Sulphur Springs News-Telegram (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 302, No. 19, Ed. 1 Wednesday, January 23, 1980 Page: 1 of 14
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Sulphur Springs
VOL. 302—NO. 19.
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Wednesday
JANUARY 23, 1980.
15 Cents
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Panama denies reported Iranian arrest of sKbh
■ » By The Associated Press
Panama’s ambassador to Washington
said he was authorized to “categorically
deny’’ a statement today by the Iranian
Forejgn Ministry that deposed Shah
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was being held
by Panamanian authorities in preparation
for his extradition to Iran.
“Everything is quite normal in Panama
today and I don’t know the reason or the
sources for the Iranian report because
there is nothing to it," Ambassador Carlos
Lopez Guevara ?said in a telephone in-
terview with The Associated Press in New
York. He said he had just spoken by
telephone with top government officials in
Panama City and that he was authorized to
‘‘categorically deny" the Iranian
statements.
“We have granted the shah asylum. And
under the basic rule of asylum he will
never be-returned to any country where
there is the death penalty.’’ More than 700
persons have been executed in Iran by
firing squad for crimes against the state
since the shah left Iran last January.
"This is ruled out — we have granted
him asylum and we will stick to it,” Lopez
Guevara said.
Earlier, a Panama army spokesman
denied the shah was in custody. “No, it is
not true,” said the duty officer at the
headquarters of the national guard when
asked about the report.
A man who answered the phone at the
home of President Aristides Royo said he
knew nothing about the reports. And Mark
Morse, a spokesman for the shah who was
contacted by telephone on Contadora, said
Pahlavi and his en .ourage knew nothing of
, any change in his situation.
An Iranian government announcement
Soviets suspected of using
deadly nerve gas in invasion
By FREDS. HOFFMAN
AP Military Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. in-
telligence sources say there are in-
dications the Soviets may have used
death-dealing nerve gas against anti-
Marxist rebels in five areas of
Afghanistan.
The sources, who declined to be iden-
tified, said the evidence is not conclusive
enough to permit an open accusation by
the United States.
But they said U.S. intelligence
specialists give credence to descriptions
provided by a number of Afghan refugees,
including a defecting army officer.
This development comes less than a
week after U.S. intelligence sources told
The Associated Press the Soviet army had
brought chemical decontaminating
equipment into Afghanistan.
According to die new reports, the gas
apparently was contained in bombs
dropped from airplanes. The bombs were
said to have burst in the air, spewing the
gas in vapor form.
This vapor caused vomiting, breathing
difficulties, bowel eruptions, blindness,
paralysis and then death, the sources said.
There was no estimate of the number of
deaths.
U.S. specialists said the effects, as
described by the Afghan refugees,
correspond to known results from a Soviet
nerve agent called Soman. They believe
the same kind of -nerve gas was used
against Laotian tribesman resisting
communist forces in Southeast Asia.
One intelligence report suggests the
lethal agent was used against Afghan
rebel tribesmen as early as last August or
September in the Panjshir Valley-jior-
theast of Kabul. Russian advisers were
seizing with the Afghan army at that
Judge terms finances major problem' of decade
County's future in state hands?
j
The major problem Wing Hopkins
County government in the 1980s is finan-
cial, County Judge Joe\ Pogue said
Tuesday.
Possible solutions rest alpiost solely
with the Texas state legislature rather
than with local officials, Pogue told
members of the Sulphur Springs Lions
Club.
“We have to have help from the
legislature,” the county judge said, noting
that the county is limited in the manner
and to the extent it can raise funding
because of state-imposed restrictions.
Pogue, who completed his first year as
county judge earlier this month, said he
felt 1979 was a productive year for county
government. That came about, he noted,
despite an 80 percent turnover in the
makeup of the Commissioners’ Court —
with Pogue and one commissioner newly
elected to office followed by the death of
one commissioner and the resignation of
another requiring the appointment of
replacements.
"I was real pleased with the year,”
Judge Pogue said. “I felt we had one of the
better commissioners’ courts in Northeast
Texas.”,
The judge said that county governments
across Texas support the implementatlfirf ^
of a one percent county sales tax but have
been unable to even get the proposal raised
in the legislature.
Another possible method of increasing
county finances could come from a greater
share of the vehicular license fees, he said.
"The county gets $175,000 from this source
and we raise about $600,000, with the state
getting the rest. We’d like a larger share of
this fund.”
The judge said that increasing the auto
use tax also might be a way to acquire
more finances.
Looking ahead, Judge Pogue said that
one of the continuing problems for Hopkins
County is meeting state and federal jail
standards.
“A few years back the county received
143 citations for shortcomings in the jail,"
he said. “In December an inspector found
only 10 deficiencies. We can (eventually)
comply with eight.
“But I believe at some time in the future
we are going to have to look to building a
new jail, and I think you all realize the
money that will run into. ”
The county judge said that current work
on refurbishing the exterior of the cour-
thouse is about 40 percent complete and
that when finished, the building should be
presentable for some years to come.
Space remains a problem In the ,
building, he said, and the county is looking
to refurbish the Stirling Building pur-
chased in 1978 for use by some county
departments. He also said he thinks the
county could pay a portion of a proposed
milking barn and Extension Service office
structure near the Civic Center with the
funds it is now using to lease space for the
county agents.
One of the major future changes for
county government will come with the new
appraisal and tax system mandated by the
state legislature, Pogue told the Lions.
By 1982, he noted, the county will have to
have new property appraisal systems and
must base those appraisals on 100 percent
of market value.
Tax rates can be adjusted from that
level, though, he added.
Hopkins County’s present valuation, on a
30 percent basis, is about $116 million,
Pogue noted. That would mean a 100
percent valuation of approximately $400
million.
The judge said that his estimates of
upwards of $80 million that would be
needed to make most of Hopkins County
roads the quality of a farm-to-market road
are realistic. Not all roads could be im-
proved to that quality, however, he added.
The county presently is surveying at-
titudes of residents toward a bond issue fof
road improvements, with results due to be
compiled around the end of the month.
News briefs
Sunshine bathes county
Clear skies and cool temperatures
dominated the Texas weather scene
Wednesday, ending the rain and foul
weather of the last few days.
The National Weather Service
forecast is calling for mostly fair
skies through Thursday with a high
temperature Wednesday in the mid
40s, climbing into the upper 50s on
Thursday.
Overnight lows are expected to be in
the upper 20 to lower 30s for the next
few days.
Partly cloudy skies and tem-
peratures in the 60s are predicted for
Friday and Saturday as a wanning
trend edges across the state, but the
weather may turn cool and rainy
again on Sunday according to the
forecasters, as another front pushes
through the area.
Rainfall topped the one-inch mark
again Tuesday, according to the of-
ficial observation station in Sulphur
• Springs, with 1.03 inches of moisture
bringing the monthly rain total to 7.35
inches.
The high temperature Tuesday was
49 degrees and the mercury skidded to
27 under clearing skies early Wed-
nesday morning. At 8 a.m. Wed-
nesday under clear blue skies the
mercury read a chilly 30 degrees.
Nose-count mailing set
■ On Friday, March 28, the U.S.
Postal Service is scheduled to deliver
a questionnaire to every household in
the nation.
Recipients will be asked to mail
back the completed documents four
days later, on Tuesday, April 1, in
postage-free envelopes.
The questionnaires will be checked
and processed by census workers.
If they are not returned, census
takers will visit the homes concerned
to get the required information,
In the continuing preparations for
the big assignment that rolls around
every ten years, a temporary district
census office is being organized in
Tyler to handle returns from Hopkins
and 24 other Northeast Texas coun-
ties.
Jerry L. Tune has been named
manager of the office, which will be in
the Cotton Belt building. It will em-
ploy about 800 temporary workers at
the peak of census operations next
spring and will remain open into the
summer. *
Publicists for the census have
designated April 1, the date for
returning the questionnaires, as
Census Day.
If anything should go wrong, the
trouble can always be attributed to
the fact that the day also has a
historic status as All Fools Day.
relayed by the official Pars news agency
and Tehran radio said Panamanian
President Royo had informed Foreign
Minister Sadegh Ghothzadehthat the shah
had been detained.
Tehhran radio, monitored in Ixnjdon,
said the Foreign Ministry had “confirmed
this report, while a spokesman of the
Panamanian president denied such' a
report. A spokesman of the deposed shah
denied the report of the detention- of the
traitorous shah and said: he is asleep in his
rented villa in the island of Contadora. ”
Later in the day, Ghotbzadeh issued a
statement saying the Panama government
was awaiting documents from the Iranian
government to be used in a, trial in
Panama for extradition proceedings.
Panama and Iran have no diplomatic
relations and have not signed any ex-
tradition treaty, . Ambassador Lopez
Guevara said.
The “just action" by Panama “will be
effective in reducing the current in-
ternational'crisis and Iran’s view is based
on the fact that such a crisis is solvable
only be peaceful means and un-
derstanding,” the Ghotbzadeh statement
said. /\
Ghotbzadeh was quoted as saying
Panama’s deeisioncame in response to the
ruling Revolutionary Council’s persistent
demand that the deposed shah be returned
to face charges of corruption and mass
murder.
Royo and Panama’s military
strongman, Gen. Omar Torrijos, gave the
shah asylum Dec. 15. Since then, he and his
.wife have been living in a borrowed villa
on the resort island of Contadora, off the
Pacific coast 35 miles southeast of
Panama City.
time, although the full-scale Soviet army
movement into Afghanistan did not come
until late last month.
Sources said the other four incidents
reportedly occurred last week near'
Faizabad and in Takhar Province, both in
northeast Afghanistan where rebel
resistance' has been stiff; in Bamian
Province, west of Kabul; and near
Jalalabad, which lies close to Pakistan.
In telling the AP about sightings of
Soviet chemical decontamination
equipment in Afghanistan, U.S. specialists
suggested it might be used to clean up
affected areas so they could be occupied
by Soviet or Afghan government troops
after a gas attack. j
U.S. intelligence sources said the "Soviet
troops in Afghanistan are equipped with
FROG battlefield missiles, which they
said .can be used to hurl chemical
warheads.
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Yesterday's rain, today's mud
Water slides over th&#d?llway at Cake Coleman alongside Main
Street during Tuesday’sjjieavy rains, which left a 24-hour ac
cumulation of 1.03 inche¥W the period ending at 8 a.m. Wed
nesday, and boosted the monthly rainfall total to a new record ol
7.35 inches, more than two inches above the previous moisture
record for January during the quarter-century The News:
Telegram has maintained weather statistics. A major storm
sysiem finally moved from the area and residents welcomed a
bright sun Wednesday.
-Still Photo
Mud hides grass fire danger
After three days of hard rains, the
ground underfoot may be soggy enough to
bog a mosquito — but the danger of grass
fires once more scarring the Hopkins
County landscape is only hours away, local
firefighters say.
Sulphur Springs Fire Marshal C.D.
Bolding said that while grass fire calls had
all but stopped during the three-day
monsoons which left some five inches of
rain across the county, the reprieve
probably will be a short one.
“It only takes a day or two under the
right weather conditions — lower
humidity, wind and sun - for the grass to
dry out again,” Bolding said.
“The grass leaves are dead and dry and
they can catch fire no matter what the
condition of the ground beneath the grass.
That gives us another problem, because
we can’t get equipment to a grass fire and
have to fight it by hand.
“I’ve actually fought grass fires,”
Bolding said, "when grass was
sticking out of the water. It just burns, right
across the water.”
Bolding urged area residents to be
"Especially careful when burning trash or
brush piles, even though the surrounding
soil may be saturated with moisture.
“Most our grass fire problems in the
county are the result of people burning
trash in an uncovered can or old drum, and
all it takes to set off a grass fire is one or
two stray sparks. We don’t have that
problem as much in the city, because when
we hear of someone burning trash, we’ll
come and put it out. There’s a city or-
dinance agaiast burning trash in the city
limits.
“We recommend that rural residents
bag their trash and wait for a day when
weather conditions are right for burning.
And even then it’s a good idea to have a
garden hose hooked up and stand by until
the trash is completely burned,” the fire
marshal added.
While trash burning is the major con-
tributor to grass fires, Bolding said, the
department has encountered a number of
blazes triggered by county residents
burning brush piles after clearing land.
“High weeds in the area, or wind, can
cause a burning brush pile to get out of
hand in a hurry," he said. “Again,
prevention is the best approach. Anyone
planning to burn brush should be careful to
do so only in the proper weather conditions
and should stay with the fire until it is
out.”
A few buckets of water, sacking
material and a shovel should be kept on
hand to control stray sparks from a brush
fire, he added.
With the weather conditions of the past
summer proving ideal for the growth of
grass and hay crops in Hopkins County,
tall weeds and unmown pastures now pose
a serious fire threat.
“After a hard rain is no time to ease up
on being careful,” Bolding said.
Carter ponders draft registration
WASHINGTON (AP) - President
Carter, in what would be an abrupt
reversal of administration policy, isgaid to
be considering asking Congress - to
authorize peacetime registration of draft-
age youths.
Administration sources said Tuesday
they believed <the--proposa 1 came from
within the White Housestaff.
It comes amid unrest abroad, manpower
problems in the military and a renewed
defense orientation on Capitol Hill.
White House officials declined comment
Tuesday night.
It was not known whether Carter would
accept the proposal or include it in his
State of the Union address to Congress
tonight, said the sources, who asked not to
be identified.
White House officials said in July that
the administration “is opposed to
registration,” contending “it is not
necessary to impose this burden on our
nation andits youth.”
All branches of the military fell short of
recruitment goals for fiscal 1979, for the
first time since the draft ended in 1973. But
Defense Department officials concerned
with manpower problems said Tuesday
that the Pentagon had sent no staff papers
recommending a renewal of registration to
the White House.
Defense Secretary Harold Brown told
Congress last summer, “We don’t propose
to go to registration, let alone the draft,
until we are convinced that other methods
won’t do the job.”
But senior military officers, particularly
Army generals, have said peacetime
registration is necessary to insure the
nation enough military manpower to fill
out regular forces in an emergency.
These officers, noting that the Army
National Guard and Reserve are below
strength and largely unprepared for early
deployment, have said U.S. security could
be threatened if the country lacked ef-
fective standby draft machinery in the
event of a Soviet attack on Western
Europe.
Some Army officials have estimated
that without peacetime preparation and
revival of the Selective Service System, it
would take about seven months from a
standing start to obtain the first trained
and deployable draftees.
Meanwhile, Senate Democratic Leader
Robert C. Byrd and House Speaker
Thomas P. O’Neill Jr. said Tuesday the
Soviet intervention in Afghanistan has
revitalized the defense mood in Congress
and brought talk of renewing the draft.
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Keys, Clarke. Sulphur Springs News-Telegram (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 302, No. 19, Ed. 1 Wednesday, January 23, 1980, newspaper, January 23, 1980; Sulphur Springs, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth824799/m1/1/: accessed June 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Hopkins County Genealogical Society.