Newspaper Page Text
Insurance squeeze drove doctor to kitchen iob
By JAMES J. DOYLE
THOUSANDOAKS, Calif. (UPI) - Dr. Sherman Hersh
field’s malpractice insurance premiums quadrupled this
year and he won’t pay them. He’s working in a fish and
chip restaurant instead.
“I make $2 an hour. I understand the minimum wage is
>2.30 an hour, but since this is my first job, I didn’t want to
make waves.
“When the sun comes out again, I’ll be working as a
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Three story building in downtown Guatemala City looks as if giant fist smashed
in the corner roof from damage in the heavy earthquake that struck the city. (UPI)
Quake toll
tops 15,000
GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala
(UPI) — Government officials say the
death toll has reached more than 15,000
in this Central American republic,
hammered by three series of earth
tremors in five days of devastation.
A new set of shocks battered the
capital early Sunday, swaying
buildings, driving panicked citizens
into the streets and prompting
churchmen to call on their parishioners
to repent.
Aftershocks rippled through the city
late in the day. Citizens refused to enter
their damaged homes, preferring to
camp out in makeshift tents despite
gusty winds, a temperature drop to the
low 50s and the city’s first rainstorm
since the tremors began.
The official National Emergency
Special term
of court
expected
Due to the large number of criminal
cases to be tried in Spalding Superior
Court, a special session probably will
be called sometime in April, District
Atty. Ben Miller said today.
The February term got under way
this morning with 66 cases on the
docket.
Nine persons entered guilty pleas and
(Continued on page 10.)
White House for the birds—at night
RICHARD H. GROWALD
UPI Senior Editor
WASHINGTON (UPI) - During the
day the White House belongs to the
people. At night it’s for the birds.
“I really don’t think there’s anything
we can do about the starlings,” said
Dale Haney, chief White House bird
chaser. “No, there’s no way to beat
them.”
Like the Blitz bombers of World War
n, the starlings come at dusk and leave
at dawn. They are commuters.
“During the day they feed in the
countryside around Washington but
come swarming in at sunset,” said
Haney. “It’s horrible.”
GRIFFIN
DAI LY f*NE WS
Daily Since 1872
Committee Sunday night placed the
death toll at 15,043, with 37,000 injured
since the initial quake rumbled through
Guatemala and other parts of Central
America Wednesday.
The committee said at least 220,000
Guatemalans lost their homes in the
quakes, but reports had not arrived
from many small towns left isolated by
landslides and communications
failures.
Sunday’s tremors began at 3:20 a.m.
EST, heavily damaging the
Neuropsychiatric Hospital in the
capital and sending patients running in
panic. Patients from three other
hospitals were sent to a treatment
center at the trade fairgrounds.
Sporadic looting prompted several
neighborhoods to organize vigilante
committees.
Roman Catholic priests celebrated
open air masses outside their wrecked
churches, repeating Cardinal Mario
Casariego’s words that the quakes were
“the will of the all-powerful one” and
urging Guatemalans to repent their
sins.
Some districts in the capital reported
outbreaks of diarrhea. People lined up
at outdoor infirmaries to get
inoculations against diphtheria, tetanus
and typhoid.
Outside the capital, bulldozers and
tractors worked to remove tons of earth
that fell across the Pan-American
Highway in landslides following the
Wednesday quake and the first
powerful aftershock Friday.
The starlings by the thousands settle
into the evergreens, their favorites
being the twin giant magnolia trees on
the White House south lawn. They also
turn the Executive Mansion’s eaves
and window ledges into feathery
tenements.
“I think it’s the lights of the White
House that attract them.
“They make an awful lot of noise.
They talk and talk and talk,” said
Haney. He said former President
Richard Nixon used to complain the
bird chatter kept him awake.
Worse than the noise is the droppings,
according to Haney. “The sticky white
stuff smears the trees, blankets the
road asphalter, and that can go from $4O to $9O per day.”
Hershfield is a neurologist who has been working in
physical rehabilitation. Last year his insurance
premiums were $864. This year the rate jumped to $3,420.
Except for two emergency cases, he did not work for 36
days during the doctors' slowdown in Southern California.
He hasn’t paid the new rates and says he won’t.
Hershfield said he was talking to friend about the
situation when he decided to do something else. He
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Monday Afternoon, February 9,1976
sidewalks, gets up to an inch thick on
the window sills and it gets on cars and
will eat through the paint,” he said.
“The smell isn’t beautiful,” Haney
said.
Haney said various remedies failed.
They tried spreading a substance of
remarkable odor and stickiness that
was billed as disgusting to even the
most boorish and unmoveable starling.
“No good at all,” said Haney.
The 24-year-old bird chaser took to
roaming the White House grounds,
banging two pie pan-like tambourines.
“Look what happens,” he said.
Haney clanged the pans under a tree
outside the windows of the East Room.
A cloud of starlings sprang from the
Solons push aside
all but major bills
ATLANTA (UPI) — The Georgia
General Assembly began the second
half of the 1976 session today with a
change of procedures intended to keep
all but major bills from taking up
lawmakers’ time and a $1.9 billion state
budget nearing its first serious revi
sion.
Gov. George Busbee, who in his
budget and “State of the State”
speeches asked the legislators to raise
Georgia’s $21.6 million working reserve
to $3O million this year and $5O million
next year, is scheduled to send the
House appropriations committee a
detailed plan this week spelling out
where the extra $2O million is to come
from.
First, the governor and House
leadership have to agree on a fixed
figure for a “continuation budget” —
the level of state spending needed to
maintain government operations at
their current level, allowing for
inflation and pay raises.
Once the no-frills fare for next year is
resolved, budget writers will reckon
next • fiscal year’s revenue growth
against essential expenditures, and the
difference will be tabbed for new
programs, including the boost in the
working reserve.
Busbee and the legislative leaders
have virtually committed themselves
to getting the budget through both
chambers and on the govenor’s desk
before the final week of the session,
rather than waiting until the final hours
of the session to push through a
compromise of House and Senate
versions of state spending.
That means some recesses will be
called — mostly on weekends — so the
The Country Parson
•«»n Hot It I/-*
“Remember when thrift was
a virtue? That was before
borrowing and waste were so
popular.”
accepted a job in the fish and chips restaurant.
“Having had no experience in this business I had to
start at the bottom,” he said. “They put me to work
mopping floors, taking out the garbage and cleaning the
windows.
“And after doing various tasks, they said I was about
ready to start cooking. I have cooked fish and chips and
fried onions. And hamburgers. Nice greasy hamburgers,
the kind that really taste good.
Senate can give as much consideration
to the budget as the House does. The
Constitution requires spending bills to
originate in the House, but Senate
appropriations chairman Paul Broun,
D-Athens, has been monitoring
committee work on it so his Senate
committee will have a working
familiarity with it when the House
passes it.
In order to keep less important bills
off the House floor, the chamber today
begins funneling legislation through its
rules committee for scheduling on the
daily calendar. The rules committee
keeps bills of lesser importance off the
floor, allowing the members to
concentrate on the genuinely important
issues.
Speaker Tom Murphy, Bremen, can
still call up bills in any order he wishes
through the final 20 days of the 40-day
session, but he is limited to choosing
among those set by the rules committee
in the second half. For the first half of
the session, bills clearing various
committees go straight to the calendar
for the Speaker’s choosing.
The Senate goes “on a rules
calendar” its final 10 days, but the
change is unnoticed because Lt. Gov.
Zell Miller always calls up bills in the
order set by the rules panel throughout
the session.
Among the major items pending in
the House, aside from the
constitutionally mandated budget, are
a constitutional amendment removing
the lieutenant governor from the Senate
presidency and giving him duties in the
executive branch, a “freeport” tax
exemption intended to lure new
industry to Georgia and a major shift in
property tax assessments for
evaluation of land use rather than
potential value.
The Senate, still awating the budget
from the House, will do most of its
business in committee this week. The
judiciary committee sets to work on a
House-passed constitutional revision
this afternoon and the transportation
committee has a meeting scheduled
Tuesday on some revisions in the traffic
code.
On the Senate floor, action is
expected today or Tuesday on a prposal
to shorten Public Service Commission
terms from six years to four and to
assign the five members districts in
which to run, rather than running
statewide.
tree, swooped over to a tree in the
Kennedy Rose Garden and sat down
again. “Fat lot of good that did,” said
Haney.
Haney puts more faith in a tape
recording of what the maker calls “a
bird in distress.” Haney said, “It
sounds like a bird being hanged.”
He played it on the outdoor
loudspeaker system used to summon
limousines to the South Portico
driveway after a state dinner. Through
the White House grounds a shrieking
bird was heard over the speakers.
Told by a visitor that he could not
notice much difference — the birds
were not charmed out of the trees,
Haney professed to believe at least a
Vol. 104 No. 33
few were scared off. “One must have
faith,” he said.
Upstairs, in her East Wing office,
Sheila Weidenfeld, the First Lady’s
press secretary, peered through a
window as darkness fell.
“Oh, God,” she said. "It’s 5:25 p.m.
Here they come.”
Squadrons of birds began perching on
branches outside the window.
She raced out under the starlings,
hopped into her automobile and drove it
out from under a tree full of birds. “If I
leave the car there it will get coated
again,” she said.
“Past droppings have eaten away the
paint and left my car polka-dotted,” she
said.
“I’m looking forward to laying the asphalt for this
company. It could be quite lucrative and I wouldn’t have
to worry about malpractice insurance unless someone
wanted to sue me for not making the roads properly.
“The strike has had an effect on me,” Hershfield said.
“I’ve always been a person of high moral values. But
being by myself, being out, I’ve thought, what the do I
want out of life?
“And it comes out, I want to be happy.”
lip,
Floyd Newton
Floyd Newton
scheduled
to testify
WASHINGTON — Sen. Sam Nunn (D-
Ga.) announced that Floyd C. Newton,
Jr. of Griffin, will testify Thursday
before his Senate Subcommittee on
Oversight Procedures on the impact of
federal rules and regulations on the
textile industry.
Newton is vice president and
treasurer of the Dundee Mills in Griffin.
The hearings, conducted by the
Senate Government Operations Sub
committee that Nunn chairs, will be
held in room 556 of the federal building
at 275 Peachtree Street in Atlanta,
beginning at 9:30 a.m.
“Congress needs to recapture control
of the runaway federal agencies and
regulatory commissions,” Nunn said.
“In order to do so, my Subcommittee
on Oversight Procedures is gathering
information which will help the
Congress to develop effective methods
of oversight.
“We are fortunate to have Mr.
Newton testify before us on this vital
matter,” he said. “I am looking for
ward to his knowledgeable testimony.”
Also scheduled to testify are U. S.
Rep. Elliott Levitas of Georgia and
Georgia Superintendent of Schools Jack
Nix, along with representatives of
Georgia business, industry and
organized labor.
Nunn has introduced legislation in the
Senate that would enable Congress to
veto proposed rules and regulations.
Weather
ESTIMATED HIGH TODAY 58, low
today 28, high yesterday 53, low
yesterday 22, high tomorrow in upper
60s, low tonight In upper 30s.
EXTENDED FORECAST: Chance of
showers north and central portions
Wednesday. Mostly fair Thursday.
Chance of showers over the state on
Friday.
News
summary
By United Press International
Sun belt leads
WASHINGTON (UPI) - The sun
belt, and Florida in particular, led the
nation in metropolitan growth in the
first four years of this decade, the U.S.
Census Bureau has reported.
Reporting on population trends in 272
U.S. metropolitan areas, the bureau
said Florida had seven of 13 areas that
grew by at least 20 per cent between
1970 and 1974. Colorado and Texas had
two and Arizona one.
Appointed
HONG KONG (UPI) - In a surprise
appointment, Hua Kuofeng, a protege
of Communist Party chairman Mao
Tse-tung and China’s top policeman,
was named acting successor to
Premier Chou En-lai, who died of
cancer last month.
In a routine dispatch, the New China
News Agency confirmed the
appointment by saying, “Hua Kuo
feng, acting premier of the State
Council, met and had a cordial and
friendly talk ... with Jose de Jesus
Sanches Carrero” of Venezuela.
Seven killed
PRICHARD, Ala. (UPI) - Seven
persons, including four teen-agers
being chased by police, died in an
automobile crash when the teen-agers’
auto smashed into another car carrying
three passengers.
Alabama state police said the three
adults in the second car “didn’t have a
chance” when the teen-agers’ car,
crossed the center line and hit them
headon at more than 100 miles per hour.
Troopers said they chased the car at
speeds in excess of 115 mph first on an
interstate, then onto a state highway
and finally onto a winding narrow road
near Prichard.
Meditation
-LONDON (UPI) — Prime Minister
Harold Wilson has suggested West
Germany or another country help
mediate Britain’s longstanding dispute
with Iceland over cod fishing rights.
But West German Chancellor Helmut
Schmidt declined the role and
suggested the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization handle the mediation.
Both Britain and Iceland are members
of the alliance.
Regulations
BALTIMORE (UPI) - Maryland
plans to implement emergency
regulations for handling the toxic
pesticide kepone by midmonth, state
Labor Commissioner Harvey Epstein
says.
Epstein’s comments came in the
wake of reports an employe of the
Allied Chemical Plant in Baltimore,
Joseph Smallwood, 51, was hospitalized
with kepone symptoms — joint pains,
blurred vision and hand tremors.