Panel approves state police chief
HARRISBURG (AP) A Senate
committee yesterday approved the
nomination of State Police Com
missioner-designate Daniel Dunn, who
said he would use state troopers to in
vestigate public corruption in state
government.
“If we don’t do it, who will?” Dunn, a.
23-year FBI veteran, told the Senate
Law and Justice Committee. “The
federal government should not be
policing Pennsylvania.
“If the state were doing the job itself,
then the federal government wouldn’t
have to be doing it. The FBI steps in
wherever there’s a vacuum,” the 50-
year-old Dunn said.
Dunn, a supervisory special agent in
Pittsburgh since 1974, still' faces con
firmation by the full Senate.
During the hearing, the senators tried
to pin down Dunn on whether organized
crime would profit if gambling were
legalized in Pennsylvania. 1
“I don’t see why we couldn’t (control
gambling corruption),” Dunn told them.
“It’s been done elsewhere.”
“You will never legislate gambling out
of existence,” he added.
Sen. Robert Jubelirer, R-Blair,
repeatedly tried to get Dunn to comment
on reports that say offshoots of
organized crime, such as prostitution
and loan sharking, flourished in areas
where gambling is legal.
But all Dunn would say was, “Senator,
: I’ve read all kinds of reports. You can
v take a particular set of figures and make
' them come out any way you want.”
' Dunn later said, “I don’t deny the
v existence of organized crime. I don’t
’ think it is rolling over us and wiping us
out.”
Under questioning by Sen. Robert
Mellow, D-Lackawanna, Dunn said a
People return
to homes after
gas removed
BIG RUN, Pa. (AP) Railroad
salvage crevys removed two overturned
tank cars containing toxic chlorine gas
yesterday and about 1,000 residents were
able to return to their homes for the
second time.
“Things are getting back to normal,”
said Fire Chief Kevin Wachob said.
“Everybody’s coming back home.”
£ The brief evacuation yesterday was a
... precautionary measure as crews worked
to right the two cars containing the
chlorine. They were among 19 in a 69-car
’, Chessie System train that jumped the
...tracks near this Jefferson County village
•> on Tuesday. >.
While the cars containing chlorine did
not leak, another tanker containing an
industrial acid did spill its contents,
forcing the first evacuation before dawn
Tuesday.
A yellow-green cloud of fumes,
identified as nitrating acid oxidizer,
gagged sleepy residents as they were
.evacuated in near-zero cold from Big
■ Run and neighboring Foxburg and
, Robertsville.
| The cloud moved south, threatening
' Cloe, but dispersed before more
\ evacuations were ordered. An un
x determined amount of acid flowed into
Mahoning Creek, killing fish, authorities
said.
The residents returned Tuesday af
ternoon, but were told to leave again
early yesterday during the salvage
. operation. The tankers were on their
■ wheels by noon yesterday and residents
■ were once again allowed to return.
The wreck was not the first time a
train left the tracks near this western
Pennsylvania valley community.
“We’ve had some that were worse as
far as the number of cars. But this would
be the worst accident being that
chemicals were involved,” Wachob said.
One derailment several years ago
spilled tons of coal along Mahoning
Creek, he said. About one year ago
another train wreck scattered con
tainers of baby food and other, freight
along the tracks.
Layoffs of older
firemen upheld
HARRISBURG (AP) Com
monwealth Court has upheld a state law
that lets fire departments push
retirement-age firemen off the force in
favor of younger ones when economy
layoffs are necessary.
The court said this week the 1933 law
does not violate recent federal and state
laws against age discrimination because
there could be cases where age is not a
factor.
“It appears to us that the effect of the
... act is to insure that as few firemen as
necessary are left without a source of
income where there is a reduction in
force rather than to discriminate against
the aged,” Judge John MacPhail said.
In its ruling Monday, the court upheld
a Northampton County Common Pleas
Court decision that reinstated Easton
firemen Joseph Prio, Fred Sterner and
Wayne Unangst to the force.
When the three were laid off in 1977 as
part of an economy move, they appealed
to the city civil service board, citing the
1933 law. It states that fireman eligible
for immediate retirement must be
furloughed first.
The civil service board upheld the
Gity’s action but was overturned by
Common Pleas Court.
The city argued that the law violated
the 1967 federal Age Discrimination in
Employment Act and the Pennsylvania
trooper would not be transferred ar
bitrarily for not make a certain number
of traffic arrests in a month.
Dunn qualified his remarks, however,
saying, “You can’t have people on
traffic patrol who, day after day,
produce no arrests. It would lead anyone
with a half a brain to say that the guy is
hot doing his job.
“There will be no quotas, but you need
a realistic approach to tell if a person is
working or not working,” he said.
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When asked his position on the
minority quota system being used to fill
new state police academy classes, Dunn
said he would enforce any ruling made
by the courts.
He did say that “anytime you set a
(hiring) quota, you’re going to have
trouble. A quota isn’t fair, someone
always gets hurt.
“I think the answer is a good recruiter.
You have to recruit the right people,”
Dunn said.
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LCB head to resign in March
HARRISBURG (AP) The
chairman of the state Liquor Control
Board will resign March 1, giving
Gov. Thornburgh the chance to fill
two vacancies on the three-member
agency, the governor’s office said
yesterday.
The board and its monopoly of 750
state liquor stores have come under
fire recently by legislators concerned
about dropping sales and profits and
want to allow private stores to sell
bottled liquor.
Thornburgh’s press secretary,
Paul Critchlow, said LCB chairman
Henry Kaplan told him he would
resign because of health reasons.
o # r
« B
te> '
t
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The Daily Collegian Thursday, Feb. 15,19'
Kaplan suffered a
November.
Thornburgh said he didn’t know
how soon he expected to fill the LCB
seats.
“We’re just beginning to look a
vacancies on different boards ant
commissions,” he said.
O a Oo ®
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