The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 59, No. 159, Ed. 1 Tuesday, May 5, 1981 Page: 4 of 25
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EDITORIAL PAGE
• Features
• Letters
• Cartoons
THE HO fill> KIM
m.* s. mi
iood, Bad News
On The Oil Front
One counto appears to be drawing close to Rs
goal of controlling the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries *£ * .
That ’s bad news
Not necessarily, because the country is Saudi
Arabia, the most Western-oriented of the 15-
member cartel’s major producers and the*one
with the closest political ties to the United States
To hear Sheik Ahmad Zaki Yamani. the
analgesicaiiy reassuring Saudi oU minister, tell
It, the current surplus of oil on the world market
that is undercutting the prices of the higher
rollers among the producers is a Saudi plot It is
the product of sustained overproduction from
Saudi fields for the deliberate purpose of causing
enough distress to lower their prices to levels
favored by the Saudis
The expectation is that having proved their
ability single-handedly to determine whether the
world oil market Is tight or soft, the Saudis will
bf in a position to persuade their partners at the
May 25 OPEC ministers' meeting to go along
with a unified price structure. What the Saudis
want is agreement among all producers on a
basic price determined by world inflation rates
and the economic health of OPEC's major In-
dustrial customers If the other 12 go along, the
Saudis will cut back their production - currently
at 10.3 million barrels a day. more than a third of
the OPEC total — with the consequent prospect
of a swift firming of the market
I TfcLL You, WE. AREN’r ClA
A6ENT&! All- THE ClA A6EnT§
arc back in the &taTe&
0PENIN6 OUR MAIL.
Washington Report ■ •
That’s good news
Well, not necessarily While the 132 a barrel
the Sudis are currently charging is certainly
preferable for Western buyers to the $40 Libya
and Algeria have been holding out for, the Saudis
are not acting out of altruism Their interests are
several — all self-centered.*
Mafia Drug Traffickers
Prosper As Users Probed
They need the assurance of a steady return on
their oil resources to finance an ambitious long
term economic development program that is ap-
proaching the current pressuring of the United
States for super-sophisticated air-combat equip-
ment is only beginning to realize And above all
they do not want either to milk Western
economies to the point that thej^ are plunged into
depression, limiting ability to buy oil, or to
pressure them into even swifter retreat from
energy dependence upon oil.
That retreat is already under way. It is
noticeable in a worldwide decline in consump-
tion, encouraged in part by recession symptoms
in Europe, but most of all in the United States,
which alone bums up a third of the non-
Communist world’s oil. U.S. imports in March,
according to the reckoning of the American
Petroleum Institute, were down 18.1 percent
from the previous year. Domestically, gasoline
consumption had declined 5.8percent
Carried too far, the exporting positions of the
oil producers could be determined to tl
------------to the point
that the oil cartel would collapse.
Now that would be really good news
Don’t count on it. A collapse of the cartel would
mean the abrupt end of even the erratic pricing
relationships of the last few years. The weaker
members could be expected to dump their output
on (he market for whatever price It would bring,
sharply lowering import costs for the consuming
natjons but also likely catching many of them -
the:United States most prominently — with ex-
pensive and suddenly overpriced alternative fuel
projects in progress.
Which bring us back to the Saudis, for better or
worse in the best position to influence
developments in oil politics and the producer
with which the United States will be most in-
timately involved economically and politically
as long as oil remains a primary energy source.
take that as either good or bad news, but it’s
certainly the truth.
By JACK ANDERSON
WASHINGTON - A
House committee has been
seeking information — and
headlines - by in-
vestigating drug use by
Hollywood celebrities The
congressmen might better
spewUheir efforts looking
into the huge influx of
heroin that the Mafia Is
’ pouring Into the East Coast
Until recently, the Mob,
had kept a low prof lie. after*
the disruption caused by
the notorious French Con-
nection” and the non-Mafia
competition from Asia But
now the situation has
changed - back to the old
Sicilian route for importa-
tion of hard drugs into the
, United States. The dope Is
tunneled from Southwest
Asia into this country by
way of Sicily
“in the early 1970s, we
didn't see the broad-based
involvement of all the
(Mafia) families," the
FBI’s organized-crime
boss, Sean McWeeney, told *
my associate Tony Capac-
ario. "Now they're Into it up
tothetr ears,"he said.
According to a secret
Drug Enforcement Ad-
ministration report, ail five
Mafia crime families In the
New York area are involv-
ed in the heroin traffic that
used to be the almost ex-
clusive province of the Vito
Genovese and Thomas Luc-
chese families. •’
“U.S. buyers of heroin
are predominantly Italian-
Americans in the New York
City area who in turn supp-
ly various distribution net-
works along the East
Coast,” states the DEA
report. Two of four Sicilian
groups identified by DEA
and Justice Department in-
telligence operations - the
Badalamenti and Scaduto
factions — are connected
by marriage to several New
York crime families.
, ween Sicily and the U S are
some of the same in-
dividuals who were involv-
ed in the heroin traffic of
the 1960s and early 1970s ”
More than SO kilograms
of heroin have been seized
at Kennedy International
Airport in New Yorfcateee
December 1977 This
heroin was under the con
trot of United States and
Italian organized crime
figures.” the DEA report
states
One of those arrested last
year in connection with
three heroin-conversion
laboratories in Milan and
San Remo. Italy, was Jean
Jehan He is familiar to
American movie and televi-
sion audiences as the
"Silver Fox" who escaped
when the French Connec-
tion was broken
The resurgence of Mafia
control over the drug trade
is a result quite simply of
the enormous profit involv-
ed. The Mob has been able
.to recoup after the im-
prisonment of many
Mafiosi for dope trafficking
hi the mid-1970s. The family
ties between Sicily and the
United States were crucial
in re-establishing the drug
trade and regaining control
from freelancers.
SATURDAY'NIGHT Dead:
In the aftermath of the<
assassination attempt on
President Reagan,, at least
10 bills have been introduc-
ed in Congress to plug tjy;
loophole in the 1968 Han-
dgun Control. Act that
allows unfettered importa-
tion of pistol parts for
assembly in this country as
Saturday Night Specials.
The gun used to shoot the
president is a classic exam-
ple of how the loophole has
been abused to provide
cheap handguns whose only
conceivable function is to
kill or maim human beings.
it was assembled from
imported parts by R.G In-
dustries of Miami This
company, along with three
other gun makers, im-
ported more than half of the
$4 million worth of handgun
parts imported during the
- first half of 1979 And the
company’s own figures
make it clear that the bulk
of its production has been
cheap 22-caliber revolvers.
Between June 1976 and
June 1977, for example,
R.G. Industries produced
68.000 Saturday Night
Specials and only about
5.000 other pistols In the
first three months of 1979,
R.G assembled 27,143 .22
caliber revolvers. The com-
pany's total production of
revolvers was 37,445 during
that three-month period.
Traffic In Saturday Night
Specials was booming. For
the first three months of
last year, R.G.'s production
for 22-caliber handguns
totaled 37,333 - almost a 40
percent Increase
Incredibly,- -the govern-
ment encouraged the pro-
duction of cheap handguns
a few years ago when it
quietly lowered the tariff on
imported gun parts.
Watch On Waste: Two
years ago, the Equal
Employment Opportunity
Commission had a bright
Idea: to cut costs, training
sessions for regional offices
were to be put on tape
cassettes, instead of being
delivered In person by ex-
perts from Washington.
The commission invested
$350,000 in audio-visual
equipment for the boon-
docks. But inspectors
discovered recently that
much of the expensive
equipment was still sitting
in Its original crates. It
seems the cassettes have
yet to be delivered. A com-
mission official said they
would arrive soon.
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THE BIGGEST bust involv-
ing organized crime was
the seizure of 40.6
kilograms of heroin in
Milan, Italy, on March 31,
1980. The shipment, which
had a street value of $10
million, was on its way to
the United States. Among
those arrested on this side
of the ocean were two
cousins of the late crime
boss Carlo Ganibino and
reputed Mob figure
EmanueleAdamita.
The Sicilians provide the
processing expertise for the
Southwest Asian opium;
their crime brothers in this
country take care of
Berry's World
distribution As the secret
DEAr
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-■
EA report notes, “Several
organized crime members
trafficking in heroin bet-
“Do you think Tip O'Neill might go lor THIS
angle?"
The U.S. And You •• .
Students Facing Rough
Time During Loan Crisis
By WILLIAM STEIF
NEA SUff Writer
Peggy. 22. graduated
from Carieton College In
Minnesota Iasi June with
grades dose to straight A
She got t Job as a resear
cher tn a big Chicago law
firm and earns what used to
be catted "pretty good
money,** But she wants to
go to graduate school and
already has been accepted
at an excellent one for next
ment spent $2.5 billion on
RROGa. In the current
fiscal year. BEOG* are
hud feted at $ t 85 billion
thukjPEOGs The Reagan
administration wants to
I hope she's saving her
nkkles. dimes and pennies
Reason Next fall ia going,
to be rough, financially, for
the nation's U.S million col-
lege students
The most costly unlver
sttles (Harvard. Stanford,
etc i already have broken
the $l0.000-a-year barrier
The College Scholarship
Service estimates the
average public four year
college costs $3,400 a year,
which includes tuition,
room, board, books
transportation Inflation is
racing ahead at 11$ per-
cent a year. And now the
Reagan administration, to
balance the federal budget
and fight Inflation, is
slashing federal funds for
higher education -
I'm not arguing whXher
the Reagan cuts are good or
bad policy But you ought to
have some idea of what the
situation is:
- Th* biggest federal
free-money program is
BEOGs — Basic Education
Opportunity Grants (also
known as Pell Grants, in
honor of Sen Claiborne
Pell, D-R.ET- supposed to
help students from low and
middle-income families. In
fiscal 1980, which ended
Sept. 30, Congress ap-
propriated. and the govern-
UNLE8B AN BMlmated
two mltlton is appropriated
tn MppfcaBental legislation
soon, MOGs wUI be cut
$400-mo per student next
faU. with maximum grants
dropping from $1000 to
flJOO Further cuts propos-
ed by the Reagan ad-
ministration would limit
the grants to students from
familial with Incomes
below $25,000 a year,
possibly lower
- The National Direct
Student Loan Program
<low-lntorat loans) spent
$286 mUUon tn fiscal 1980
This year NDSL Is limited
to $186 million, which
means 100.000 students
won't get loans next fall,
Tito Reagan administration
wants to phase out NDSL
completely . *
• Guaranteed Student
Loans cost the Treasury
$l *7 billion tn fiscal 1980 and
took like they'll cost $2 5
billion in the current year.
Two years ago Congress
made It possible for a stu-
dent to get a maximum of
$2,500 a year in GSLs at an
interest rate that's now 9
percent. The Reagan ad-
ministration, like the outgo-
ing Carter administration,
wants to raise the interest
rato according to a formula
pegged to treasury rates,
which means GSLs would
cost 18 to 19 percent in-
terest. Other changes
would limit GSLs further
— About 700,000 students
get $2 billion a year in aid
under a Social Security pro-
gram for children of
deceased, disabled and
retired parents. The
benefits are more generous
eliminate this program
completely
Spme Impacts of these
proposals (if they become
— Under-funding BEOGs
would hit especially hard tn
public four-year colleges of
about 25 states, ell north of
Virginia and west through
Nebraska, plus such other
states as Colorado. Oregon.
Georgia. South Carolina.
South Dakota Low income
white, black and Hispanic
students vfauld be hurt. So
would "Independent’’’
students wonkimptiielr way
Ihrough college.
TIGHTENING UP GSLs
would find that $7,500 bor-
rowed for three years
would cost $13,000 in prio
clpal and Interest Instead of
$11,000
A student from a $20,000-
a-year family exemplifies
the squeeze, if he plans to
go to a $3,400-a year college
In September. He may get a
$500 BEOG; he’d be ex-
pected to earn and save
about $400 a year; his fami-
ly would be expected to
cough up $900 That’s
$1,800, leaving him $1,600
short
In the past, such a stu-
dent might have depended
on a mix of work-study jobs
and some state student aid
or loan*! "These are being
tightened, too.
Conclusion: Many
students may have to get
part-time jobs, may have to
drop out for a while, or may
decide to transfer to much
cheaper hometown com-
munity colleges next fall.
The message is: Don’t de-
pend on Uncle Sam. I hope
Peggy's listening.
From Sun Files
Valedictorian At REL 20
Years Ago: Eddie Comeaux
From The Baytown Sun files, this Is
the way it was 40 and 30 and 20 years
ago:
MAY 5,1941
* Gov. W. Lee O’Daniel makes a third
trip from Austin to the La Porte Home of
U.S. Sen. Andrew Jackson Houston and
, says his surprise San Jacinto Day ap-
pointee to the Senate will be able to
make the trip to Washington soon. "He is
showing much Improvement,” says
O’Daniel after visiting netfrly two hours
with Houston and his two daughters.
Houston (the son of Gen. Sam Houston)
will be 87 in June.
The first swimming fatality of 1941 for
East Harris County is recorded today in
the death of J.T. Gatlin, 20, who drowned
at Morgans Point.
New officers in the Lee Brigadiers are
Julia Hasty, company commander; Sue
Hughey, drum major; Anne O’Rourke,
first lieutenant, and Christine Bellskeid
and Betty Jean Shannon, second
lieutenants.
In a county election, voters of Goose
Creek, Pelly, Baytown, Cedar Bayou,
Highlands, Crosby and Channelview ap-
prove construction of a $275,000 highway
from Slapout Gully to tie Into the
Baytown-Goose Creek Road. The elec-
tion was a straw vote so Harris County
will not be legally bound by its outcome.
However, ‘Commissioner Thomas I.
Decker says he would work to have the
Commissioners Court Abide by the ver-
diet.
MAYS, 1951
Three wells are completed in the
Goose Creek oil field and seven locations
are staked for wellsoii TravisStreet. -
Mrs. Henry Lyles is elected president
of the Woman’s Society of Christian Ser-
vice at St. Mark’s Methodist Church.
Jack and Mack Banta, twin brothers
and seniors at REL, are honored at an
ice cream party by their sister, Mrs No-
ble Jones.
MAY 5,1961
George Edgar “Eddie” Comeaux is
valedictorian at REL. Salutatorian Is
Patsy Lynn Llttlepage. Other top-
ranking seniors are Teddy Davis, Wake
Epps, Beverly Erwin and Beth Burn-
side. * —
Enco will soon join the Humble molor
fuel family In Baytown and nearly
everywhere else where drivers stop for
service. In Baytown and in Texas, Hum-
ble will be selling Enco products under
t^e Humble sign. In other western state
they will be selling Enco products under
the Enco sign.
The Way
It Wa% -
MAY 5, 1981; Alan B,
Shepard, Jr, made 1st
U.8. manned ipace flight,
Bjble Verse
NOW THEN we are am-
bsssadonfor Christ, aa
though God did beaeech
you byui: we pray you in
Christ’s stead, be ye
reconciled to God. II Cor-
inthfaas5:». .
—fo-
4
fees!
Ca
By DOh
APF.
WASH
Agricullur
analysts
, Movement i
future In i
prices of tit
and bogs
AMONG SI
to right, Mt
miaaiooer,
Davidson o
national de
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lions to b<
Washlnftoj
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Brown, Leon. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 59, No. 159, Ed. 1 Tuesday, May 5, 1981, newspaper, May 5, 1981; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1019628/m1/4/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.