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11l killed
at LaGuardia
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Finances
ATLANTA (UPI) - The 1976 General
Assembly will have to cut about SBO
million from state spending when it
convenes next month, House Speaker
Tom Murphy says, but Georgia will still
be better off financially than most city
and state governments.
Murphy, in a speech Monday to the
Atlanta Rotary Club, said “some vital
programs” will have to be cut during
the regular session if the state is to stay
fiscally sound.
“It appears to me, without question
that we will have to cut $75 to SBO
million,” said Murphy. “I believe we
cut in the special session all the fat and
frankly, part of the muscle; hopefully,
we won’t get to the bone.”
Murphy said just maintaining state
services at their current level would
Kidnaping
• ATLANTA (UPI) - A federal
appeals court has been asked to
reconsider its ruling last month giving
v a new trial to William A. H. Williams
convicted of extortion in the 1974
kidnaping of former Atlanta
Consitution editor Reg Murphy.
U. S. attorney John Stokes requested
Monday that all 15 members of the
.Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals hear the
• case because a Nov. 28 ruling by three
of the judges conflicts with other
decisions handed down by the court.
, The circuit court had reversed the
conviction on the grounds that pre-trial
publicity made it impossible to draw an
unbiased jury and because of a remark
• made by a prosecutor in his closing
summary.
Stokes, in his petition, said pre-trial
t publicity was unavoidable in the case.
“This case was a notorious one,”
Stokes wrote, “involving a victim
t whose prominence was directly related
to his status with the press, and a
defendant who avidly sought publicity
during and after the commission of the
offense.
The petition also said the Fifth
Circuit itself has said pretrail publicity
« is not sufficient reason to throw out a
conviction, citing a ruling by the court
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Property
purchased
Georgia’s better off than most states
require a 5 per cent revenue growth
next year, and that financing a S6O
million pay raise package for state em
ployes and school teachers would take a
10 per cent growth in the tax base —
which Murphy said is impossible.
The lawmakers reduced state
spending by $124.8 million during a
special session last summer, but
Murphy said the state was not in as bad
a shape as other states faced with
shrinking revenues.
He said Georgia was better off than
Michigan, where he said 6,000 school
teachers were laid off, or Florida,
where he said some counties are cutting
back in the classroom.
On another topic, Murphy said he
sees no loophole in the state’s mileage
compensation law, and cannot
Court asked to reconsider ruling
in a case involving Lt. William Calley.
In that opinion Sept. 28, the court
reinstated Calley’s conviction in the My
Lai Massacre.
Hie petition said the court held in the
Calley case, “if, in this age of instant,
Stamps
WASHINGTON (UPI) - Make sure
you get those tardy Christmas cards,
thank you notes and holiday packages
to the post office before closing today or
you’ll be among the first to suffer New
Year’s greetings from the Postal
Service — higher postage rates.
The higher rates apply to all mad,
including a three-cent increase for first
class letters to 13 cents an ounce. They
go into effect at 12:01 a.m. local time
Wednesday, representing 1975’s last
burst of inflation.
The increases average 26 per cent for
all mail, but first class jumps the
highest — 30 per cent.
The new rates were to begin last
Sunday but Federal District Judge
John Sirica blocked the increases Dec.
19 on procedural grounds. The U.S.
Court of Appeals lifted the order
Monday, 90 minutes after hearing
Postal Service arguments that the raise
was needed to stem growing deficits.
Officially, the new rates are only
temporary until the independent Postal
Rate Commission can decide what the
permanent increase should be. Such a
ruling could come by June, although in
the past the Rate Commission has
taken nearly two years to reach a
decision.
Discussing the purchase of additional land for the First Baptist Church are
(1-r) C. A. Knowles who handled in the negotiations, the Rev. Bruce Morgan,
pastor; Lee Roy Claxton, chairman of the board of deacons; and Frank
Thomas, one of the trustees charged with handling property matters for the
church. The church’s congregation approved the purchase of the land for
$99,000 In a vote Sunday. The purchase was from Will Hill Newton, Jr. and
includes corner property at Meriwether and South Eighth street back to the
white column home which the church already owns.
increases tonight
GRIFFIN
Daily Since 1872
understand why a Fulton County
Superior Court jury did not find Sen.
Roscoe Dean, D-Jesup, guilty of
charges that he padded his travel
expense accounts by $1,424.
Dean contended that the law is vague
on whether a legislator could collect for
mileage he did not personally travel,
but Murphy said “there is no loophole in
the House and Senate salary bill,”
under which compensation is provided.
Murphy said he is obtaining a
transcript of the Dean trial at his own
expense and will study it to see if any
misinterpretation of the mileage law
needs to be foreclosed. Murphy did not
mention Dean’s name, but alluded to
the trial which ended in a hung jury
Dec. 9, and also read parts of the
statute.
mass communication, we were to
automatically disqualify persons who
have heard about an alledged crime
from serving as a juror, the inevitable
result would be that truly heinous or
notorious acts will go unpunished.”
The increase was opposed by bulk
mailers, the Easter Seal Society and 17
states. All asked the court of appeals to
leave Sirica’s order in effect at least
until the appeals court can hear
arguments on the merits of the case in
January.
The Postal Service argued the
increase was needed immediately to
counter losses of $225 million a month.
Without it, lawyers said, the service
would have to borrow money or seek
additional subsidies from Congress to
meet payrolls.
Lawyers opposing the raise said that
if it were eventually struck down, mail
users would have no way of recovering
overcharges.
The last increase, from 8 to 10 cents
for first-class mail, came in March,
1974.
Weather
ESTIMATED HIGH TODAY 55, low
today 42, high yesterday 44, low
yesterday 31, high tomorrow in mid 50s,
low tonight in mid 40s.
EXTENDED FORECAST: Chance of
rain Thursday and Friday. Turning
cooler Friday and colder Saturday.
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Tuesday Afternoon, December 30, 1975
z\ /\ /
Traffic toll down
The nation’s traffic death toll for 1975
will drop by about 1,000 despite
increased travel, the second straight
yearly decline and the lowest death
total in 14 years, according to a UPI
survey of the 50 states.
Authorities are hard-pressed to
explain the drop but suspect it is
partially because of stricter
enforcement of the 55 mile per hour
speed limit.
The latest traffic death figures from
each state show a total of 42,599
fatalities compared with 43,492 for
corresponding periods a year ago.
Ford wants probe
VAIL, Colo. (UPI) — Grieved over
the “senseless” bombing at LaGuardia
Airport in New York, President Ford
has ordered a cabinet-level investi
gation and requested a complete report
on the tragedy as soon as possible.
The President learned of the
bombing, which devastated a TWA
baggage area killing and injuring some
90 persons Monday night, as he was
winding up his eight-day ski vacation at
this Rocky Mountain resort.
He planned to head back to
Washington around midday and was to
Denial
BEIRUT, Lebanon (UPI) - The
Palestine Liberation Organization
today denounced the bomb attack on
New York’s LaGuardia Airport and
denied any responsibility for the blast.
A PLO spokesman said the attack
that killed at least 11 persons appeared
to be an attempt to embarrass the PLO
prior to its participation in the U.N.
Security Council Middle East debate
next Jan. 12.
"The Palestine Liberation
Organization, while announcing that it
has no connection whatsoever from far
or near with the incident at LaGuardia
Airport, reiterates its firm position of
denouncing such operations,” the
spokesman said.
He said news reports linking the PLO
to the bombing were an “effort to harm
the struggle of our people...at the
international level, particularly at the
United Nations and at the Security
Council.
•j
‘Give us
a home’
News summary
PLO denounces bombing
“It can hardly be coincidence that it
occured before the Security Council
meeting on Jan. 12 to discuss the
Palestine question."
Political observers expressed doubts
that the PLO was involved and gave no
credence to an anonymmous telephone
call to UPl’s New York headquarters
claiming the PLO was responsible.
The PLO is an administrative
organization grouping the major
guerrilla groups. Terrorist operations
by individual guerrilla bands have
rarely been executed in the name of the
PLO.
Earlier, the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine —a breakaway
from the less extreme PLO—denied
any connection with the explosion.
A spokesman for the PLFP said his
group had “no connections watsoever
with what has happened at LaGuardia
Airport.”
“Would anybody like to give us a home?” these pups at
the Spalding County dog pound seem to be thinking. They
are among the animals that have been picked up and
placed in the pound by animal control officers. Dogs at the
pound are available for a small boarding fee, plus license
and inoculation charges.
By United Press International
arrive at the White House about 6 p.m.
EST.
Ford issued a statement saying, “I
am deeply grieved at the loss of lives
and injuries ... It appears this senseless
act involved the use of a bomb.”
Stamps going up
WASHINGTON (UPI) — Make sure
you get tardy Christmas cards, thank
you notes and holiday packages in the
mail before closing today or you’ll be
among the first to suffer New Year’s
greetings from the Postal Service —
higher postage rates.
The higher rates apply to all mail,
including a three-cent increase for first
class letters to 13 cents an ounce. They
go into effect at 12:01 a.m. local time
Wednesday, representing 1975’s last
burst of inflation.
The increases average 26 per cent for
all mail.
New offensive
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
(UPI) — The Sovietbacked faction
battling for supremacy in Angola plans
a new military offensive to upstage
African peacemaking efforts,
diplomatic sources said.
A stockpile of sophisticated Russian
military equipment will be used to
Vol. 103 No. 308
widen the faction’s control of the
former Portuguese colony, the sources
said Monday.
The arms include MIG2I fighters
recently assembled at the Marxist-held
capital of Luanda, amphibious T 34
tanks and mobile Russian-made sur
face-to-surface missiles that the
sources said already have inflicted
heavy losses on the anti-Soviet groups.
Fleece of the year
WASHINGTON (UPI) - Sen.
William Proxmire, D-Wis., said today
the Air Force is running a $66 million
fleet of 23 jets to transport government
officials at a cost to taxpayers of more
than $6 million a year.
Proxmire, who each month selects
what he believes to be the most
wasteful federal program, said the Air
Force’s “private airline for
government bigshots” gets his “fleece
of the year” award.
The Senator said the planes are kept
on call 24 hours a day and are equipped
to carry as many as 50 passengers, with
small executive jets carrying up to five.
He said the planes are staffed with
military aides who serve food and
drinks and that some of the planes have
sleeping facilities.
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Fun on a
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See page 12