Newspaper Page Text
..
Thompson’s farewell
Story on page 18
-
County can have P.O. for $60,100
Crossing
deaths
are down
ATLANTA (UPI) - Fatal accidents
at railroad crossings in Georgia have
dropped 60 per cent during the first 10
months of this year, according to the
Georgia Safety Council.
Robert D. Elliott, executive president
of the council, said Wednesday the drop
was “the best news in years.”
During the first 10 months of 1975
there were 21 railroad crossing deaths,
as compared to 53 at the same time last
year.
“This shows that drivers are finally
getting the message that grade
crossings are dangerous and that they
ought to approach them with the
greatest care,” Elliot said.
He also said the number of injuries
and accidents had dropped at crossings
—by 17 and 15 per cent respectively.
Elliott cautioned that the year was
not over yet, warning December is
historically the worst month of the year
for highway accidents.
Auditor says Parker acted alone
C. T. Parker and no one else was
involved in irregular transactions
leading to more than $1.7 million in
losses at the Commercial Bank and
Trust Co.
This was the opinion of G. J. Bruner,
of Burke-Bruner Co., an independent
bank auditing firm employed at the
Commercial Bank to find the
irregularities and to determine what
was done with the money.
Mr. Bruner was the third witness to
testify this week in interpleader pro
ceedings in Atlanta being conducted by
Atlanta Attorney Charles Gowen.
Gowen was appointed special master
to hear the case by Federal Judge J. C.
Henry rejects
bond issue
for new jail
McDONOUGH, Ga. (UPI) - Henry
County voters rejected a $900,000 bond
issue for a new jail Wednesday, despite
substandard conditions in the existing
jail that may force its closing.
The vote was 1,436 against and 961 for
the issue, which local officials said is
desperately needed. The McDonough
jail, built for nine inmates, now houses
an average of 30 inmates a day.
“I don’t know what we’ll do,” said
county attorney Phillip Keen. “I don’t
see how we can comply with state
regulations without money. It’s space
that we need and that means new
construction, and that means money.”
The county commissioners proposed
the bond issue, which would have raised
property taxes .45 mills, because they
said it was unlikely the present jail
could be brought up to acceptable
standards.
By AL ROSSITER Jr.
UPI Science Editor
WASHINGTON (UPI) — The once
popular artificial sweetener cyclamate
may not cause cancer after all,
according to the preliminary findings of
a government-sponsored panel of
university professors.
Three of five committee members
Hill
Bruner’s testimony began Tuesday
and was expected to continue for
several days. He is explaining how the
money was mishandled and is going
over every irregular transaction
allegedly performed by the late bank
president.
According to an auditing report, the
bank’s losses were placed in five
categories.
The largest category of money lost,
$1,101,880.94, was in loans and interest
still on the books.
Other classifications of misused
money include checks payable to the
bank which the bank did not receive;
IIHI •
'I ' w
fl :
I flfli
1 TIT Uh
I Hfl >
> Hr. '%' ■ ■ 9 w? *
F,wflHF i
FBI boss lays it out
WASHINGTON—FBI Director Clarence Kelley accused Congress of falling to exercise
proper control over his bureau and urged it to draft clear guidelines on just how much
spying the FBI may do to protect national security. He made the accusations during an
appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee. (UPI)
Fake sweeteners may not be cause of cancer after all
L 27 1 li!T - < 1 <
R SHI HSBh IMI'IHffIMB mhhhhhl ■ ' r /11.
I a l' r KPSFI
Engine rumbles through grade crossing in Griffin today.
concluded Wednesday there is no
evidence to show the sugar substitute is
capable of causing cancer, as was
suspected when cyclamates were taken
off the market in 1969.
Two other scientists hedged a little
and said there was a possibility
cyclamates might be a very weak
Daily Since 1872
cash brought to the bank and converted
to Parker’s personal use; charges to
the reserve time deposit interest
account; and some 120 irregular bank
expense checks.
Yesterday Mr. Bruner explained how
money was lost on irregular loans
which are still outstanding.
Testimony showed that Parker ap
proved bank loans of hundreds of
thousands of dollars to dummy com
panies and for deposit in accounts he
controlled.
The money was used to make
payments on previous loans he had
approved and was traced through a
maze of complicated transactions, all
cancer causer. But committee
chairman Arnold L. Brown said: “We
are confident that this is not a strong
carcinogen (cancer causer) like
tobacco smoking.’’
The panel, created by the National
Cancer Institute at the request of the
Food and Drug Administration,
emphasized its findings were
GRIFFIN
DAILY#NEWS
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Thursday Afternoon, December 11,1975
initiated by Parker, to various other
accounts and to his own personal use,
testimony indicated.
The largest was a $300,000 loan to
Griffin Commercial Properties in
October, 1973. The company’s officers
which signed all of the account’s
checks, apparently are fictitious,
Bruner explained. They can’t be
located.
After being sifted through several
accounts to pay off loans on apparent
fictitious companies, some of the
money was used as a down payment on
property in Pike County, purchased
from Mrs. P. N. Melton in the name of
Robert Parker, son of C. T. Parker; to
Tax veto fight
shapes on hill
By DON PHILLIPS
WASHINGTON (UPI) — A veto fight
between President Ford and Congress
now will determine whether income
EfiiTli]
HflHHflflilt «
“If a thing is wrong, it’s
wrong — even if it seems
patriotic.”
preliminary. But Brown, professor of
pathology at Mayo Medical School,
Rochester, Minn., said the final report
expected Jan. 13 will represent
Wednesday’s conclusions.
“I think in general all of us are
convinced that cyclamate can’t be
incriminated as a strong carcinogen,’’
By the Griffin Daily News
buy Bank of Hampton stock in C. T.
Parker’s name; air conditioning and
work on Parker’s farm home; tv sets;
insurance premium on a house; Con
cord Banking Co. stock assessments;
and in numerous other ways, testimony
showed.
Including interest, the bank’s loses in
connection with the complex Griffin
Commercial Properties loan will be
$337,538, Mr. Bruner said.
Other irregular loans, he said, in
clude one dated July 1, 1971 to E. P.
Pruett for $130,000.
Parker used this money to purchase
shares of stock for himself on the
(Continued on page five.)
taxes will rise early next year.
The groundwork was laid Wednesday
when the Senate Finance Committee,
with support from two of its seven
Republicans, rejected Ford’s call for a
ceiling on federal spending. The
committee then approved a six-month
extension of 1975’s lower tax rates.
Senate Democrats, meeting in
caucus, voted unanimously to support
the Finance Committee’s position while
Ford told Republican congressional
leaders there was no way he would back
down from his threat to veto any tax bill
that did not include his $395 billion
ceiling on fiscal 1977 spending.
The Democrats decided that if Ford
vetoes the bill, if Congress cannot
override it and Ford calls a special
session as he has threatened, they will
send him the same bill again. “Tobe
Brown said in an interview after the
panel concluded a five-hour meeting at
the National Institutes of Health. “No
way. But we still have a little
reservation in the back of our minds
that it might be a very weak one.”
The Calorie Control Council, which
represents manufacturers of artifically
Vol. 103 No. 293
The United States Postal Service is
ready to sell the old Post Office building
in Griffin to Spalding County for
$60,100, but county officials have not
decided yet whether to buy it.
Postmaster James Chappell relayed
the offer from the service to County
Commission Chairman P. W. Hamil
yesterday, and Hamil said today the
proposal is “under advisement.”
The county had offered the Postal
Service $50,100 for the property, and the
City of Griffin had offered a smaller
token bid for it.
One or more individuals had
proposed that it be turned into a
Chamber of Commerce office, and
some had suggested that it be given to
the public school system. But when it
was advertised for sale and bids
solicited, only the city and the county
submitted offers. Postmaster Chappell
had bid forms available and advertised
the fact.
David L. Warren, Director Office of
Real Estate, Washington, D.C., visited
Griffin this week, inspected the
property and asked Postmaster
Chappell to inform Spalding County
that it could have the property for
SIO,OOO more than its high bid of $50,100.
Mr. Chappell so informed Com
missioner Hamil. When the Griffin
Daily News asked him about it today,
Mr. Hamil confirmed the offer and said
it is “under advisement.”
A team of inspectors is due in Griffin
tomorrow to look over the building to
see if it could be converted to a mental
health complex.
If the team reports favorably on the
building, then the next move would be
up to the county commissioners. They
could decide to accept the purchase
offer and make way for the building to
become a mental health complex.
They could buy the building and do
something else with it, too.
Or they could reject the purchase
offer.
Weather
ESTIMATED HIGH TODAY 60, low
today 28, high yesterday 48, low
yesterday 31, high tomorrow in low 60s,
low tonight in mid 30s.
DAYS TO
CHRISTMAS
sure there’s no doubt, maybe we ought
to run off a Xerox,” said Finance
Committee chairman Russell Long, D-
La.
A number of Republicans apparently
lack enthusiasm for Ford’s hard-line
position, and it may be difficult for the
White House to gain the necessary one
third of either house to sustain the veto.
If no bill is enacted, the withholding
tax rates of all taxpaying Americans
will rise by a few dollars per week early
in the year. The change would not come
on Jan. 1, when the tax cuts would
expire, however, because it already is
too late for businesses to reprogram
their computers with new withholding
rates.
On a yearly basis, the tax increase if
no bill is enacted would range up to
more than S3OO.
<, ■4 ' 4. :,i:4 4< 4
sweetened foods, said it was gratified
by the decision.
Millions of pounds of cyclamates
were being consumed annually by
calorieconscious Americans when the
sugar substitute was banned because
one study found bladder cancers in rats
that had been fed a cyclamate
saccharin mixture.