The MichiganDaily -Tuesday, July 24, 194- Page 5
'Russian'
hockey
player is
from U.S.
BRAINERD, Minn. (AP) - A 21-
year-old woman, whose ruse of being a
teen-age Soviet hockey player in need
of help convinced people to take her into
their home, was urged yesterday by
authorities to return to the Boston area
for psychiatric care.
Police said no charges would be filed
against Wendy Devin, who they
described as "obsessed with hockey."
While being transferred yesterday af-
ternoon from the sheriff's office to the
Social Services office, the woman
refused to answer reporters' questions.
"HER FAMILY says she has been
independent but if she wants to come
back she can come back and that they
will certainly encourage her to get
help," said Frank Ball, a Crow Wing
County sheriff's investigator.
Devin, whose father, Robert Devin, is
a Braintree, Mass., policeman, passed
herself off at a hockey camp near this
northern Minnesota city as-14-year-old
Valeria Skvortsov of the Soviet Union,
Ball said.
Devin's mother was able to identify
her daughter from a photograph that
appeared nationally to accompany a
story on the young woman, Ball said.
Ball said the young woman apparen-
tly had posed as a Soviet exchange
student for several years, and had used
at least five Russian aliases - all based
on hockey stars in the Soviet Union.
Although placed in a foster home in
the Brainerd area last week, the
woman was taken to the sheriff's office
yesterday for questioning. Crow Wing
County Attorney Stephen Rathke said
he wouldn't press charges.
"Who did she defraud?" Rathke
asked. "I don't know what I'd charge
her with . . . being a 21-year-old who
gets alot of free meals?"
Associaoted Press
Motor boat
A normally-peaceful street behind the Imperial Palace in Las Vegas became a raging torrent Sunday as flood waters
swamped much of southern Nevada. One man was killed and three others are believed missing.
Automakers start talks with union
DETROIT (AP) - General Motors Corp. and the United The scen
Auto Workers union opened contract talks yesterday and the Motor Co. B
union's chiefs declared 350,000 GM members will strike if GM's top neg
necessary for improvements in job security and wages. "We point
UAW President Owen Bieber came out forcefully against clearly, thai
GM plans to import hundreds of thousands of small cars from totally differ
overseas rather than make them here, calling that "black- THE OLD
mail" against American workers. He said the union will two years ag
demand that the contract protect members' jobs. its worst slu
"GM WORKERS are in fact entitled to and deserve" wage 14.
increases after giving up thousands of dollars in potential Warren em
wages and benefits under 1982's historic concessions con- He said the
tract, Bieber said following the ceremonial handshake across said the U.S
the bargaining table that traditionally starts auto contract
talks.
MADD mothers seek new
volunteer court watchers
e will be repeated today across town at Ford
Bieber smiled and shook hands yesterday with
gotiator, Vice President Alfred Warren.
ed out first of all, very quickly and I think very
t 1984 is not 1982," Bieber said. "The situation is
rent than when we were here the last time."
GM and Ford contracts were forged more than
go while the U.S. atuo industry struggled through
mp since the Depression. The pacts expire Sept.
mphasized optimism in his remarks to reporters.
UAW demands seemed "very reasoned." But he
. car market was "very fragile" and that even
SEE UAW, Page 7
(Continued from Page 3)
accident. Lightner began the group af-
ter she discovered that even repeat of-
fenders usually received suspended
sentences and fines.
The group is now pushing for stricter
drinking and driving laws, mandatory
seatbelt legislation, and promoting its
Project Graduation, an effort to urge
parents to control their children's
drinking at graduation parties. Landis
said MADD is organizing meetings with
Washtenaw County judges because "we
want to understand why judges do what
they do and we want judges to under-
stand our position." MADD held its first
meeting with judges last month and
hopes to hold a large public meeting in
late September.
A NEWER program to fight drunk
driving is the county-wide MADD
React citizesis band radio program.
Coordinator Robert Chapler said it will
"set up a complete system of CB con-
tacts in Washtenaw County whereby if
a driver on the road sees an impaired
vehicle they can call in."
Chapler, who hopes to implement the
program by mid-August, said the
system would do more than control
drunk driving. "It can be car trouble,
someone needing a tow, or a heart at-
tack," he said. Of the 17 calls received
in the first month of a similar project in
New York, 14 were about drunk drivers.
The remaining three calls reported
heart attacks on the road, "and they
were able to save all three, thanks to
this," Chapler said.
In the two-and-one-half years since it
was formed, Landis said, the
Washtenaw County chapter has grown
from "a couple of people talking about
how they would like to do this ... to an
organization with a mailing list of over
300." Nationally, the organization has
358 chapters in 44 states and a mailing
list of over 300,000.
"The community has responded,"
said Landis, citing newspaper reports
listing the names of drunk drivers, anti-
drinking programs in Ann Arbor high
schools, and the adoption of Project
Graduation in several school districts.
"To me that's an indication of suc-
cess," Landis said. "A lot of these
things come from MADD and the
sheriff's department, but they're
growing on their own. And when they
grow on their own and take off, I think
we've done our job."
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