PAGE 10, THE HERALD, Tuesday. April 25, 1978

9 year old assaulted,
NBC sued for damages

WASHINGTON (AP) —
The U.S. Supreme Court
¢leared the way today for
a trial seeking $11 million
in damages from NBC
anda San Francisco tele-
yision station for a nine-
yearold girl sexually
assaulted four days after
a network movie por-’
trayed a similar crime.

The justices refused to
hear an appeal by the
network and station
KRON-TV that contended
such lawsuits should be
barred by the Con-
stitution’s free-speeck
and iree-press
Safeguards,

. A state court trial in
San Francisco with
momentous potential
impact for the future of
Us television now will

_ 'be scheduled.

At issue in the appeal,
turned down without
comment by the court
today, was whether
broadcasters may be
sued on charges that they
were negligent oF
reckless in portraying
violence which might be

imitated in real life.

Only Justice William
Brennan voted to review
the case.

On Sept. 10, 1974, NBC
televised the fictional
drama Born Innocent.
The two-hour movie was
broadcast in the San
Francisco area by
KRON-TV, 4 __ station
owned by the Chronicle
Publishing Co. :

The movie dealt with
the life of an unwanted
child, a teenaged girl. In
one segment, the girl was
assaulted by other fe-
males in a reformatory
and raped with a blunt
instrument.

Four days later, a nine-
yearold San Francisca
girl was attacked by four
older girls on a local
beach and = sexually
abused with a bottle. NBC
and KRON subsequently
were named as defen-
dants in a civil suit seek-
ing $1 million in com-

nsatory damages and
B10. million in punitive
damages for the young
pir.

APB on hot dogs

WALNUT CREEK,
Calif, (AP) — Police are
looking for the kill-joy

’ who walked off with a six-

foot foam-rubber hot-dog
costume being used to
romote the Oriental Hot
og Place. ;

“Be on the lookout for a

stolen hot dog, six to
seven feet ,” patrol
car radios blared.
: Bernie Rowitch, co-
owner of the Oriental Hot
Dog Place, said a young
woman hired to wear the
costume and beckon
customers inside took it
off and left it on a bench
outside when she came in
for a drink Saturday
afternoon.

“She went back a

couple of minutes later
and the wiener was
gone,” be said.
: Rowitch is offering a
reward for information
leading to the safe return
of the pilfered frank: all
the hot dogs a person can
eat in a week.

: CARSON CITY, Nev.
(AP) — Steve Strickland
is trying to sell a truck he
says is a “lemon.” His
sales pitch is: ‘“‘Why
settle for anything less
than the worst?"

_ The truck has lemons
and a list of 46 alleged
flaws painted on it.

Strickland plans to put
the truck up for gale in
front of the dealership
that sells the vehicle,

’ He tried the same thing
a couple of years ago an
the dealer sued. A judge
first ruled in favor of the
dealer. But the decision

was reversed by the state

. Supreme Court in 1976 on

a technicality: the dealer
had not posted the
necessary security
bonds.

LAKELAND, | - Fla.
(AP) — Peanut gelatin
and peanut pie? The twa
recipes are but a-few of
the creations that school
cooks dreamed up to
work off a stock of
peanuts provided by the
U.S. agriculture depart-
ment.

Polk County school -

officials found 517 cases—
or 20,760 pounds—of
nuts left over from
last year’s federal sur-
plus-food program.

Initial attempts to
reduce the surplus’ by
dishing the peanuts out in
small paper cups found-
ered when teachers.

watched in horror as the :

nuts became flying
missiles in lunchroom
ttles.

“Principals say,

‘Please don’t serve those:

‘peanut cups,” said Helen
Walker, county food serv-
‘ice director. ““But we've
got the peanuts, and
we've got to use them
up. . ;

So the school cooks
pushed their imagination,
serving up peanut cake
and crushing the nuts into
gelatin. The cooks even

tried something they.

named ‘Waldorf salad.a

‘ la peanut.”

“Peanut ple is just like
pecan pie,” Mrs. Walker
said. “Oh, it's delicious.”’

‘Russians refuse
to limit arms

LONDON (AP) — US.
State Secretary Cyrus
Vance’s talks in Moscow
may have eased Soviet
opposition to the United
States telling its NATO
allies how to build the
Cruise missile, but the
Russians refused to agree
tolimits on their Backfire
bomber.

Both were key
bargaining issues in
Vanee’s three days of
talks with Soviet Foreign
Minister Andrei
Gromkyo on ai new
strategic arms-limitation
treaty (SALT).

Vance told reporters as
he left Moscow for
London Sunday: ‘There
was some progress
during these meetings
towar a SALT
agreement and we hope
to carry these efforts

forward in subsequent -

meetings.’*’ The next
round is likely late in May
when Gromyko visits the
United States for a UN
debate on disarmament.
_ U.S. officials with
Vance hinted that the
Russians eased their
opposition to U.S. sharing
a Cruis missile
technology with the other
members of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organ-
ization. The missile is a
small, pllotless, long:
range drone that could be
launched from bombers
out of range of Soviet
antiaircraft defences and
would fly at low altitudes
beneath Soviet radar

beams.

U.S. Defence Secretary
Harold Brown has said no
new arms pact will be
signed without provisions
for sharing the missile
technology with the other
NATO members.

But the U.S. officials
said there was no
relaxation in Russian
refusal to put limits on
production and
deployment of their new
Backfire bomber, a long-
range plane which can
make low-level attacks at
supersonic speeds. Most
analysts say a pact
without such restrictions
might not get through the
USS. Senate.

e
6 killed
e

in fire

BURTON, Mich. (AP)
— Two sisters and their
four children were killed
Sunday when an early-
morning fire destroyed a
home. Two men survived,
Burten Fire Chief Elmer
Craft said the children
died of heat and smoke
Anhalation and their
mothers were burned to
death. Craft Identified the
vietims as Susan Choate,
24, and her sons Richard
3, and William, 2, and
Alice Basinski, 20, and
her daughters Katrina, 4,
and Sabrina, 2. Police
said Mrs. Basinski, who
lived in a mobile home
nearby, had been visiting
her sister,

“RULING OVER- -
TURNED . :
A state trial judge

dismissed the suit, ruling
that the broadcasters
could not be held re-
onsible in -the young
girl’s attack. A state
appeals court, however,
overturned — the judges
ruling and ordered him to
hold a jury trial on the
charges. ‘
After the California
Supreme Court refused to
review the case, the
network and KRON
appealed to the highest
court in the U.S. '

The Born Innocent’
episode, however,

ready has made
television history. Out of
the storm of protest about
the movie’s depiction of
violence and its airing at
an early-evening hour-
when many young per-
sons were sure to be in
the, viewing audience,
television's family hour
came into being.

Broadcasters . cannot
legally be held respon-
gible for the acts of

‘others, lawyers for NBC

and KRON told the
Supreme Court.

. If they could be,
“telecasting serious
drama delviiig into the
darker side of life
becomes far less at-
tractive to those con-
templating its potential
costs.”

“H fietion based on
reality may, if allegedly
imitated, provide a basis
for liability, it can be
argued thal there is little
to prevent the courts
from basing liability on
imitation of reality itself;
on imitatiori of events de-
picted as part of media
coverage of the news,”
the appeal said.

Lawyers for the girl
urged the court to allow
the trial. ‘‘We do not seek
to impose any prior
‘restraint on the media.
We merely seek damages
for a negligent and
reckless act that has
already occurred by the
improper time, place and
method of telecasting the
production,” they said.

The four girls arrested
in the San Francisco sex
attack told police they got
the idea for their crime
from watching Born
Innocent.
ranging in age from 10 to
15, were charged Po
juvenile proceedings for
which all records were
sealed. They are reported
to be on. probation.

The girls, -

,

. Downed plane
not warned.

SEOUL (AP) — Most of
the passengers and crew
members of a Korean Air
Lines (KAL) jet shot
down over the Soviet
Aretic completed their
trip to Japan and Korea
today. The United States,
acting. on behalf of South
Korea, pressed the
Ruasians for information
about the pilot and
navigator they detained.

The downed airliner’s
co-pilot gaid the crew
received no warning from
a MiG interceptor that
fired’ into it early
Thursday morning,
i two passengers,
wounding 10 and putting a
grapefruit-size hole in the
plane's fuselage. But

resident Park Chung-
hee thanked the Soviet
government for releasing
the passengers. and 11
crew members and asked
it to free the other two
crew members'as a
humanitarian _ gesture.

A Pan American plane -
took the 9% surviving th

passengers and 11 of the

13 crew members from

Murmansk to Helsinki,
Finland,
Three of the passengers
chose. to remain in
Europe, and'a KAL plane
brought the rest—most of

Death

‘ sentence

WASHINGTON (AP) —
The U.S. Supreme Court
upheld today the 1975
murder conviction of a
Jacksonville, Fla., auto
mechanic sentenced to

‘die in the electric chair.

The justices refused to
review Richard Henry
Gibson’s appeal that he
was denied a fair trial
and the proper review by
state courts. z,

Gibson’s execution was
postponed last .Dec. .12
pen ing the outcome of

a

State officials now are
free to impose’ a‘ new
execution date.

Gibson was convicted
for his part in a robbery
during which a Brazilian
merchant seamen was
shot and killed and his
companion. was shot and
left for dead. 0

He was sentenced to
death by a 7-to-5 jury
vote.

Gibson, who alleged
throughout ‘his trial that
he was at work in an auto
garage when the crime
took place, lost his appeal
before the Florida Su-
preme Court last July.

on Sunday.:

Spring, 1963, was a coal one.

was apprehensive about the success of lettuce | had seeded on
April 27. Shortly after germination, a steady onslaught of

| The Northern
Gardener

l remember it well because |

frosty nights chilled the young seadlings with as much as 10
degrees of frost, on and off for a two to threa week period.
But they never “batted an eye”, if you know what | mean,
_and developed, Into good solld heads before the end of July.
As | write this, April 30, the whitening of an overnight frost
ls fast belng dissipated by bright sunshine. That.frost won‘t
have harmed the lettuce | gat In a week ago, because they‘re
notup yet. That April 23rd seeding was a bit early, but worth

a gamble for an early crop.

Anyway, ff It doesn’? come

through, the crop I'll be seeding today probably will. In
gardening you have to. be prepsred to win same and lose

some!

I suppose it (s the dallcate emerald filagree, that Is a let-

tuce leaf, that cons many into thinking of lettuce as a fragile
plant, but perhaps what | have just related will change a few
minds. For certain, if you've got ground that is workable
now it's not too early to seed lettuce. The young plants can
take the frost that will normally touch them over the next few
weeks. Furthermore, they'll germinate at current low soll

temperatures. ,

Ground that is dry enough to work now, more than Ilkely
has a soll with very good drainage and suth a soil may well
become droughty as the season progresses. That means that
while there will be sufficient soll molsture for seed ger-
mination, by the time seedtings are knee-high fo a bee, they'll
be gasping for water. The only exception will be a much or
peat type soll,-which has the facility to dry early on the
surtace, but retain lots of moisture underneath, by.nature of
thelr spange-Ilke quality. Such a soll, incldently, is ideal for

lettuce,

‘That's a facet of the lettuce plants’ needs for which It could

be legitimately called fragile - It needs lots of melsture, and if ~

you're golng to put It Into one of the early-drying soils, such
aS a sand, you'll Just have to supply some extra water, An
ideal sources a soaker type hose, which will allow the water
to continually seepjvery siawly, beside the plant roots. | Ike
ihe canvas ones, because they don’t sprinkle the foliage.

Constantly wetted follage induces leaf rot and all sorts of

disease problems,

Compliments

UPLAND NURSERY
Kalum Lake Drive ©
635-2603 —

them Japanese or
Korean—viq Anchorage
to jubilant and tearful
welcomes in Tokyo and
Seoul today. .
BODIES ON BOARD

Also aboard were the
bodies of the two dead
passengers, one a Korean
and the other a Japanese.
Among those waiting at
the Tokyo airport was
Ritsuko Sugano, the 55-
year-old mother of the
dead Japanese, who said
to reporters:

“How could they shoot
our innocent and
unguarded son? I cannot
sleep when I think about
his last moment in the
plane.”

Premier Choi Kyu-hah
led the welcomers at the

’ Seoul airport.

Capt. Kim Chang-kyu
and navigator Lee Kun-
-shik were prevented from
leavingMurmansk ,
despite efforts by U.S.
an Japanese —
representatives to gel
em released,
Diplomats in Moscow
said the U.S. embassy
asked the Soviet foreign
ministry for information
about them today, and
the U.S, state department
made the same request of
the Soviet embassy in
Washington.

- The United States acted
on behalf of the South
Korean government
because South Korea
does not have diplomatic
relations with the Soviet
Union.

WILL KEEP PLANE

The Russians also held
on to the airliner’s flight
recorder, and the $15-
million Boeing 707 was
still on the remote frozen
lake in northwest Russia
where it crash-landed.
KAL President -Cho

. Choong-hoon said the air-

line will not try to get the
pete eh
SETTLE TH s

An overload of suds in

the sink settles with a
sprinkle of salt.

CANUCK
TRUCK

derstand the proceedings

Supreme Court Justice

~ Son of Sam fit
to stand trial

_ NEW YORK (AP) —'A-

judge ruled today that
avid Berkowilz is
mentally fit to stand trial
for the murder of Stacy
Moskowitz, the last of six —
homicide victims of the ~
Son of Sam.

“The court finds that.
the le have ©
established by a fair
preponderance of the evi-

nce that the defendent
does not, as a result of
mental disease or defect,
lack capacity to Un-

ainst him or to assist in
is) defence," Brooklyn,

Joseph Corso said in a
six-page memorandum of ©
law. .

' The might nat
lead to a trial, however,
since eee les teuity.

wan ea y.
rlead fr not_guilty’ by
ea not gully by
reason of insanity, but
since he has been ruled
competent, Berkowitz is
free to make his own.
choice, providing the
judge finds the plea
legally acceptable.
Corso, who earlier this
month held four days of
closed hearings on the
competency of the 24-
year-old postal clerk
from Yonkers, set May 8
for either the start of
rings jury selection
or jury selection
should the defence waive

the hearings.

“Defendant is able to
discuss the case with his
counsel and has never
refused todo so. No claim
is made that he has not
done so,” Corso wrote.
IS BEST COURSE, ~

“Indecision or
vacillation as to the best
legal course for him to -

ue does not render

incompetent to stand
trial. Rather, it is in-—
dicative of understanding
of his predicament.

“Nor does failure to
adopt any proposed
course of action ad-

vocated by counsel in-
dicate unfitness. The law
does not require him to
adopt the advice of his
counsel or others,” said
the judge. - ;

Berkowitz is accused of

‘illing six persons and —

wounding seven others
during a 12-month series
of shootings in Brooklyn,
the Bronx and Queens.

wishes to
ANHOUNCE

a change of ownership

‘ DOUG CLARKE

The New Owner is Doug Clarke a
relatively newcomer fo Terrace.

Doug feels that good service is the
single most vital factor in the success
of his new business. Watch for more

| news on exciting changes soon to

take place.

B 4550A LAKELSE

A GANADIAN COMPANY

635-2779

RENTAL ©

Crew Cabs, % Tons,

% Tons, Suburbans,

| Jimmies, Conventional
and 4x4’s,

For rental information.

Jim McEwan]

‘ Terrace, B.C.

_ contact Terrace Agent:

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