4 Bills to change
PUC operations
'''' HARRISBURG (AP) A
House-Senate conference
• committee tentatively agreed
. yesterday on two bills to
• change Public Utility Com
mission operations, including
a ban on retroactive rate
increases. - .
The PUC would be forced to
decide rate cases within nine
months instead of the present
11-month limit.
The measures would bar
the PUC from setting tem
porary rates, as it does now
P.-
Calls it a purely domestic matter
Wallace admits wife
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (UPI)
Gov. George C. Wallace ••yesterday
admitted his wife had secretly or
dered his bedroom telephone tapped.
He called it "a purely domestic
matter" and refused to explain it.
"There were some tapes and a
' device" found in the governor's
mansion, Wallace told a hastily
called news conference. He said the
tapes had been destroyed.
"There were no politics involved at
all," Wallace said. "No one has been
hurt; no one has been harmed."
~- 'Wallace's attractive wife, Cornelia,
N.Who has said she may run for
governor when Wallace steps down,
was not at the news con
ference. Wallace refused to explain
the "domestic matter" that brought
the taping, and said the press should
drop the matter because it "remains The reports said hundreds of tapes
, the business of me and my wife" and were found dating from last Sep
*
Ford-C9rter debate set in
WASHINGTON (UPI)
President Ford and Jimmy
, Carter will meet in the first of
1 three 1976 campaign debates
Sept. 23 in a Philadelphia
theater that opened its doors
in the waning days of Thomas
Jefferson's presidency.
. The Walnut Street Theater,
in use since Feb. 2, 1809, will
dioe the scene of the first joint
appearance of major party
presidential candidates since
the Nixon-Kennedy meetings
of 1960.
The first Ford-Carter ap
pearance, to run 90 minutes
starting at 9:30 p.m. EDT,
' will cover domestic and
economic issues. A panel of
three reporters will question
each candidate in' turn, with
time for follow-up questions
and comments by -one can
• didate on the answer of his
opponent.
ci But the candidates will not
directly address each other as
• in a formal debate.
The question and answer
format was used -in the
Kennedy-Nixon meetings 16
years ago, and is expected to
AUCTION HOUSE
• , Thurs., Sept. 9, 1976
6:30 P.M.
Former Dunlap Ford Building
Benner Pikeßellefonte, Pa.
furniture, dishes, new tools, miscellaneous items
Samuel Gray, Auctioneer
355-9688
14`5 1 Y3MAJ
First in Centre County
Twenty-Four Hours a Day
MORE TURNED ON
when it fails to decide a case
within the 11-month period.
Retroactive increases are
allowed when the PUC finally
makes up its mind and lets
the utility collect back over
the entire period of tem
porary rates.
The bill would require that
at the end of nine months the
entire rate increase be
allowed to take effect if the
PUC still needs more time.
Later, the PUC could order
refunds, with interest com
be the method followed in the
second appearance on foreign
and defense policy and the
third session, which will be
open to questions on any
subject.
Dates and places ' for the
other debates and the
scheduling details of a fourth
debate between the vice
presidetnial candidates, have
not been set. But the can
didates already have agreed
to the meetings..
The candidates will not
'make opening statements in
the first appearance, but will
he given time for three
minute summations at the
end.
The panel of reporters and
the meeting moderator will
be chosen by the League of
Women Voters, which is
sponsoring and arranging all
the appearances.
By presenting the meetings
as .news events, the broad
casting networks all of
which are expected to carry
the debate will be freed of
the "equal time"
requirements of federal law,
THAN EVER
did not involve his duties as governor
Wallace is 57; his wife is 37.
Wallace, looking drawn and tired,
began by saying, "Being in politics is
very difficult ... Of course, it's been
more difficult since I was shot in
1972."
' "I appreciate very much what she
(Mrs. Wallace) did for me" after the
assassination attempt, he said, ad
ding that she was more responsible
than the doctors for his recovering
from the wounds, which left him
paralyzed from the waist down.
Published and broadcast reports in
the last two days said security per
sonnel last month found' a tape
recorder and a tap on the telephone in
Wallace's bedroom at the mansion.
parable to prevailing mor
tage rates.
"It's like a budget plan,"
said James Cawley, counsel
to the Consumer Affairs
Committee that wrote the
bills. "People won't have to
wait for the ax to fall." f
The PUC will be en
couraged to act promptly,
solving the utility's money
problems. And utilities will
tend to, keep their rate
requests down, knowing that
they could be stuck for
refunds, Cauley said.
Recent PUC-approved
retroactive rate increases
will cost some
,consumers as
much as $62 in back
payMents.
The two bills, showcases of
the PUC reform package,
emerged from the two houses
ordered phone tap
tember until early August of this year.
Wallace's office had declined
comment and referred reporters to
Col. E.C. Dothard, the state public
safety director, who insisted the
reports were false.
The governor said he resented
reports that speculated Mrs. Wallace
had political motives in ordering the
taping.
Mrs. Wallace has said she is con
sidering running for governor in 1978.
Wallace said he did not expect her to
run, but added, "If she does, I will be
for her as strong as I was for my first
wife."
Lurleen Wallace was elected
governor in 1966, when Wallace was
constitutionally barred from seeking
re-election. She died of cancer in 1968
while still in office.
Philadelphia
under which all presidential
candidates would have to be
given the same access to the
air as the two major party
nominees.
Several independent and
minor party candidates
already have said they will
challenge the 1976 debates.
The American Party, which
nominated Tom Anderson of
Pardons sought
for pot convicts
WASHINGTON (UPI)
On the second anniversary of
the Nixon pardon, Rep.
- Edward Koch, D-N.Y., asked
President Ford yesterday to
grant unconditional pardon to
all federal prisoners con
victed of marijuana
possession or use.
• Koch noted in a statement
that sons of both Ford and
Democratic presidential
nominee Jimmy Carter have
•
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indoor Tack
Riding "*.Shop
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v -
•
NOW ENROLLING FALL
Riding School Program
BEGINNER • INTERMEDIATE • ADVANCED
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iMorning Classes !Or Housewives
Hunt Seat Equitation .
Phorie 237-4364
in different forms.
Thd conference committee
worked for about five hours
yesterday on the com
promise.
Members will, meet again
next week to review the new
version in print. Final votes
are expected the week of
Sept. 20 when the legislature
returns from its summer
recess.
Among the other changes: key differences between the
—By May of each year, the House and Senate versions.
PUC will have to decide if The Senate had approved a
fuel adjustment claUses for. $32,500 and $30,000 schedule.
the previous year were The first step of the new
justified. Refunds could be version is the same as the
ordered. The old version gave proposal passed by the House.
the PUC until July of each / The PUC's new con
year. servation bureau would have
Utilities would have to
show each component of a
customer's bill.
Pigeon Forge, Tenn., said
yesterday it already has
asked a federal court for an
injunction.
The American Independent
Party, led by former Georgia
Gov. Lester Maddox, the
Socialist Workers Party and
independent - candidate
Eugene McCarthy' also are
considering legal action.
admitted smoking the illegal
drug.
"Does the President really
see more criminal activity in,
for example, his own son's
marijuana smoking than he
does in all of Mr. Nixon's
attacks upon the Con
stitution?" Koch asked.
He said the pardon should
not include pushers but only
those convicted of using the
'drug or possessing it.
Salaries for PUC com
missioners would go up in two
steps. On Jan. 1, 1977, the
chairman's salary would go
to $37,500 and members
salaries to $35,000. On Jan. 1,
1978, the salaries would be
$42,500 and $40,000 respec
tively. They now make
$25,000 and $24,000 respec
tively.
Salaries had been one of the
to review all power plant
expansion plans and deter
mine their impact on rates.
"There ain't any questions for you
to ask," Wallace said, ending the
news conference abruptly when
reporters tried to question him. "If
you folks in the press would leave us
alone in our domestic matters,
we'll solve it a lot quicker," he said.
Wallace married Cornelia in
January, 1971. Mrs. Wallace is the
niece of former Gov. James E.
Folsom and a former performer in
the aquatic ballet at Cypress Gar
dens, Fla. She is divorced from her
first husband.
The reports of the taping, which
were first broadcast Tuesday by a
Birmingham radio station and a
Montgomery television station, said
the taping system was in place from
last September until 'it was
discovered early last month. Wallace
did not say how long it was in place.
Last rubber
strike ends
AKRON, Ohio (UPI)
The United Rubber
Workers strike against the
last of the "Big Four"
rubber companies, B.F.
Goodrich, ended last
night with unanimous
ratification of a new
contract by the six local
unions representing
Goodrich workers.
Viking spies rocks,
mysteries unrolled
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) Scientists
scanned pictures of the rocky Martian
terrain of the Utopia Plain yesterday in
search of an ideal spot to send Viking 2 on its
first digging expedition this weekend.
Members of the Viking team also were
analyzing information gathered by the
Viking 2 lander as it plunged through the
Martian atmosphere last Friday. Scientists
are looking. specifically for traces of the
gases nitrogen and argon. .
The spot where Viking 2's soil-scooping
arm was initially programmed to dig is
covered with boulders, which could block the
shovel' s task of gathering a sample of soil for
the lander's miniaturized laboratories.
The Viking scientists say the field Viking 2
is to dig is an interesting one, littered with an
intriguing array of rocks of at least two dif
ferent geological origins.
One part of the field contains porous,
spongy-looking rock that appears to have
gushed from a Martian volcano.
Across the field are scattered larger,
angular rocks that scientists say look as
though they were blasted out of the planet's
crust by the impact of meteorites and carried
to their present resting place by molten
material from the craters.
Near the lander is an open area looking like
African
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (UPI)
Heart transplant pioneer
Dr. Christiaan Barnard,
attending a medical sym
posium here, defended South
Africa's racial policies at a
news conference yesterday
comparing the problem to the
question of handing America
back to the Indians.
"Say, for example, that you
were outnumbered with the
racial and ecomic op
portunities that you have
given your Indians—that you
were outnumbered, say 4 to 1
today, would you give them
majroity rule?" Barnard
asked. "If the answer is yes, I
will say that I am wrong."
Barnard said he disap
proves of racial
discrimination, which occurs
elsewhere in the world as well
as in South Africa. "But it is a
disappearing phase, slower ,
perhaps in our country than
elsewhere, but a disappearing
phase."
He said he was "pleased"
The Daily Collegian Thursday, September 9,
a winding ditch, or trough. Scientists are
considering the possibility that it is indeed a
dried-out stream-bed.
If it is, "it would be the first evidence we've
seen ... of running water," said Dr. Allen
Binder, a member of the team that in
terprets surface pictures.
When Viking 2 scratches the surface on
Sunday, it will deposit samples of the soil into
various experiments inside the Lander; to
begin the search for chemical evidence of
life. '
Of paramount significance will be Viking
2's - search for organics, carbon-based
molecules found in every living thing on
earth.
The results of similar chemical tests by the
Viking 1 Lander, called "tantalizing, but
inconclusive" by scientists, could be in
terpreted as an indication of life processes if
Viking 2's probe comes up with organic
molecules.
However, head Viking scientist Gerald
Soffen says nothing seen on Utopia so far
would indicate it is more likely to harbor
organics than was the Chryse plain on which
Viking 1 now rests.
Viking 2 will begin conducting organic
experiments Sept. 17.
policies backed
because he found that racial
discrimination in South
Africa "is a diagnosed illness.
When an illness is diagnosed,
it can be treated. In many
countries it is still an un
diagnosed illness."
He blamed public opinion
elsewhere in the world for
much of South Africa's
current problems. "The at
titudes are not helping us
very much, because the at
titude of the world is that
everything the white regime
does is wrong and everything
black Africans do is right.