
wing to accommodate the department,
Porter added.
i Porter expressed little sentiment
flt over yesterday's demolition. "We all
came to grips with that months ago,"
he said.
The demolition went off without a hit-
ch, said University Department of
Safety Officer Timothy Shannon. The
University currently has no plans to
build anything on the site, and will con-
vert it into a grassy area.
The fire that destroyed the building
last Christmas Eve was caused by ar-
son, police say. Victor Arroyo, a former
University employee, is charged with
setting the fire. A hearing on the case is
set for this week.
The University still is negotiating an
insurance settlement with Industrial
Risks Insurers for money to replace the
lost building, said Robert Winter,
assistant director of University in-
surance. Although no figure has been
agreed on, Winter said he expects the
University to receive between $1.5
million and $2 million to renovate Lorch
oversy Hall for the economics department.
dS Doily Photo by DEBOF
Standing room only
Workers buildinga bridge over the Huron River stand on steel rods that will be used to reinforce concrete. Don't
though, they're only five feet off the ground.
ABC wins mllion-dolar libel s
CLEVELAND, (AP) - A jury
yesterday ruled in favor of ABC-TV ina
multimillion-dollar libel suit brought by
a woman who contended she was
defamed in a broadcast of the net-
work's "20-20" program.
The jury sat through 25 days of
testimony in the trial, which began
March 22 in U.S. Dictrict Court. The
civil suit by Sandra Boddie, 31, of Akron
was the first of three filed against ABC
for the segment "Injustice For All,"
which was broadcast April 17, 1980.
THE JURY OF four women and two
men had begun deliberating earlier
yesterday whether ABC-TV and repor-
ter Geraldo Rivera libeled and invaded
the woman's privacy.
Rivera called the trial "one of the
most depressing and negative aspects
of my entire professional life."
Ms. Boddie, a welfare mother of four,
contended the program depicted her as
a prostitute who had sex with a judge in
exchange for a lighter prison sentence
on a theft charge.
SHE ALSO argued that her privacy
was invaded when Rivera, producer
Charles Thompson and a third reporter
used a hidden camera and microphone
during an interview in her home in
March 1980.
Ms. Boddie had sought $1 million in
compensatory damages. Her lawyer,
Jane Sirak, had asked the jury to con-
sider ABC's 1980 net worth of $870
million in determining punitive
damages. The original suit, filed May
1, 1980, sought $20 million in compen-
satory damages and $2 million in
punitive damages.
ABC denied it called Ms. Boddie a
prostitute or that it implied she had sex
with the judge. Rivera testified the
program showed her as someone who
asked a friend to intercede for her with
the judge.
Rirera
... caught in '20-20' contr