Columbia Missourian Newspaper 1983-01-15

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TSthYear No. 105 - Good Morning! It's Saturday, January 15, 1983 2 Sections-- 10 Payes 25 Cants
Federal agency finds
320,000 GMX- ca- rs
have faulty brakes
Mew York Ttmoa
WASHINGTON - The National
Highway Traffic Safety Administra-tion
announced Friday a prelimi-nary
finding that the brakes on 320,- 0- 00
General Motors' 1980 X- mo- del
cars are defective.
The agency scheduled a bearing
for Feb 14 on whether the cars
should be recalled and the brakes re-paired
at GM's expense.
The cars covered by the agency's
initial finding include all the front,
wheel drive vehicles with manual
transmissions manufactured by GM
for the 1980 model year and. the 120,- 0- 00
1980 X- ca- rs with automatic shifts
manufactured prior to May 1979. The
cars are sold as the Chevrolet Cita-tion,
Ponttac Phoenix, Oldsmobile
Omega and Buick Skylark.
The agency said its analysis indi-cated
the cars in question " are subs- jec- t
to failures in performance
which can result inaccidents, inju-ries,
death or property damage."
This charge was made in a letter
from Lynn L. Bradford, the agency's
associate administrator for enforce-ment,
to James McDonald, the presi-dent
of GM.
Bradford further said the evidence
indicates that a limited recall of 47,- 0- 00
X- ca- rs undertaken by GM in the
summer of 1981 " has not corrected
the condition" which may lead to
such accidents.
The official finding that the 1980 X- ca- rs
appear to have a dangerous ten-dency
to lock their rear brakes was
announced more than 2 years after
both the federal agency and the cor-poration
had begun receiving com-plaints
about the hazard and the gov-ernment
had conducted a test at its
East Liberty, Ohio, facility indicat-ing
a serious problem existed with
thecars.
The safety agency said that as of
this week it has received 3S4 com-plaints
of rear brake locking inci-dents
in 1980 X- mod- el cars, which re-portedly
resulted in more than 100
accidents, 22 iirturia&- an- d at. least
one fatality. GM has admitted that
more than 20 lawsuits are now pen-ding
against the company in regard
to the X- mod- el brakes.
GM Friday issued a brief
statement in response to the action.
" We have not yet had a chance to re-view
the data on which NHTSA
based its initial finding of defect,"
the corporation said.
Rep. Timothy E. Wirth, D- Col- o.,
the chairman of the House subcom-mittee
with tarsidiction over the
agency, said be would continue to
press ahead with an investigation by
his staff and the General Accounting
Office " to find out why today's ac-tion
was so long in coming."
The federal safety agency in-formed
GM of its renewed worry
about the X- mod- el cars in a letter
dated Dec. 17, three days after The
New York Times interviewed Ray-mond
Peck, head of the agency,
about the apparent delay in acting to
alleviate thfhazard.
Clarence Ditlow, the director of
the Center for Auto Safety, said that
" today's action is too little and too
late. It is too little for the owners of'
the hundreds of thousands of auto-matic
transmission X- ca- rs made af-ter
May of 1979 that are not being re-called.
Too late, for the. many X- c- ar
owners who have been in accidents
during the three years that NHTSA
has been sitting on this defect"
All together, GM manufactured 1,- 146,- 642
X- ca- rs during the 1980 model
year.
Ditlow added that the action an-nounced
by the federal agency Fri-day
" is just one more example of
Reagan administration appointees
trying to protect the industry at the
expense of the consumer.' '
Peck, the head of the agency, was
not available for comment
In addition to Friday's letter to
McDonald, the agency made public
a 17- pa- ge investigative report about
the brake problem found in the 1930
X- ca- rs.
The report confirmed accounts by
two anonymous officials of the agen-cy
that it had conducted a test of the
braking performance of cars in July
1961 that indicated the existence of a
general mechanical problem.
The investigators' report further
disclosed that NHTSA has conducted
an audit of a sample of the 74,000 X- c- ar
owners whose cars were subject
to the recall. Of the 506 individuals
sampled, 458 received the recall no-tices,
474 still owned the vehicles in
auestiaocnti, on373haidndibceaetnedtatkheant cboyrrect- vh- ee
dealer and 288 said they did not be-lieve
the dealer repairs had cor-rected
the problem.
Mondale rebukes Reagan
as party hopefuls gather
SACRAMENTO, Calif. ( UPI)
Former Vice President Walter Mon-dale
Friday launched a blistering at-tack
on the " deterioration" of the
Reagan administration.
At a news conference on the eve of
the opening of the Democratic State
Convention at which seven presi-dential
party hopefuls will speak,
Mondale said there are- - signs
throughout Washington the adminis-tration
is crumbling along the edges.
" The signs of disarray are every-where,"
the acknowledged Demo-cratic
frontrunner said. " Top staff
and top cabinet are leaving and top
supporters are declaring their inde-pendence."
Mondale said the root of the prob-lem
is weak leadership by Reagan.
Reagan Friday denied his admin-istration
is unraveling, telling re-porters
at an informal news confer-ence
that, " the disarray is in those
stories going around because they
are net based in fact "
Mondale said Reagan must meet
with the new Soviet leadership " to
- faring some sense to arms control.
We see the arms control policy of
this administration almost collapse
before our eyes."
Sen. Alan Cranston, D- Cal- if., the
only other contender to arrive early
for the convention, also keyed his re-marks
on arms control. He termed
nuclear peace " the paramount issue
of our times."
Mondale, Cranston, Sens. Gary
Hart of Colorado, Dale Bumpers of
Arkansas, Ernest Hollings of South
Carolina, John Glenn of Ohio and
Rep. Morris Udall of Arizona all
were slated to address the conven-tion
today.
As the more than 2,000 delegates
and alternates began gathering for
the convention, . there was a sharp
split among state party leaders over
whether to hold a straw ballot on the
convention floor to sample the dele-gates'
presidential preferences.
Cranston aides predict be would
win such a poll in his home state,
and that Mondale would finish sec-ond.
Cranston hopes to make a strong
showing in his home state as part of
a campaign strategy designed to
move him out of the pack.
1TElflS7
6 jiu to 7 pjn. Cosmopoli-tan
Club Pancake and Sausage
Day, Flaming Pit Banquet Cen-ter,
Parkade Plaza, $ 2.25. -
6 pjn. Candlelight march in
memory of Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr., starts at J. W. " Blind".
Boone Community Center. Cer-emony
follows at Second Meth--
odist Church.
8 pjn. Missouri- - women's
basketball vs. Kansas, Heames
Center. . .
6 pjn. Hickman High School
women's basketball at Rock
Bridge.
6 p- r- o. Missouri men's bas-ketball
vs. Dayton, Heame3
Center.
8 p-- m. " Father Rafferty's
Confession," original play. Un-iversity
Theater, Fine Arts Build- -
IIm' pjn. King - Memorial
Dance sponsored by the Black
Panhellenlc Council, Memorial
Union ballroom.
'
1
Noise from protesters at a London, Ohio, farm auction forced officials to display bids on signs.
Lost foreclosure battle
iust the start of a war
LONDON, Ohio ( UPI) - Doug
Dailey lost the battle to save his
family farm from auction Friday,
but his supporters said the fight
against foreclosures in a time of
economic trouble is just getting
started.
" This is a sad day for agricul-ture,"
said Virgil Thompson, presi-dent
of the Ohio- Farme- rs Union:
" Something has got to be done to
save family farms."
Dailey stood with his wife, Pame-la,
at the bottom of the Madison
County Courthouse steps as his 191
acres were sold at public auction.
His financial woes have become a
rallying point for central Ohio
farmers who say they are being un-fairly
forced out of business.
An- - official of the Federal Land
I Bank in Louisville, Ky., which held
the first lien against Dailey's prop-erty,
bid $ 225,000 and bought the
property.
Dailey became mired in debt the
past few years because of bad
weather, high interest rates and
low crop prices. The FLB and its
local agency, the Production Credit
Association, sought foreclosure
when he failed to make payments
on his $ 419,602 debt
The Daileys were surrounded by
an estimated 700 farmers, curious
onlookers and reporters during the
auction. About ISO of the farmers
surged toward the steps of the centu-ry-
old building and chanted, " No
sale, no sale," lb an'atiempr"'
drown out the proceedings.
Dailey and his wife joined in t
chants and later urged the crowd
continue the fight against farm
foreclosures.
" The PCA can take me on. They
can take you on. But they can't
take us all on," he said.
The crowd chanted throughout
the 21 minutes it took Sheriff Ste-phen
V. Saltsman to read the de-scription
of the property. It erupted
into a chorus of boos when the bid
figure, and then the word " sold,"
was written on the board by a sher-iff's
deputy.
Doug Dailey, left, bows his head as his farm is sold. Dailey's
wife, Pam, and mother- in- la- w, Grace Wheeler, are at right.
" Our only concern was outside
troublemakers," Saltsman said.
" We know these people and they're
good people. We sympathize with
the situation they're in."
The farmers union and the Fami-ly
Farm Movement helped orga
nize the rally and a tractorcade
last week from Dailey's farm to
London to protest the foreclosure.
The farmers are pressing the
state legislature to pass a law re-quiring
a moratorium on all farm
foreclosures.
Council expected to appoint associate city judges
By Ted Griggs
Mlaaourian staff writer
The City Council Monday night
will vote on resolutions appointing
Howard Lang, chairman of the
board of Shelter Insurance Cos., and
Robert Bailey, University School of
Law academic counselor and place-ment
director, as associate munici-pal
judges.
Lang, 70, and Bailey, 35, have been
nominated to replace associate
judges Harry Boul, Betty Wilson and
Darwin Hindman Jr., who resigned
last October when their private law
practices came into conflict with
city duties.
Municipal Court Judge Nanette
Laughrey has been working without
substitute judges since then. The
Municipal Court hears cases involv
ing violations of city ordinances.
" It's unreasonable to think that
she will always be able to be there,"
Lang said Friday of Judge Laugh-rey.
Bailey said he expects to put in
few hours as a substitute judge:
" Simply when Nanette is unable to
act as judge because she's out of
town or has a conflict of interest "
At the Monday session, the council
also will conduct a public hearing on
proposed street construction on
Green Meadows Road and set hear-ing
dates for additional street con-struction
projects on Waco Road,
West Boulevard South and William
Street
The proposed street construction
projects, which would cost about $ 1
million, are part of Columbia's
three- yea- r, $ 7.6 million, street- i- m
provement program.
The William Street project would
be financed through taxes on adja-cent
property, as well as city and
Community Development Block
Grant funds. Funds for the other
projects would come from a street- and- brid- ge
bond issue approved by
voters Nov. 2 and from taxes against
adjacent property.
Roadways slated for im-provements
and estimated costs are :
Green Meadows from Provi-dence
Road to Bethel Street,
$ 329,600.
Waco Road from Route B to
Brown's Station Road, $ 185,000.
Williams Street from Windsor
Street to 200 feet north of Broadway,
$ 67,000.
v West Boulevard South from
Fairview Road to Scott Boulevard,
$ 516,000.
Also on the agenda is a proposed
ordinance calling for installation of
stop signs at Blue Ridge Road and
Skyland Drive, where neighborhood
residents say signs are needed to
slow traffic.
The city staff will advise the coun-cil
against installing the signs.
In other action the council will :
f Consider an amendment that
would eliminate annual activity fees
for groups using recreation centers
on an unscheduled basis and re-imbursement
to anyone who has
paid such fees since they were insti-tuted
following approval by voters in
the Nov. 2 election.
Consider of a resolution author-izing
awards to developers for excel-lence
in planning and development
projects in Columbia.
Stricter social service hiring may protect kids at risk
By Judith V. Utehock
Mlsfiourton ataff writer
Another child is dead.
Three- month- o- ld Daniel Macklin
was killed by his father last week be-cause
he wouldn't stop crying. His
motherwasoiitcirinkingatthetime.
Relatives say Daniel's mother had
been supervised by the child abuse
and neglect unit of the state's Divi-sion
of Family Services for about
five years. But the last time one of
its social workers visited the home
was about three months ago.
To help reduce incidents of neg-ligence
and infant deaths from
abase, Rep. Patrick Dougherty, D--.
St Louis, wants to establish formal
standards for workers hired to su-pervise
troubled families with young
children.
Dougherty has submitted -- House
Bui 70, which would require those
performing social work duties to be
licensed. The law would apply to so- -
' DGgDGOtu'
rial service providers assigned to
work with the elderly, the mentally
unstable and multi- proble- m fami-lies.
Most of Missouri's child care and
protective service workers those
who supervise families like the
Macklins, where the parents have
been known either to hurt or neglect
their children are untrained, says
Dougherty. They have advanced to
social service posts after working
for a year as clerk- typis- ts or income
maintenance workers, giving out
welfare checks and food stamps, he
says.
" They may be well- meani- ng but
are often ill- informe- d," adds Nancy
Jo Melise, president of the Missouri
chapter of the National Association
of Social Workers and chairwoman
of the Coalition for Social Work Li- -
i
censure. " They end up doing lots of
damage to the public, and social
workers get blamed."
Keith Schafer, deputy director of
the state's Department of Social
Services, says the department's per-sonnel
division agrees standards
need to be upgraded. But, he points
out, tight budgets often have pro-duced
salaries that make it impossi-ble
to attract highly skilled workers.
Dougherty's concern stems from
personal observation when he was
employed for four years as an un-trained
caseworker for the Family
Services Division in St. Louis. His
plan calls for minimum education
and training requirements and li-cense
renewal every two years.
Ms. Melise says the bill would al-low
licensing based on professional
experience of applicants without a
degree.
" To be grandfathered in as li-censed
social workers," she said,
" their application would have to be
filed within a year after the bill's ap-proval.
The examining board would
then determine whether the appli-cants
meet standards for licensing."
Although social workers have sub-mitted
similar bills to the legislature
several times in the past 10 years,
these proposals have been overshad-owed
by more pressing legislative
concerns, Ms. Melise said.
But in the wake of a recent public
outcry against the mismanagement
of child abuse cases and continuing
criticism by the St. Louis Post- Dispat- ch
of weaknesses in the state's
social services system, social work-ers
are banking on enthusiasm for
child welfare legislation proposed by
Gov. Christopher Bond to propel it
through the legislature.
Bond has recommended a $ 1.2 mil-lion
allocation for his 1934 Children's
Initiative, which is designed to cre-ate
an internal- incentiv- e system to
attract trained social workers into
the family services division and
.1
keep them there while they receive
additional training.
David Dempsey, executive direc-tor
of the NASWs Missouri chapter,
said he believes the only opposition
to Dougherty's bill will come from
legislators who don't understand the
bill or generally oppose restrictions
on hiring in any field.
Rep. Chris Kelly, D- Colum-bia,
is a
member of the Licensing and Re-lated
Matters Committee, before
which the measure will be aired in
February. Though initially reluctant
to support the proposal, Kelly says
he changed his mind after confer-ring
with coalition members.
" I come from a community action
- tradition, which was sometimes al-lied
with and sometimes opposed so-cial
workers," he says. " I know
many effective community organis-ers
who never went to school, and I
just wanted to be sure the bill wasn't
trying to keep unlicensed people
out"
r