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GRIFFIN
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Bill
review
News
summary
By United Press International
TV violence
LOS ANGELES (UPI) - Dr. David
Loye, a psychiatrist at the University of
California School of Medicine said
Friday agressive feelings in both stable
and unstable personalities are brought
out by watching violent television
programs. However, he added, “the
unstable are obviously more
responsive.”
Loye presented the results of his
research on the subject at the annual
meeting of the Western Psychological
Association.
Jail breaks
LOS ANGELES (UPI) - The
American Escape Committee, a
commando group formed to free
hundreds of American citizens from
Mexican jails, was interviewed by
Charles Ashman, a reporter for KTTV
TV in Los Angeles. A copyrighted story
written by the reporter said some
recent jail breaks in Mexico
were the work of the group.
Girl kidnaped
DERRY, N.H. (UPI) — Carl C.
Lechel, 31, Friday was charged with
kidnaping in New Hampshire and held
on $50,000 bond, He also faces charges
of attempted murder in Massachusetts.
Lechel allegedly took seven-year-old
Christine Johnson from her bed in her
mother’s home just outside Derry,
N.H., at 2 a.m., and threw her off a 60-
foot-high bridge that spans the
Merrimack River in Haverhill Mass.
Unanimous vote
BEIRUT, Lebanon (UPI) — Guarded
by about 1,000 troops from the Palestine
Liberation Army, the Palestinian
guerrilla movement, the Lebanese
army and militias from various
political factions, the Lebanese
Parliament opened the way for the
selection of a new president by voting
unanimously to amend the nation’s
constitution.
The meeting last only 15 minutes and
was attended by 84 of Lebanon’s 98
deputies.
Grounded
BANGKOK, Thailand (UPI) -
Because parts needed to repair a
BACIU jet they hijacked Wednesday in
the Philippines, did not arrive, three
Filipino Moslem guerrillas have been
grounded in Bangkok for more than 24
hours.
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Saturday Afternoon, April 10,1976
Griffin High students go over bills they plan to introduce in the Youth Assembly at the
Capitol in Atlanta next week. They are (br) Marie Hardcastle, Melinda Hattaway, Cliff
Miller and Carol Ellison. A number of other students also plan to attend.
Tech prof raps
report on ‘pot’
ATLANTA (UPI) — An underground
news report “grossly overstated” the
marijuana-sniffing abilities of his
experimental device for nabbing pot
smokers, a Georgia Tech researcher
said Friday.
Joseph Lupton, a research technician
in the university’s engineering
experiment station, said he has been
experimenting with a device that would
tell if a driver was under the influence
of marijuana.
Lupton said he had not discovered
any marijuana detection method so
sensitive that it can tell if a suspect has
merely been in the same room with a
pot smoker.
Lupton said “High Times” magazine
published a story by a University of
Georgia student dealing with his
experiments, and that the “Zodiac
News Service” picked up part of the
article.
He said the High Times piece was
“pretty straight” but said the ZNS
story “took it all of context.
“I never said smoke could be
People
...and things
Little black boy twirling big red hoola
hoop in Zebulon yard.
Well dressed man and woman taking
bag after bag of trash from trunk of big
black car and depositing it in dumpster
at McDonough and High Falls Roads.
Ragged robin flowers growing beside
railroad track at Orchard Hill.
Gasoline likely to go up
WASHINGTON (UPI) - Prices of
gasoline and other fuels are expected to
climb a penny a gallon between now
and next February as a result of new
rules on domestic oil prices approved
Friday by the Federal Energy
Administration.
The rules revision allows producers
to charge higher prices for crude oil
and to pass the increases along to con
sumers. An FEA spokesman said it’s
designed to stimulate future domestic
oil production and help oil companies
cope with inflation.
Under the new rules, the average
$7.66 per barrel domestic oil price set
by last year’s Energy Policy and
Conservation Act will be raised
gradually at an annual rate of 6.8 per
cent to cope with inflation and another 3
per cent to give producers an added
incentive. The .increase is retroactive to
detected if you were only in the same
room,” he said. “I don’t think you can
make it that sensitive, and if you can, I
don’t want to know. I’m working at it
from a driving standpoint only.”
Lupton said the student, Frank
Russo, Interviewed him about the
marijuana-detection research for a
classroom project, then wrote the story
for the magazine.
“I granted him an interview for a
paper he was writing for classroom use
only,” he said. “He wrote to them (High
* Times) later and asked them not to
publish his story, but they did.”
Lupton said he had never heard of the
Zodiac News Service, which mails
feature stories mostly to underground
publications, but that the service
distorted the High Times story.
“It borders on being a hoax,” he said.
“This smoke-filled room stuff is all
wrong.”
Lupton said the exaggerated reports
of his research brought hopeful
inquiries from as far away as the Los
Angeles Sheriffs department.
He said his breath device is not quite
finished, but has run afoul of “lack of
funding and legal problems” in state
and federal marijuana-research laws.
“You’ve got to be nine Philadelphia
lawyers and six Ph.Ds to have it
around, and I’m not one of those,” he
said.
Weather
FORECAST FOR GRIFFIN: Cool
tonight with a low in the mid 40s. Partly
cloudy Sunday with a high in the mid
70s.
March 1.
The result, the FEA said, will be an
increase in the average price of
domestic crude oil to $8.41 by next
February. That increase will raise the
consumer cost of refined petroleum
products if oil companies choose to pass
it along.
“This plan will provide incentives for
producers to find and recover more
domestic crude oil, but will have
minimum impact on consumers by
raising product prices only about a
penny a gallon over the coming year,"
FEA Administrator Frank Zarb said.
Domestic oil prices are set under a
two-tier system with “old oil" pegged
at a price of $5.25 per barrel and oil
from marginally producing stripper
wells or “new oil” from wells drilled
since 1972 set at 111.28 per barrel. The
average of oil produced under each tier
Vol. 104 No. 86
Bluefish go
on rampage
POMPANO BEACH, Fla. (UPI) -
Bluefish, chasing mullet and swept
shoreward by swells from a storm far
out in the Atlantic, went on a feeding
frenzy Friday, striking unbaited hooks
and bathers with abandon.
Lifeguards along southeast Florida
beaches were warned to keep a sharp
lookout today for further signs of the
bluefish as the swells were expected to
continue.
Bluefish ranging to 15 and 20 pounds
went berserk at Pompano Beach
Friday and forced the closing of a 15-
mile-long stretch of public beaches
from Fort Lauderdale northward to
Deerfield Beach.
At least a dozen persons were bitten,
authorities said. Christine Schult, 18,
vacationing from New Canaan, Conn.,
required 30 to 35 stitches at a hospital to
dose wounds on her hand.
“I was riding the waves at Pompano
Beach when suddenly I was surrounded
by fish,” she said. “I really felt I was in
‘Jaws’.
“I was going to run for it but I fell.
Right then a big fish at least two feet
long grabbed me and I grabbed him
with my other hand and whacked him.
It was his eyes. He was looking at me so
meanly.”
This was the third consecutive spring
that bluefish have attacked swimmers
along southeast Florida beaches. Two
previous attacks were recorded at
Haulover Beach, just north of Miami
Beach. '
Fishermen delighted in the invasion.
Operators of the Pompano Beach
recreation pier reported fishermen
landed nearly 400 of the fish Friday.
They said the bluefish were so ravenous
they were even striking unbaited hooks.
Lifeguard Bob Willins, who was
standing alongside another lifeguard
Jim Kehl, said the school of fish,
described as a quarter mile wide and
five miles long, hit the beach area
without warning.
“Suddenly it came alive with fish,”
he said. “A four-foot fish, weighing
about 20 pounds jumped at Kehl’s feet.
Kehl grabbed it by the tail and it swung
and bit his fingers.” Kehl suffered three
deep slashes on his left hand.
The Country Parson
“A warm response is the best
way to avoid a hot argument.”
gives the 17.66 composite price.
The new increases will be applied to
give the maximum incentive to
producing new oil, the FEA said.
Prices will be re-examined at six
month intervals during the 40-month
period of controls established by last
year’s law, the FEA said. The agency
predicts prices of old oil will go up 91
cents over the 40 months, while prices
of new oil go up $2.67.
Zarb told the National Energy
Resources Organization ip Washington
the only way the United States can cope
with the international oil cartel is to
develop more of its own resources.
There is a ’ good chance” of
another oil embargo being declared,
Zarb said, and oil and gas production
must be increased in the United States
for the nation to have an “embargo
proof” economy.
Fishing report
The Department of Natural Resources’ fishing forecast
C for the week of April ll-17 includes:
HIGH FALLS: Above normal, stained. Good for bass;
fair * or cra PP* e ; slow for other species. •
JACKSON: Above normal, muddy. Fair for all species.
1 SINCLAIR: Down, stained. Good for bass around the
~ banks using super “R’s”; fair for crappie, catfish and
. bream; good for white bass.
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Willie Scott, 19, caught 53 bluefish from the Pompano pier as the fish swept into
shallow waters in a feeding frenzy. Hie fish mistook fingers and toes for small
fish and sent more than a dozen swimmers to local hospitals for minor surgery.
One bite was severe enough to cause the loss of the use of a finger. (UPI)
Girl, 7, safe
Abduction ends
I
in warm blanket
DERRY, N.H. (UPI) - Seven-year
old Christine Johnson’s 12-hour
abduction ordeal ended in a warm,
white blanket, amid the clatter of
typewriters and telephones in a small
rural police station.
Earlier Friday, a distant relative had
been charged with kidnaping the tiny
blonde from her bed and throwing her
off a 60-foot-high bridge and her father
Malpractice
insurance
soars here
Malpractice insurance for the
Griffin-Spalding Hospital has increased
10 fold during the past 10 years and is
expected to increase another 50 percent
when the new fiscal year begins in
June.
Billy McDaniel of Spalding Insurance
& Realty Co. which has handled the
insurance for some 15 years, said in
1967 the premium was 13,422, compared
with >38,104 for the fiscal year 1975-76
which ends June 1.
Beginning June 1, he anticipates an
increase of at least 50 percent, he said.
The rates are based on the average
occupancy per bed and may be even
higher since the new wing is open. It all
depends on whether more patients are
admitted to the hospital, he said.
For the year 1973-74, malpractice
insurance was $25,744 but went down to
$24,777 in 1974-75 because fewer
patients were admitted that year.
McDaniel said in 1974-75 the rate was
$165 per bed of average occupancy.
This year it was $330 per bed and
beginning in June, it might rise to $470.
In addition to the average occupancy
per bed, the rate also is based on per 100
outpatients.
Hospital board chairman O. M.
“Pete” Snider said he did not think the
hospital would drop its insurance at this
time, but it may have to later.
“I don’t know what we’ll do next
year,” he said.
McDaniel said the rates were even
lower in 1963-64 when the premium was
around $1,500.
was arrested for carrying two pistols as
he searched for her.
Christine, wearing white pajamas,
was asleep when she was taken from
her mother’s home about 2 a.m. She
told police she was hurled from a
highway bridge three hours later into '
the icy Merrimack River in Haverhill,
Mass., 20 miles away.
“I hope you can swim,” she told
police her abductor said. Police said
they knew of no motive for the incident
Carl C. Lechel, 31, married to a
cousin of the child’s mother, was
arrested at his home in Raymond, N.H.
He was charged with kidnaping and
held on $50,000 bond. He faced
additional charges of attempted
murder in neighboring Massachusetts.
The child lived with her mother, Mrs.
Joyce Johnson, and her four
stepbrothers and stepsisters in a small
blue house in an isolated area five miles
from the center of town. Her father,
Donald Johnson, 38, lives on Highland
Ave. in Derry.
“I saw something I thought was a rag
doll,” said telephone repairman
Kenneth Gaudette of Lowell, Mass.,
who found the child at sunrise, holding
onto a cement post near the bridge.
“I ran down the embankment and
found her scared and cold and wet...
she was wearing only her pajamas and
had no shoes on.” He threw his jacket
around the weeping child and flagged
down a motorist, who called police.
“I know his name was Carl,” police
said Christine told Gaudette of her
kidnaper. “He took me from my bed
and put me over there,” she said,
pointing to the river.
The girl was treated at Hale Hospital
in Haverhill for bruises on her arms
and hips and released, then returned to
Derry where she identified Lechel as
her abductor.
“Motive is the most puzzling aspect
of the case,” said Massachusetts State
Police Sgt. Robert Sullivan. Dory
Patrolman Larry Hamer said, “I
honestly don’t know, I just don’t know.”