Columbia Missourian Newspaper 1982-07-31

              I STATE HIITT.- RICA- L
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HITT & LO'AHY :. T. I .-..-
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I Columbia, uq. v 652.1 1
741 h Year No. 270 Good Morning! It's Saturday. Jiih 31. 1982 2 Section. 12 IaM 2. Out 1
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Pulling pounds
Flag man Mike Bell watches closely as a truck strains to move Thirty- on- e trucks, some sporting 1,100 horsepower engines,
a 42,000- poun- d sled Friday at the Boone County Fairgrounds, entered the Boone County Fair contest. Most of the contes- -
Bell flags the truck when it cannot pull the sled any further, tants came from Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Kentucky.
Reagan places !
PLO resolution I
in Arab hands . J
'-- The Baltimore Sun
WASHINGTON - President Rea-gan
has impressed on the Egyptian
foreign minister the American view- tha- t
Arab states now must take ma-jor
responsibility for getting the Pal-estine
Liberation Organization out of
Lebanon and resettled in their coun-tries.
The main emphasis in the presi-dent's
45- min- ute meeting Friday
with Kamal Hassan Ali, authorita-tive
sources said, was that the PLO
is an Arab problem " and they must
find a way for them ( the fighters i to
leave and places for them to go."
In this context, U. S. government
spokesmen described as positive and
encouraging an Arab League plan
for withdrawal of both PLO and Is-raeli
forces from Beirut. The gov-ernment
fell short of an endorse-ment
in detail, instead describing
itself, in the words of State Depart-ment
spokesman Alan Romberg, as
" encouraged by the general thrust"
and seeing " constructive elements"
in the plan.
This meant, authorities said, that
the Arab League is becoming aware
that the United States is not going
much further certainly not to the
point of recognizing the PLO and
that the Arabs are conveying this to m
the PLO.
Consequently. American officials Eg
now look for hard bargaining on de-- m
tails of the P1X) evacuation of West g
Beirut bargaining that, they say. g
could take another week or 10 days. 1
In the Reagan- A- li meeting Friday. i a senior official said, it was agreed 1
that the Arab plan was a " positive
step." I
The president and the foreign min- - I
ister disagreed, however, on the I
question of when an effort must be 1
made to reach a general resolution
of the Palestinian problem. I
Ali gave Reagan the view of Egyp-- 1
tian President Hosni Mubarak that 1
there should be a package deal link-- 1
ing issues concerning Beirut. I- e-b-
1
anon and a Palestinian homeland.
Mubarak is willing for Egypt to ac- - I
cept some of the PI fighters when
and if a deal is put together to evau- - 1
cate them from West Beirut. fThe 1
other destinations are said to be Syr- -
ia. Iraq and Jordan, i But the Egyp- -
tian leader wants the United States I
to back the idea of finding the Pales--
tinians a permanent homeland.
The Americans do not believe,
however, that President Mubarak 1
will make that a condition for ac-cepting
PLO members.
Mayor pays late taxes; record shows more owed
" ZESmaa. aE2XmmsSmwi& r --. 4UE5BBHNH nance number 22.210 reads: " No person
John Westlund shall be entitled to hold any office or employ--
Says he simplyrtorgot to pay ment with the City who is in arrears for any
city obligation." That ordinance specifically
names taxes as an example of an obligation
to the city.
Though the $ 7,000 in overdue property
taxes are collected by the county tax collec-tor's
office, a portion of them are considered
obligations to the city, Evans said. Boone
County Tax Assessor Don Fenton and City
Manager Dick Gray confirmed that fact.
Of the $ 6.56 per $ 100 of assessed valuation
Columbia homeowners pay to the county, 93
cents goes to the city.
Westlund admitted he was overdue in pay-ment
of sometaxes, saying he had forgotten
about them. He said Friday's transaction
" pays for everything I own. "
Westlund claims he doesn't own several of
the delinquent properties listed under his
name at the collector's office. He said he
transferred title to others, but did not trans-fer
the deeds in order to protect those buying
the property from having to refinance.
" My name will probably be on the prop-erties
for 20 years or until they're paid off,"
Westlund said. He declined to name the new
owners.
A city official violating the ordinance in
question wouldn't automatically forfeit of-fice,
said Evans. The violator probably
would be given an opportunity to correct the
situation.
The city has no specific procedures for
dealing with violators, Evans said. " These
things come up so seldom there are no set
regulations," he said. " It is assumed that
most people, whether officials or employees,
are law- abidin- g, tax- payi- ng citizens. And
that's generally true."
Evans said Missouri State Statute 106 puts
the violation in the province of Boone County- Prosecutin-g
Attorney Joe Moseley. But
Moseley said a formal complaint would be
required to trigger investigation of possible
violations of the Columbia ordinance.. Mose-ley
said investigation of such a complaint
could have any of three outcomes :
v If investigation revealed the alleged vio-lation
did not fall under state statute 106, the
prosecutor would take no action.
v If the late paTnent was judged to put
the individual in compliance with the ordi-nance,
the prosecutor would take no action.
If the late payment did not put the indi-vidual
in compliance with the ordinance,
Moseley said: " Whether or not there is a
payment, the original omission ran afoul of
the ordinance and procedures under 106 for
removal could be intiated."
Taxes on city and county properties listed
in Westlund's name were due Dec. 31. 1981,
according to records in the collector's office!
The taxes became overdue Jan. 1, 1982.
No other member of the City Council was
listed as overdue on property taxes owed the
city.
Fifth Ward Councilman Dick Walls paid
the second largest property tax bill among
city councilmen after Westlund. Walls
paid $ 2,958.11. Third Ward Councilman Rod-ney
Smith paid $ 1,371.21 in property taxes for
1981, and records indicate Fourth Ward
Councilman Pat Barnes paid $ 1,203.88. First
Ward Councilman Al Tacker owns only one
parcel of land ; he paid $ 275.52.
Two councilmen. Duane Lammers of the
Second Ward and Matt McCormick of the
Sixth Ward, own no city or county property,
according to county records. Lammers is a
University student; McCormick was until re-cently.
The overdue taxes still owed on land listed 1
in Westlund's name will increase 9 percent
this month. According to officials at the col- - j
lector's office, overdue taxes are charged 3 !
percent for the first month of delinquency j
and 1 percent for each additional month.
The collector's office issues warnings to
people delinquent in tax payments but does i
not begin foreclose proceedings until taxes
are a year- and- a- h- alf overdue. g
- The first foreclosure notice for delinquent !
1980 taxes was published July 21. The 1980 1
taxes against some properties recorded in i Westlund's name were paid July 19, 1982.
Tax amendments
would change
rates, assessments
By Jeffrey R. Scott
Missourian staff writer
Missourians Tuesday will decide two ballot issues de-termining
how future property taxes will be levied.
One issue, Amendment 4, changes the way school
taxes are determined. The state constitution says a two- thir- ds
voter approval is needed to raise property tax
rates for schools above $ 3.75 for each $ 100 of assessed
VfllllS
Amendment 4 allows voters to approve new property
tax rates from $ 3.25 to $ 5.25 by a simple majority vote.
The amendment applies only to normal school taxes,
not special bond issues.
At the beginning of the 1931- 19- 82 school year, voters in
302 school districts had given the required two- thir- ds
i vote to raise the levy, according to Secretary of State
I James Kirkpatrick's office. But in February and April of
I ( See NO, Page 8A)
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1 5m town toslay
1 10 a. m. Australian dog show and fair parade,
g Boone County Fair, Boone County Fairgrounds.
H 2 p. m. 4-- H Dog show, Boone County
H . Fairgrounds.
H 5 pjn. Dog show, Boone County Fairgrounds.
H 5 pjn. Tractor Pull, Boone County
H Fairgrounds.
I Indies
H Business .2- 3- B
H .. Classified .2- 3- B
m Comics .......... . ... 4B
J Opinion..........-."........- " 4A S Religion 5A
$ Sports 1- 2- B I
A Theater ..................... .. ......................... 6A 9
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IT- r. v- i
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Radiations
By Greg Lopez
Missourian staff writer
A little radiation isnt such a dangerous thing, accord-ing
to a University biochemistry professor.
Thomas Luckey has concluded that hormesis, the the-ory
that any potentially harmful agent given in sub- harmf- ul
quantities can be expected to stimulate an orga-nism
in sub- optimu- m conditions, applies to ionizing ra-diation.
In plain English, that means radiation may in fact be
good for you.
For those who wouldn't know a rad if it zapped them,
Luckeyexplains.
" Arsenic used to be given in. small quantities for me-dicinal
purposes, even though it is harmful in large
doses," he says. " The same holds true with ionizing ra-diation
from X- ray- s, cosmic rays, radioactive elements
and the like. A very small amount can be beneficial in
many cases."
Luckey has data he believes prove it- - He collected and
correlated studies by other researchers in his book " Hor-mesis
with Ionizing Radiation" in 1980. And he will follow
that up with " Physiological Benefits From Low Levels of
Ionizing Radiation," which will appear ui Health Physics
Journal in December.
Pages of references at the end of each offer support for
the theory Luckey says was long- overlooke- d.
" Yes, if you get too much radiation, you're a dead
duck," Luckey admits. " It's very easy to show that too
much radiation can kill you or cause cancer. But a tenth
of that dose isnt necessarily a tenth as bad that's just
extrapolation, not science."
Most people have been exposed only to normal radia-tion
in the atmosphere, and since the radiation levels are
normal so is the reaction there is none. But there is ev-idence
that Japanese who received moderate doses dur-ing
atomic bomb blasts there tend to live longer than
those who either received none or too much, says Luck-ey.
His theory may also help explain the Paradox of Kera-la.
The people of Kerala have the least adequate diets in
all of India, yet they are reported to have the highest lit--
Too much and you're a dead duck,
but a little may help you live longer
eracy rate and the best health status in the nation.
" A partial explanation for this paradox is that radia-tion
from the unusually high radioactive thorium in
coastal and river rocks exposes many residents of Kera-la
to 10 times more terrestrial radiation than the U. S. av-erage,"
says Luckey. " DNA, which carries the messages
that govern life, has a kind of built- i- n repair mechanism
that is activated by low- lev- el radiation."
In fact, Luckey says, low- lev- el radiation may create a
condition in the body that helps ward off many types of
uifinnity.
The earth was radioactive long before anyone realized
E equals MC squared. The earliest life forms flourished
in high levels of radiation eons ago.
Recent experiments using 20 times normal radiation
have resulted in plants that grow faster, produce more
abundantly and are more tolerant to unfavorable condi-tions,
silkworms that produce more silk, monkeys that
learn faster and rodents and insects that proliferate at
accelerated rates.
It is possible for organisms to receive too little radia-tion,
says Luckey. Paramecium he raised in a lead- wall- ed
container were only about 10 percent as efficient at reproducing as their unprotected counterparts.
It's a fascinating theory but not one that has electrified
the scientific community. In fact, his book has been all
but ignored.
" It's against what the establishment likes to think,"
Luckey says. " These guys who've spent their lifetimes
working with this, they don't want to read it.' '
Nevertheless, in the July- Augu- st edition of American
Scientist John Hale, a University of Pennsylvania radiol-ogist
reviewed the book favorably. " The argument is
convincing," he says. " It ( the book) should be of interest
to people who are interested in biological efects of low- lev- el
radiation, to radiation workers, and to the general
population." With its $ 70 price, the 222- pa- ge book is
heavy with tables and charts.
Luckey expects his magazine article to attract more
attention.
" It'll be right there for everybody to see," he says. " I
expect there'll be a big hullabaloo."
1
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f- - . TV rfr hi
AdantJahM
University professor Thomas Luckey says ex-periments
show 20 times normal radiation ac-celerates
life processes. His book on radia-tion's
benefits has been reviewed favorably.
,