—The Daily Collegian Thursday, March 10,1977 Commission cites voting fraud HARRISBURG (AP) - The state Crime Commission said yesterday it has uncovered apparent large scale voting fraud, including fictitious names and ghost voters, in the 183rd Legislative district in South Philadelphia. In a report, the commission said 38 per cent of the votes cast in the 48th Ward, 9th Division in the primary last April were fraudulent. Out of 582 votes, 159 were cast by fictitious persons or persons with phony ad dresses. Among the names found on official voter certificates were Amos n’ Andy, Candy Barr, Milton Shapp, Arlen ONE DAY SALE SPECIAL HOURS 9.30 ■ 9.30 THE LARGEST SELECTION IN CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA CORDUROY JEANS & FLARES WESTERN SHIRTS FLANNEL SHIRTS 'Sr RUGBY SHIRTS LOCATED BETWEEN LEATHER TO BOOT AND CENTRAL COUNTIES BANK CHEAP THRILLS 118 W. COLLEGE AVE. Specter and Nikita Kruschev. A total of 159 names were signed by the same person. “ the serious problems discovered in this district raise the question as to whether the same kind of problems exist in other districts,” the report said. The commission said it is con tinuing its investigation in the ward but doesn’t have the manpower to extend it elsewhere. The commission urged the legislature to pass new restrictions on the use of absentee ballots, require training for election inspectors, and extend the period election records must be kept. OF BLUE JEANS DENIM JACKETS LEOTARDS & TIGHTS THERMAL UNDERWEA SOCKS AIR FORCE PARKAS AND WE COULD GO ON AND ON! SO STOP IN AND SHOP The commission said 20 people were registered from the address of a home owned by the mother of Rep. Matthew Cianciulli Jr., who won the 183rd legislative seat in a special election held last April. Commission ihvestigators found that 11 of the residents never lived at the address and that the others lived there only part time or lived in New Jersey. Investigators found 11 voters who had listed their address as a building that had been owned by Cianciulli’s brother-in-law but had been vacated several months before the April primary. TAKE A GIANT STEP TO CHEAP THRILLS STORE WIDE SALE \ \ \ \ \ \ , \ \ * \ \ S V V \ \ Five coal tniners still missing Water halts Tower City search TOWER CITY, Pa. (AP) Work on drilling a second hole into Big Lick Mountain in search of five missing coal miners stopped shortly after noon yesterday when the drill struck water at the 355-foot mark. Drilling will not begin again until this afternoon. By then, workers should be finished installing a casing in the hole to keep the water out, a mine spokesman said. The delay was the second of the day encountered by rescue crews at the drilling 1 DAY ONLY FOR CASH & ALL MERCHANPISE THIS SALE ONLY PERSONAL CHECKS with proper ID site. Earlier yesterday, drilling was halted briefly at the 175-foot mark when a soft fill was hit. Steel casing was also installed at that point. Drillers estimate that they will break through the mountain into the mine shaft at about 398 feet. On Tuesday, an electronic probe inserted 432 feet through a hole bored, into a mine shaft where it was thought the miners might be failed to detect sighs of life. The drilling equipment was then moved 55 feet away to the current site, JohnShutack, of the federal run you off this property.”* Mining Enforcement and Inspectors accompanying’ Safety Administration, said rescue crews were making' rescuers had not given up ' detailed notes of the. hope. operations for use in a future. “We have a job to do and it investigation. , isn’t over yet, ’he said The five men have been yesterday. “Man has been missing since March 1 whetfa known to live underground for of water raced: a long period of time That’s “ th ° e f Koc ke r Coal Co:- something we cant deter- m ine,\washing'away support . ... . timbers that caused cave-iris.’ Every man in this area is J , working his heart out in Four men are known dead there,” Shutack said- of the and one miner, Ronald Adley, rescue crews. “If you tell 37, was rescued Sunday. Tunnels were used for Army germ war PHILADELPHIA (AP) - People in Huntingdon and Franklin counties in south central Pennsylvania had no clues back in August 1955 that the Army was practicing biological warfare nearby in two tunnels along the Pennsylvania Turnpike. “I- had just gotten home from the Army that sum mer," Elwood Gallagher, now 44, recalled in a telephone interview yesterday. Home for Gallagher is Burnt Cabins, a town of about 200 at the edge of the Tuscarora Tunnel, where the Army sprayed simulated germß in August 1955, “I was just relaxing after being in the Korean war, helping my mother run the hotel,” he said. “I can’t recall that there were any. signs of illness that month or! what, I don’t remember a lot of people getting sick, We didn’t know anything about those germs then.” Carl Lang, 23, is the civil defense director for Hun tingdon County. He was only two years old in 1955, but he said Wednesday he hasn't Municipal officials fear immunity loss HARRISBURG (AP)—Once upon a time there was a king of England, who, the courts said, could do no wrong. I So began the law of sovereign immunity, Today, it protects government officials from citizens who might want to sue them. But some local officials in Pennsylvania fear state courts have eroded their immunity, They wonder if future decisions might not eliminate it. These officials say it would be impossible to govern if every official action could result in their financial ruin. “It’s like the six-gun of the 19705. People will sue if they get a chance, said Phil Friday, editor of the Pennsylvania Township News, a local government publication. Herbert Braden, a supervisor in Bensalem, Bucks County, estimated there is'a suit a week against his township. Most involve zoning and landdevelopment, but two - ' suits resulted from deaths—one a jail suicide and another an auto accident. Local government immunity has been granted .through court decisions that have changed the rules from time to time. State government immunity is more certain, since it is part of the Pennsylvania Constitution. Even though you. can sue a local government or school district treasury, you cannot collect damages from individual local officials, state officials or the state treasury in county or. state courts. In federal court, you can collect damages against any government official, if you can prove he violated your civil rights. “How long the law will remain in this posture is anyone’s guess,” said a January article in the Pennsylvania Township '3 News. An immunity case involving local officials is now before the state high court, and local government organizations feel the decision may bring the next change in immunity law. It could bring the end of immunity altogether. “We must maintain civil immunity for public officials, 1 ” Braden said. “If we didn’t have it, no one would serve. What man of means would put' his family in jeopardy to serve the public? When you take an action, you’re always affecting someone.” Braden said the current law, permitting damages against the township treasury but not against him, does not hinder his decision-making. “We can’t permit the threat of litigation to interfere with the legislative process, or government goes down the tubes,” he said. Tax raise proposed\ \ more school funds HARRISBURG (AP) A subsidy bill that would in crease school aid and require new taxes was introduced yesterday by the chairman of the House Education Com mittee. The proposal by Rep. James.J.A. Gallagher would add $232 million to Penn sylvania’s $1.2 billion school subsidy bill. That’s a 19 per cent increase. Philip Murphy, executive director of the education committee, said new taxes would be necessary to support the proposal. But the amount of taxes and the form they would take depends on the total state spending and revenue pic ture. Gov. Shapp has proposed new taxes just to balance his $9.4 billion spending program, which only includes an ad ditional $79 million in public school funds. The governor wants to boost the sales tax from the current them you gave up hope theyjll heard “anything from anybody, either.” The Army, as part of' biological warfare tests that continued in parts of the country until 1969, put the simulated germs into the Tuscarora and Kittatinny tunnels. According to testimony Tuesday before a Senate' subcommittee given by Edward A. Miller, assistant secretary of the'Army, the Pennsylvania tests were Y designed to see how far the germs would spread. In addition, the Army said it spread the simulated germs on Route 16, also in South Central Pennsylvania on Jan. 7, 1955 and at the Naval facility In Mechanicsburg. . Researchers in the office of Sen. Richard Schweiker said yesterday health records for the periods following the tests show\ no indication of in- - creased flu or pneumonia cases in the affected areas, , Tho Army said ' the • simulated germs were con sidered at. 'the time to be harmless and that thev are still considered to be safe. 6 per cent to 7 per cent, and hike the gas tax from the present 9 cents a gallon to 11 cents. - > Gallagher’s bill makes several changes in the current formula for deter mining school aid. The existing formula is com.- plicated, but the key elements are the student enrollment, the district’s spending ,'per student and the district’s wealth as determined by'the market value of real estate. , Districts with higher market value receive less aid, on the theory that thosd are > the richest districts. ' J That often isn’t the case, however. A district may have ‘ high market value because of, a few valuable properties, but the population may be poor. < This district would get too little aid. Another district might have ,• low real estate values, but a wealthy population. The result would be to much aid.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers