Columbia Missourian Newspaper 1980-11-20

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73rd Year No. 58 Good Morning! It's Thursday, November 20, 1980 16 Pages 15 Cents
Officer works
to walk again
after shooting
By JUl Miller
Missoarian staff writer
A man en crutches, silhouetted by morning light from the
physical therapy room behind him, moves slowly down the
hall. Columbia Police Det. Bob Muse, shot during Tony
Crews' escape from a police car Oct. 6, has just finished 1
hours of therapy for his senou3 leg wound.
He greets a staff member and continues the journey to
the elevator. He winces.
Muse, 42, was released Monday after three weeks in Rusk
Rehabilitation Center. Before his admission to the center,
he spent more than three weeks at the University Hospital,
where he underwent a five- ho- ur operation to repair muscles
and the femoral artery in his upper right leg.
" The doctor said it was just like my leg had been torn in
half. And they had to put it together again," Muse said last
week.
Muse has left his wheelchair and is learning to walk
again.
" Fm doing muck better because, when they brought me
over ( from the hospital), they brought me in a wheelchair."
be said.
Now Muse reports to therapy as an outpatient Monday,
Wednesday and Friday monuogs.
Before his release from the center, Muse left his fifth- flo- or
room at 8: 30 am each week day and reported to the
physical therapy room on the second floor, where he went
through about an hour of exercises.
After lunch Muse returned to therapy at 2: 30 pan. He
could leave at 4 pjn., but often opted to stay.
Muse said be had no time to be bored. But there are diffi-cult
aspects of his treatment, like the abdominal shots he
gives himself three times daily to prevent blood dots from
forming.
While in the center, he gave himself the shot3 because he
had to give himself injections when he went home on the
weekends.
" I cant get used to it Each time I do it, it's like the first
time,' ' Muse said. ' ' I find it more difficult than therapy.' '
Muse, who has dropped from ISO to 160 pounds since the
shooting, said, " My whole body has had to readjust. I was
an avid jogger. Td get up at four or five o'clock every morn-ing
and run five or six miles ( 8 to 9 kilometers) In fact I
did that on the day I was shot."
Muse has worked with the Columbia Police Department
for 15 years. He does not know when he will return to work.
Though Muse said he has his " ups and downs,' ' the shoot-ing
has not changed his attitude toward his work.
" I believe that the majority of the people are good people,
even though a few of them will go astray of the law You've
always got a few," he said. " I don't know where they're
coming from, and they dent either. Like the guy who shot
me. He didnt know where he was coming from
" It's one of those things," he said. " I've been shot at be-fore.
It happens You know the threat's there So you learn
to live with it"
Columbia Police Det. Bob Muse under-goes
therapy at Rusk Rehabilitation
Center to strengthen his wounded leg.
Muse was injured in a shooting during
Tony Crews' escape from police custo-dy.
See related story, Page 13.
Chicago Son- Tim- es
SAN FRANCISCO A proposed new
tax- exem- pt savings certificate could
help fund an 11 percent mortgage for
first- tim- e home buyers by late 1981,
according to a top government official.
The '' progressive" new certificate
proposed by Jay Jams, chairman of
the Federal Home Loan Bank Board,
would aid young home buyers at the
expense of elder, used- hous- e sellers.
Under the plan, savings and loan as-sociations
and banks would be author-ized
to issue the special tax- exem- pt
savings certificates, paying an esti-mated
9 percent interest to savers The
certificates would run from 3 to 5
years.
Insight
See related story. Page ISA
Jams estimated that the tax- exem- pt
certificates would generate $ 23 billion
in savings m- Co- ws that could be used
for mortgages.
Money from these accounts would be
" earmarked" for below- market- ra- te
housing loans to moderate- - and middle- i-ncome
families. Income limita-tions
would be set for borrowers of the
tax- exem- pt money.
" These mortgages could be made at
rates as low as 11 percent," Jams said
during a press conference Tuesday at
the United States League of Savings
Association's convention here.
Although Jams admitted the tax- exem- pt
certificate is " obviously a sub-sidy
from the federal government," his
program also provides for a tax " re-capture"
plan
Up to 80 percent of the estimated
$ 500 million in annual tax revenues lost
by the Treasury through use of the
plan would be offset, Jams said, by si-phoning
off some of the appreciation on
the sale of used houses.
He said the money to repay the tax
loss would come from those who have
received benefits of the subsidy pro-gramboth
savers and home sellers
At the present tune, the capital gain
on the sale of a home is deferred if the
funds are reinvested in another princi
pal residence within 18 months
Jams' tax " recapture" plan calls for
only GO percent of the capital gam to be
deferred and requires home sellers to
pay taxes on the remaining 20 percent
of their profits on the sale
Under the plan, a home seller in the
35- perce- nt tax bracket would have to
pay $ 1,400 in capital gains taxes on a
$ 50,000 profit on the sale of his house
" This amounts to taking money from
the parents and giving it to the chil-dren,
which is progressive tax policy,"
Jams said.
" If a plan like this passed Congress
by late spring, certificates could be is-sued
as soon as July or August and the
first housing starts could be made by
September or October," Jams said.
Hospital bears task
of inspecting animals
By Tammy Wool
Missoarian staff writer
Boone County Hospital's X- r- ay room
had some unusual " patients" Wednes-day
a group of stuffed teddy bears
and a stuffed gorilla.
The hospital X- ray- ed 98 stuffed ani-mals
from Roth's Department Store to
determine whether wire and metal
particles were present in the animals'
stuffing, which could pose a threat to
children if the metal worked its way to
the surface. Of the 98 animals checked,
63 were found to have improper metal
objects in the stuffing, hospital offi-cials
said.
Roth's asked for help in determining
the presence of the metal after the
Consumer Product Safety Commission
had urged a voluntary recall of 3.5 mil-lion
teddy bears marketed by Hudson
Brands ofNew York City.
" Pot Belly Bears, manufactured m
Korea, have been found to have frag-ments
of wire in the bear's stuffing,"
said Buffy Atkins, manager of Roth's
in the Forum Shopping Center. " Mag-nets
in Korea were used to remove the
improper metal objects, but werent
strong enough and left wires in the am- -,
mals, which could be harmful to 0101--
drcn."
In addition to X- rayi- ng the animals
in Roth's stock, Boone County Hospital
radiologists have offered to examine
free of charge any of the Pot Belly
Bears that had been purchased by Mid- Misso- uri
residents in the past three
years.
" UntQ Dec. 19, Pot Belly Bears may
be brought to the Boone County Hosp-ital
information desk by noon Friday of
each week. The owner may then pick
the bear up at the information desk on
the following Monday," said Patsy
Moore, the hospital's director of com-munity
affairs.
In October Hudson Brands voluntari-ly
recalled their entire stock of stuffed
bears manufactured since December
1977. The company reported selling 3 5
million bears in 1979 and expects to sell
an additional 4.5 million in 1S80.
Although all the animals X- ray- ed
Wednesday came from Roth's, five
were returned by customers respond-ing
to the recall notice.
Dr. Ken Rail, radiologist; Dr. Donald
Cochran, head of the radiology depart-ment;
and Gene Shippee, director of
radiology services, performed the
tests.
Ms. Atkins said, " Each Pot Belly
Bear X- ray- ed by Boone County Hospi-tal
that was found to be free of the met-al
objects can be sold."
According to Hudson Brands, if the
bears are faulty, the consumer can ei-ther
keep the bear, return it to the
store where purchased for a full refund
or exchange the faulty bear for a metal- f-ree
one.
The recall process began when Hud-son
Brands was contacted by a custom-er
of an Atlanta, Ga. f store who found
wire fragments in one cf the bears, Ms.
Atkins said.
" Hudson is taking precautions. Ev-ery
bear manufactured as of Nov. 1,
1980, has been X- raye- d," Ms. Atkins
said.
U. S. downplays
reported accord
on Iran demands
ALGIERS, Algeria ( UPI) The
speaker of Iran's parliament said
Wednesday the United States agreed in
principle to Iran's four conditions for
freeing the 52 American hostages, but
U S officials played down the agrufi- canc- e
of the statement
" The Americans have agreed to our
conditions but they have to be imple-mented,
and as soon as they are, then
the hostages will be freed," Hojjatoles- la- m
Hashemi Rafsanjam told a news
conference m Algiers
" If the conditions would be carried
out tonight, then the hostages would be
released tomorrow, but if the United
States stalls on the implementation,
then the release will be slow, very
slow"
However, U. S officials have said in
the past that they will not fulfill their
part m any agreement with Iran until
the hostages have been released
In Washington, Secretary of State
Edmund Muskie said, " We have had
no response of any kind . . and we un-derstand
the Iranians are still holding
hearings and meetings and still sched-uling
meetings with the Algerians who
are the intermediaries "
Commenting on Rafsanjani's
statement, Muskie said, " We have no
reason to believe that this is an official
response
" Until we have some indication that
there is an official response, it is not
particularly useful to try to comment
or interpret this kind of statement,"
Muskie said
Rafsanjam disclosed that the hos-tages,
held for 382 days, would be re-- ,
leased in Tehran and not in any other
aty when the tune came
" They will be released to the Algeri-ans
in Tehran, and then the Algerians
will decide what will be dons with
them," the parliament leader said.
Rafsanjam said the Algerian ambas-sadors
to the United States and Iran
currently are in Tehran " going over
the American response" to Iran's four
conditions for the freeing of the hos-tages
Iran's four conditions for release of
the American hostages are return of
the late shah's wealth, unfreezing of
more than $ 8 billion of Iranian assets
in American banks, a US pledge not
to interfere m Iranian affairs and a
U. S promise not to make any claims
against Iran as a result of the hostage
issue
The American response has not been
made public, but officials said that it
was " positive" and that it said some of
the conditions such as the pledge of
non- interfere- nce would be no prob-lem,
but a literal interpretation of the
others would probably be impossible,
for legal and consitutional reasons
Stricter check policy
urged for merchants
By Scott Biehle and Tammy Wool
Missoarian staff writers
Columbia merchants were urged
Wednesday to adopt stricter policies in
order to stop the sharp increase in bad
checks being passed in local stores
Boone County Prosecuting Attorney
Joe Moseley said he was having trou-ble
obtaining convictions in bad check
cases brought to court because the cur-rent
check- cashin- g policies at local
stores were too lenient.
Moseley said he no longer will file
charges in bad check cases unless the
merchants can provide witnesses who
can make a positive identification in
court of the alleged bad check passer
He outlined a model check- cashin- g
procedure to 75 local business people at
a seminar in fraud prevention at First
Presbyterian Church, 16 Hitt St
Al Mur& n, executive secretary of the
Columbia Chamber of Commerce, said
after the seminar, ' In order to reduce
losses incurred by local businesses
from uncollectible checks, stricter
check- cashin- g policies need to be es-tablished
in Columbia stores "
He said, " The consumer is the ulti-mate
benefactor from this tightening
of policies " He said customers who
pay their bills are the ones who finally
make up for business losses when mer-chants
are forced to charge more for
products to offset badrcheck losses.
Murfin said the problem for the mer-chant
is that a loss of even $ 500 in bad
checks can translate into significant
losses m operating profits For in-stance,
for a merchant operating on a 5
percent profit margin, failure to col-lect
$ 500 from a customer means the
merchant would have to generate $ 10,- 00- 0
m additional retail sales just to re-place
that lost money in terms of new
profit
Moseley said Boone County mer-chants
have had a steady increase in
bad check losses He said his office re-ceived
bad checks with a face value cf
$ 175,000 last year, and already has col-lected
checks totaling $ 186,000 in the
first 10 months of this year He expects
the 1980 total to be more than $ 200,000.
Moseley said the lack of positive
identification has resulted in low pros-ecution
success in the past. The pros-ecutor
said this damages the credibili-ty
of the county's efforts against bad
checks and encourages people to con-tinue
writing them. From now on, he
said charges will be filed only when
merchants verify positive ldentifica--
( See CARE, Page 16)
Radiologists Dr. Ken Rail, left, and Dr. Donald
Cochran use a fluoroscope at Boone County Hos-pital
to inspect teddy bears for possible metal
fragments imbedded in the stuffing. The frag-ments
could be dangerous to infants if they work
themselves to the surface of the stuffed animals.
Inside
today
Missouri lands 7
on All- Bi- g Eight
Missouri quarterback Phil Bradley
and six teammates have been named
to the 1S30 Associated Press All- Bi- g
Eight Football Team Story, Page 9
Young ' fireman'
conies to rescue
Twelve- year- o- ld Kevin Stephen
spotted a fire at a neighbor's house
and, with the help of a friend and a gar-den
hose, were dousing the flames
when firefighters arrived His quick
thinking helped prevent extensive
damage and may have saved the life of
a cat caught inside. See story, Page
16
Ira twm today
7: 30 pjn. " Andorra," Warehouse
Theater, Stephens College Tickets:
general public, $ 3; students, $ 1.75.
8 pjn. Poetry reading, poet Greg
Pape, Windsor Lounge, Stephens Col-lege,
free.
8: 15 pan. The UMC Philharmonic,
Jesse Auditorium, University, free.
Index
Business T , ija
Classified 11- 12- A
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sports i MIA