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Judge Whalen tough on robbers
If Judge Andrew Whalen, Jr., gets his
way, would-be robbers will know better
than to try anything in his circuit.
Yesterday in handing down a 20-year
sentence to convicted armed robber,
Roscoe Digby, the superior court judge
said, “There just may be someone else
like you out there on the streets and if
he knows you got this sentence, it may
keep him from committing a similar
crime.”
Digby was the fourth convicted
robber who was sentenced this week.
He was tried for two armed robberies,
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Watch out- —Friday 13th
This black cat, whose name is “Black Cat,” is looking into a broken mlrrow in defiance of
Friday the 13th. She is owned by Pat and Susan Thornhill of 410 Terrace street.
Budget ready for debate
ATLANTA (UPI) - The House
Appropriations Committee adopted a
11.92 billion state budget for the coining
fiscal year Thursday, clearing the way
for House debate early next week.
The mammoth budget adopted by the
committee does not vary substantially
in controversial areas from the budget
proposed by Gov. George Busbee.
Many of the differences were worked
out in private meetings this week
between Busbee and the House “Green
Door” Committee, an informal group of
five committee leaders.
After the bill clears the House, it will
go to the Senate and finally to a six
member conference committee to re
solve House-Senate differences.
House Majority leader Clarence
Vaughn of Conyers, who took several
hours to read through a list of cuts and
additions in the governor’s proposal,
said Busbee had exerted more
influence over this budget than any
governor he’d ever known.
“There will be some changes, of
course,” said Senate Appropriations
Chairman Paul Broun, D-Athens, “but
they (the House leaders) have come a
lhere just may be
someone else like
you out there on
the streets and if he
knows you got this
sentence, it may
keep him from
committing a simi
lar crime, 9
GRIFFIN
DAI I,Y NEWS
Daily Since 1872
long way toward meeting the
governor’s differences.”
The largest chunk of the budget, 11.83
billion, will go to finance state
programs at their current, or
“continuation,” level in the fiscal year
beginning July 1.
The budget includes a 7 per cent
salary increase on the index for public
school teachers, effective Sept. 1, and a
4 per cent increase for state employes
(with |4OO minimum and SBOO
maximum), effective July 1. The 5 per
cent pay raises given to University
System personnel this fiscal year, by
state Supreme Court order, are
continued in next year’s budget.
The committee, with Busbee’s
approval, set aside S2O million to
increase the state’s working reserve
fund to SSO million, or about 3 per cent
of the state’s total revenue.
The budget also includes sl2 million
for new general obligation bonds, which
will generate more than $l2O million.
Most of the money will go for comple
tion of the Interstate Highway System,
and University System and public
school construction.
one at Simmons Grocery Store on
Tinsley street in December and the
other at the Greyhound Bus Station in
January.
The jury found him guilty of the
Simmons’ robbery, but after
deliberating parts of two days on the
bus station charge, told Judge Whalen
yesterday morning, it was hopelessly
deadlocked with a vote of 10 to two.
Judge Whalen then declared a
mistrial on that charge and sentenced
Digby to serve 20 years on the grocery
store conviction.
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Friday Afternoon, February 13,1976
The committee approved $1 million
not recommended by the governor to
increase benefits for retired teachers.
Retired school teachers now receive $9
per month for every year of service
earned, and the additional funds would
raise that floor to sll.
The increase is expected to affect
some 40 per cent of the state’s retired
teachers, and would mean an average
estimated increase of sls to S3O per
month.
An additional $29,000 above Busbee’s
recommendation was approved to hire
more personnel for the State Archives.
Secretary of State Ben Fortson told the
committee in hearings earlier this
session that the Archives would have to
be closed on Saturday unless more
personnel were hired to protect against
theft.
The committee allocated $300,000 in
new money for 20 employes in the
Bureau of Community Affairs. Busbee
had recommended 12 new positions.
The governor and the House
leadership were close to agreement in
the allocation of $7 million for education
improvements.
This kind of
thing gives guns a
bad name. Guns
don 9 t need controll
ing. But you do.
Guns are not the
problem. Crooks
are. 9
Fourth graders here
on national level
Fourth graders in the Griffin-
Spalding School System scored as high
as the national average in every field in
basic skills’ tests administered last fall.
They also tied with DeKalb County
fourth graders for the state’s second
highest systemwide score of 4.3
Evans County school system in
Claxton posted the highest score of 4.4.
Eighth and 11th grade students in the
Griffin-Spalding system didn’t do so
well, but came out higher than the state
average in every field.
Eighth grade scores were a little
State-wide Testing Program
Griffin-Spalding County System
1975
FOURTHGRADE
Griffin-Spalding Griffin-Spalding State National
Vocabulary ™ Y “ r ¥ «"
Reading 02
7 8 67.4 61.0 62.5 65-71
U “ guage 70.2 62 1 64 0 65 71
Work-Study 7 1.3 £
EIGHTH GRADE (Spalding)
Vocabulary 93.6 91.8 932 97-104
Reading 95.9 93.3 93*7 96-104
Language 92.1 89.5 9/9 95-103
Work-Study 96.7 93.8 94 ' 2 97-104
Math 96.5 94.4
ELEVENTH GRADE (Griffin High)
Composition 47.3 47.2 45.4 48-52
Reading 48.0 47.8 45.8 48-52
Math 47.0 47.0 45.7 47-52
4th GRADE
, 19751T8S SCORE REPORT
STANDARD SCORE
Vocabulary Reading Language Work-Study Mathematics ITBS Total
Atkinson 70.3 71.3 74.5 79.2 72.2 73 0
Beaverbrook 65.1 64.4 67.8 68.0 66.0 66 4
Crescent 72.0 71.1 72.2 75.2 71 ’ 2 718
East Griffin 69.5 67.5 72.0 73.3 M 4 69 „
Fourth Ward 69.2 67.6 69.3 68.7 65 J 67 6
Jackson Road 69.1 70.6 72.2 71.7 70 0 70 1
Moore 60.1 58.0 61.4 61.9 604 598
Orrs 71.7 69.5 73.2 71.2 71 2 708
Third Ward 76.4 74.3 76.0 75 5 72 2 7 .
West Griffin 71.4 67.5 7L5 74.3 99 3 70 3
Spalding County 68.5 67.4 70.2 713 gg 1 „ 7
62.8 62.5 64.0 64.2 63 5 62 9
National 67-72 65-71 65-71 M 64459 6340.
“Violence doesn’t wipe out
problems — just the people who
had them.”
This week’s court docket included
five men accused of robbery, involving
seven separate incidents.
The judge took his second swipe at
gun control in as many days.
“This community has been plagued
by people going around here with
handguns and robbing people at gun
point. I can’t think of a more serious
type crime than to rob a person at the
point of a gun. A person who would use
a gun may just kill somebody.
“This kind of thing gives guns a bad
name. Guns don’t need controlling. But
Vol. 104 No. 37
below the national average in every
field, while the 11th graders reached
the national average in math and
reading.
The tests are administered each year
to fourth, eighth and 11th graders.
The fourth and eighth graders took
the lowa Tests of Basic Skills, which
assess the fundamental skill areas of
the elementary school curriculum —
vocabulary; reading comprehension;
language skills such as spelling punc
tuation, capitalization; work-study
skills such as map and graph reading,
Labor of love
LOVELAND, Colo. (UPI) — This
northern Colorado community’s annual
labor of love is getting bigger every
year, and officials say 1976 will be the
biggest and best so far.
Postmaster Henry B. Porter, his staff
and a crew of 30 volunteers, mostly
elderly retired persons, have been
working for more than a month sorting,
stamping and remailing Valentines to
all parts of the world. Porter said as of
Thursday night, 160,000 Valentines had
been canceled with the town’s unique
you do. Guns are not the problem.
Crooks are.
“I wish that there was away
everybody like you could get the
message. If you get caught robbing
somebody in this circuit, you are going
out of circulation. From now on, if
possible, we may rid ourselves of this
type thing.”
The judge said he thought a heavy
penalty was the only thing “we have to
deter crime and have a decent com-
(Continued on page three.)
Weather
ESTIMATED HIGH TODAY 65, low
today 47, high yesterday 68, low
yesterday 31, high tomorrow in mid 60s,
low tonight in mid 40s.
EXTENDED FORECAST: Mostly
fair Sunday and Monday except a
chance of a few showers in the south
portion. Tuesday considerable
cloudiness and warmer with chance of
rain over most of the state.
knowledge and use of reference
materials; and mathematics skills.
Eleventh graders took the Test of
Academic Progress, designed to assess
student progress in the areas of com
position, reading and math.
Walker Cook, director of testing,
commented that the score improve
ments indicate the Griffin system is
headed in the right direction.
“There is still room for improvement
and our goal is to help every student in
our system master these basic skills,”
he said.
postmark and sent on their way,
compared with 151,000 last year.
“It just seems to get bigger every
year,” Porter said. “I suppose one
reason is because of all the troubles in
the world. People seem to want to
forget about their problems for a few
minutes and take time out to send
greetings to their loved ones.”
He said Valentines received for
remailing came from nearly every
state and a number of foreign
countries, including the first from an
Iron Curtain country.