The Coast Guard said today that it had discovered floating at sea what it believed were a large part of the fuselage and items from the cockpit of the space shuttle Challenger, which exploded Tuesday over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all seven crew members. Lieutenant Commander James G. Simpson, a spokesman for the Coast Guard, said divers were dispatched to the scene after sonar readings aboard the Coast Guard cutter USCGC Dallas also indicated a large object or objects on the bottom of the ocean below the site where the floating wreckage was found. The discoveries were made as the investigators of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration pursued their inquiry into the causes of the explosion. Various theories began to emerge from sources close to the investigation. A spokesman for the service said divers were being sent to the scene of the discovery because sonar had also made multiple sightings in the same area of a large object or objects on the ocean bottom.
While major portions of the space shuttle Challenger were recovered from the Atlantic Ocean today, investigators met to study the meager evidence relating to the explosion that destroyed the spaceship and its crew of seven. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration refused to permit any of its officials to discuss the expanding investigation into the disaster Tuesday or to speculate on the possible causes of the worst accident in the nation’s 25 years of spacefaring. In a brief statement tonight, the space agency said the National Transportation Safety Board was joining the investigation, providing its expertise in reconstructing airplane accidents and their causes. The NASA panel met all day at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and was to resume its work Friday at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The White House is giving “serious consideration” to establishing an independent group to examine the future of the space program, senior White House officials said today. The officials said the group would focus on the future of the program rather than the cause of the explosion that destroyed the shuttle Challenger, which is already being investigated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. But the officials said the group would also look into how NASA conducts its own review of the explosion of the shuttle Tuesday morning. They said the proposal for the independent panel had not yet been presented to President Reagan, but that a determination would be made in the next few days. Senior White House officials, including Donald T. Regan, the chief of staff, and Vice Admiral John M. Poindexter, the national security adviser, have discussed establishing such a panel.
Space agency and Coast Guard officials have issued warnings that souvenir hunters face severe burns or death if they should happen to touch some of the debris from the space shuttle Challenger washing ashore from the Atlantic Ocean. In particular, officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration warned beachcombers about cylindrical green tanks with hemispheric ends, 96 inches long and 49 inches in diameter. According to Gatha F. Cottee, a spokesman at Kennedy Space Center, intact green tanks or fragments of tanks might be contaminated by the rocket fuel with which the tanks were filled when the space shuttle Challenge exploded on Tuesday. The officials advised anyone coming on such debris not to touch it and to immediately notify the authorities.
The parents of Christa McAuliffe emerged briefly from seclusion this afternoon to attend a memorial service, where Governor Michael S. Dukakis said that their daughter, who was to have been the first teacher in space, would now be “the inspiration for hundreds of thousands of young people in this country.” Meanwhile, classes resumed for half a day at the high school in Concord, New Hampshire, where Mrs. McAuliffe, who died when the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after its launching on Tuesday, had taught. President Reagan sent a message to the 1,200 students at the school, which will be read there at a special memorial service Friday. And Mrs. McAuliffe’s husband, Steven, issued a statement though his Concord law firm, expressing thanks for the wave of sympathy which followed her death. It read: “My children and I are very aware of the tremendous outpouring of grief and support across America. We wish to thank you all and hope you can understand our need for these private moments. We have all lost Christa. We thank you for respecting our privacy and for sharing our grief. We wish we could comfort all of you as you have comforted each of us. To the families of the other crewmembers, we send our love and share their sorrow.”
Eastern bloc and Western nations may be close to an agreement at the Stockholm conference on ways to reduce the risk of war in Europe, American officials say. The conference, which reconvened Tuesday, is considering measures that would require each side to give notification of military maneuvers and information about its forces in Europe. An agreement could be the first East-West arms control accord since the signing of the second strategic arms agreement in 1979. Progress at the talks could also encourage success at the next summit meeting between President Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader, later this year, according to Robert L. Barry, the American delegate to the conference. Mr. Barry said last week that there was a “good chance” of making progress at Stockholm. The talks, formally known as the Conference on Confidence and Security-Building Measures and Disarmament in Europe, were called for in the Helsinki agreement of 1975.
The British Government today barred three officials at the center of the so-called Westland controversy from giving evidence to a parliamentary committee of investigation. The opposition accused Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the House of Commons of attempting to conceal her full role in the storm over the ailing Westland helicopter company. Three officials of the Trade Ministry had earlier failed to appear before the House of Commons Defense Committee, which is investigating the Westland affair. They included the ministry’s chief information officer, Colette Bowe, who has been named in Parliament as the person who disclosed the contents of a confidential Government letter involving Westland. House of Commons committees have unqualified rights to summon witnesses and failure to appear technically constitutes contempt of Parliament. But Mrs. Thatcher defended the action in Parliament today, saying the committee’s request to interrogate private secretaries and personal staff had major implications for the conduct of government.
Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, returning home from an 11-day tour of Western Europe, conceded that his trip produced “no fundamental change” in prospects for Mideast peace talks. His remarks dampened hopes that Israel and Jordan, using U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard W. Murphy as an intermediary, had made progress toward opening talks on the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. In Amman, Jordan, meanwhile, a Palestinian source said four days of talks between King Hussein and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on reviving peace moves have been “inconclusive.”
President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt held talks with West German officials today, starting a two-day visit that is expected to center on his attempt to involve the Western European powers in the Middle East peace process. Mr. Mubarak, who arrived from France, has proposed that the Western Europeans form a group to prepare a Middle East peace conference that would include Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
A West German scientist has discovered a hole in the tail of Halley’s Comet, the Max-Planck Institute of Astronomy announced in Heidelberg. The institute released a photograph of the comet taken by astronomer Kurt Birkle on January 10 at the Calar Alto Observatory in southern Spain. The photo shows the comet’s tail with a dark spot, or hole, not far from the glowing head of the comet, the institute said. Scientists suspect that solar, whirlwind-like forces may be the cause.
The establishment of a Roman Catholic convent near the site of the Auschwitz death camp has caused dismay among some Jewish groups in the United States and Western Europe who call it an affront to the memory of the Jews who were killed there by the Nazis. A group of Carmelite nuns has been living in an unused theater just outside the Auschwitz site in southern Poland since late 1984. But the presence of the convent, which was set up as a place of prayer for all who died in the camp, was apparently not widely known until a fund-raising appeal was begun last year in Europe by a Catholic group in an effort to renovate the building in which 10 nuns now live. The group, Aid to the Church in Distress, has also been criticized by some Jewish and Catholic leaders for a statement issued in conjunction with the fund-raising drive, in which it raised $150,000 in Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands during Pope John Paul II’s visit to these countries last May.
The United States vetoed an Arab-backed U.N. Security Council resolution that would have strongly deplored Israeli “acts which have violated the sanctity” of Muslim shrines in Jerusalem. Thirteen other Security Council members, including Washington’s European allies and Australia, supported the resolution, which said the alleged Israeli provocations “constitute a serious obstruction” to peace. The latest dispute began January 8 when a group of Israeli members of Parliament visited the Temple Mount, sacred to Muslims and Jews, ostensibly to check on reports of unauthorized Muslim construction.
Two masked men in an auto sprayed gunshots at a police car at a gate to Jerusalem’s Old City, killing an Israeli policeman and wounding a passing couple, police said. Four Palestinians were arrested as suspects, police said. Police spokesman Rafi Levy said the shooting appeared to be criminal-perhaps drug-related-and not politically motivated. The attack near Jaffa Gate was expected to fuel concern among Israelis, pilgrims and tourists about continued violence in the walled Old City, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East War.
Jordan has sent Israel an informal message through the United States saying that a gunman who crossed the Jordan River on Wednesday and killed two Israeli soldiers was not sent by Jordan, Israeli officials said today. The Jordanians said the gunman was apparently a deserter acting on his own initiative, He was wearing civilian clothes but carried identity papers indicating he was on active duty with the Jordanian Army. The Jordanians also reaffirmed their policy of preventing infiltrations across the Jordan River into Israel, the Israeli officials said. Today, Jordanian soldiers could be seen intensively combing the area where the gunman had penetrated into Israel. “We accepted the Jordanian explanation and I don’t think you will see us take the matter any further,” a senior Israeli official said.
Artillery duels raged between rival factions in Beirut today, and shells struck the presidential palace in a Christian suburb of Beirut and the campus of the American University of Beirut in the Muslim sector of the capital. No casualties were reported in either case, but the three-hour bombardment sent people running for cover and schools rushed students home as soon as it subsided. Classes at the university were also suspended. The new violence broke out as Muslim and leftist groups continued to demand that the country’s President, Amin Gemayel, who is a Christian, resign because he has refused to accept a Syrian-brokered peace agreement signed last month by leaders of Druze, Shiite Muslim and Christian militias. Mr. Gemayel and other Christian leaders say the agreement would require unacceptable political concessions by the Christians. The police said several shells and Katyusha rockets crashed around the two-story presidential palace, in Baabda, while others fell on the football field of the university, which overlooks the Mediterranean.
The Administration is considering granting licenses to American oil companies to let them continue to receive some income from Libya after President Reagan’s economic sanctions go into effect Saturday, a senior Administration official said today. He said a high-level State Department and Treasury group was acting on requests from oil companies operating in Libya to exempt them, in effect, from the ban on further business with Libya. The official said the licenses would prevent the Libyans from reaping a “windfall” from the assets and income of the companies. Under the original sanctions announced by Mr. Reagan on January 7, all Americans and American companies were to cease commercial dealings with Libya by February 1. All Americans, except journalists and those with special humanitarian permission to remain, such as spouses of Libyans, were ordered to leave Libya.
About 100 Americans left Libya in the largest group departure since President Reagan ordered American citizens to leave the country by Saturday. Many of the departing Americans refused to give their names or identify their employers, but several expressed bitterness about having to leave lucrative jobs.
Two appeals court judges ruled today that a lower court judge made three technical errors in sentencing three Sikhs to death last week in the murder of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Legal experts said that the case would probably go back to Judge Mahesh Chandra, who tried the three men, to enable him to correct the errors, but that it was unlikely the verdict and sentencing would be changed.
Government troops attacked Tamil separatist guerrillas in the north of Sri Lanka, setting off a battle that left 16 army troops dead, a Tamil rebel group said today. The battle took place Wednesday in the village of Parappukadanthan in the Mannar district, the Press Trust of India quoted a rebel spokesman as having said in the southern Indian city of Madras. Sri Lankan Government officials could not be reached for comment on the report.
The U.S. promised Manila more aid if the basic policy changes sought by Washington are made by the victor in the Philippine election next Friday. A statement by President Reagan said “significantly larger” economic and military aid would be considered if Manila makes the changes. Mr. Reagan said in a statement that the Philippines had been “a friend and ally at a critical juncture in its history.” He added that the Presidential election on February 7 was “of great importance to the future of democracy.” “If the will of the Filipino people is expressed in an election that Filipinos accept as credible — and if whoever is elected undertakes fundamental economic, political and military reforms — we should consider, in consultation with the Congress, a significantly larger program of economic and military assistance for the Philippines for the next five years,” he said.
President Ferdinand E. Marcos contended today that his decree of martial law 13 years ago was akin to the American Constitution in guaranteeing a “free and open society.” In a caustic campaign speech here before a group of business leaders that provoked both applause and derision, Mr. Marcos dismissed his challenger, Corazon C. Aquino, as a utopian who “caricatures” him as a dictator. “She dreams of having the lion of Communism lie with the lamb of democracy,” he declared. “So many crimes have been attributed to this administration that if they were true at all, the country would need exorcism instead of free elections,” Mr. Marcos said.
Apprehension is growing that there will be unrest and reprisals after the presidential election next week, and many people, particularly those who oppose President Ferdinand E. Marcos, say they are making contingency plans for themselves and their families. In a series of interviews, people involved in the campaign of Corazon C. Aquino and in a nationwide poll-watching body told of arranging for safe refuges, of buying airline tickets for the week of the election, sending children abroad, withdrawing money from banks and hoarding foodstuffs. A new air of tension has appeared around the election, and the nation appears increasingly polarized. Mrs. Aquino has charged that if Mr. Marcos finds himself trailing in the polls he will find a way to alter the returns and assure his own victory.
Canada’s Progressive Conservative Government found itself under attack today for a 13-year-old admission by Erik Nielsen, now the Deputy Prime Minister, that the Conservatives eavesdropped on weekly caucus meetings of Liberal Party legislators in Parliament in the 1960’s. The weekly caucus meeting gathers a party’s members of Parliament, including Cabinet ministers, to discuss and formulate their party strategy. Because the Liberals held power under Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson in the late 1960’s, Mr. Nielsen’s comments implied that the Conservatives in opposition were privy to the Government’s policy secrets. The disclosure was made by The Toronto Star newspaper, which obtained an interview that Mr. Nielsen recorded in 1973 with Peter Stursberg, an author who was writing a book about the late John Diefenbaker, who was Prime Minister from 1957 to 1963.
The State Department has decided to cut back aid to Haiti because of human rights abuses, department officials said today. The statements came as three more deaths were reported in increasing unrest in several Haitian towns. The deaths brought to 10 the number reported in the last two months of growing demonstrations against the 15-year-old rule of President Jean-Claude Duvalier. Today Mr. Duvalier ordered the international airport in the northern city of Cap-Haitien, where some of the protests occurred, closed until further notice. The State Department decision is expected to be formally announced in the next few days. As a result, after the Haitian Government has been formally notified, it will fail to receive about $7 million in direct aid. A total of about $52 million in aid, including humanitarian assistance, had been allocated for 1986. Originally the Reagan Administration had requested $56 million in aid for Haiti.
Some 2,000 Government troops began an offensive against leftist guerrillas today on the flanks of a volcano in eastern San Vicente Province, military officials and civilians said. Local residents reached by phone said air force planes began to bomb the volcano, 26 miles southeast of San Salvador, at dawn, with explosions rocking houses in surrounding towns.
Rebel saboteurs cost El Salvador’s national power system losses of more than $1.2 million in January, the government electrical monopoly said. The guerrillas promised more attacks — 60 high-tension transmission towers and more than 100 power poles were destroyed this month. They also announced a traffic stoppage, to go into effect today, that could hamper the coffee harvest. The leftist guerrillas are putting increasing emphasis on striking at the Salvadoran economy in their war against the U.S.-supported government. Since 1980, they have carried out more than 3,500 attacks on the power grid.
Guatemala’s new civilian government will prosecute members of former military regimes suspected of involvement in the disappearances of thousands of political opponents, Interior Minister Juan Jose Rodil Peralta said. “If there exist military personnel guilty of disappearances over the past few years, they will be taken to court, along with any implicated civilians,” Rodil said at a news conference. He vowed to cancel an amnesty decree issued by the former military government. Rodil also acknowledged the presence of secret prisons, which he called “illegal detention centers.” A Guatemalan human rights group says that 38,000 disappeared people are being held as political prisoners.
In what appears to be a high-stakes move in an internal army power struggle, the head of the politically powerful Honduran military said today that he would soon resign his post for “personal reasons.” The unexpected move could affect American policy in Honduras, because the army controls the flow of United States assistance to Nicaraguan rebels who are based there. The Honduran Army also has the power to topple the new civilian Government of Honduras, which took office three days ago. The promised resignation by the military chief, General Walter Lopez Reyes, follows a two-year struggle over succession within the Honduran military. It is not clear why the general offered to step down now, but several sources in Honduras said the reasons are probably more tied to internal army politics than to wider political issues.
President Reagan met today with Jonas Savimbi, whose South African-backed forces are fighting the Soviet-backed Angolan Government, and said the United States wanted to find the best way “to be very helpful” to his cause. But Mr. Reagan did not offer any specific aid to Mr. Savimbi, a senior Administration official said later, and there continued to be a question of what kind of support might be provided his forces. Angola has an avowedly Marxist Government. Congressional sources said the Administration had informed the Senate and House Intelligence Committees that it planned up to $15 million in covert aid for Mr. Savimbi’s forces, but State Department officials insisted no final decision had been made yet on going ahead with that aid, pending further consultations with Congress.
A black sailor was found guilty of premeditated murder in the fatal stabbing of a white officer, a verdict that could result in the Navy’s first use of the death penalty since 1849. An eight-member military jury deliberated in Newport, Rhode Island, for nearly four hours before finding Petty Officer 3d Class Mitchell T. Garraway Jr. guilty in the slaying of Lieutenant James K. Sterner aboard the Navy frigate USS Miller last June, when the vessel was off Bermuda. The Navy prosecutor, Lieut. Daniel E. O’Toole, said in closing arguments that evidence “shrieks out” that Mr. Garraway planned the stabbing death and then tried to hide his plans.
President Reagan participates in a breakfast meeting with Republican leaders from both Houses of Congress to discuss the Administration’s legislative agenda.
The President and First Lady attend the 13th Annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). President Reagan urged conservatives tonight to press ahead with their agenda of domestic and foreign policy issues, saying “the tide of history is all but irreversibly turned our way.” But he warned that conservatives could face a “costly tactical defeat” in this year’s Congressional elections unless they pull together. Speaking before the Conservative Political Action Conference, Mr. Reagan said conservatives should thrust their issues to the front of this year’s political debate. Mr. Reagan said, “We must tell the American people that the progress we made thus far is not enough; that it will never be enough until the conservative agenda is enacted, and that means enterprise zones, prayer in the public schools and the protection of the unborn.”
Republicans as well as Democrats must share the blame for the Government’s overspending, according to David A. Stockman, the Reagan Administration’s former budget director. Mr. Stockman, in an interview in the March issue of Penthouse magazine, said that when he took over as director of the Office of Management and Budget in 1981 he believed he could help achieve President Reagan’s goal of cutting taxes and balancing the budget without decreasing military programs.
Linda Chavez, one of the Reagan Administration’s most prominent women and Latinos, will resign from her post as director of the White House public liaison office Monday to run for the Republican nomination to the U.S. Senate in Maryland with the “blessing” of President Reagan. Chavez, 38, a Democrat until last year and a liberal aide to former Rep. Don Edwards (D-California), will seek the seat being vacated by Republican Senator Charles McC. Mathias Jr., who is retiring.
A host of police groups representing chiefs and officers on the beat implored the House to defeat Senate-passed legislation easing gun controls, saying Congress’ failure to do so would be “adding to the carnage” in the streets. Insisting that the Senate bill allowing resumption of interstate sales of guns would increase the availability of handguns, the organizations urged House members to oppose the legislation “in the name of sanity.”
The Justice Department declined to say whether it has completed an investigation of Geraldine A. Ferraro’s finances and whether it has ruled out plans to prosecute the former vice presidential candidate. Department spokesman John Russell said the investigation was still open and he would not comment on stories about the investigation in the New York Times and Newsday. A Ferraro aide said he has received no official word from the Justice Department about closing the case without charges.
The Internal Revenue Service, making an all-out effort to avoid a repetition of the tax-handling delays of last year, has processed more than four times as many returns as at this time in 1985. During the first 24 days of the year, 2.17 million individual returns were received at the 10 IRS regional service centers, contrasted with 2.77 million during the same period last year. The agency processed 382,000 returns through January 24, and 87,000 last year at this time. “All 10 service centers report no significant processing problems so far,” IRS spokesman Larry Batdorf said.
The Army has grounded AH-64 helicopters following the discovery of cracks in the main rotor blades of 13 of the new attack helicopters, the Pentagon announced. The Army grounded all of its new Apache gunship helicopters as a precaution after cracks were found on 13 main rotor blades, some of them on test aircraft, the Pentagon said. In a brief statement, the Pentagon said the Army issued the grounding order “as a precautionary measure…. There have been no accidents related to the main rotor blade.” The service has also decided to suspend the acceptance of any more Apaches from the manufacturer, McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Co. of Mesa, Arizona, pending the results of an investigation. The AH-64 Apache, is the successor to the Huey Cobra of Vietnam.
A trucking company employee went on a shooting rampage in an Oklahoma City neighborhood and then at work, killing three people and wounding four others, including a little girl and a man he locked in a car trunk, before surrendering, police said. Cyril Wayne Ellis, 24, of Oklahoma City, was booked on two complaints of murder and one of assault with a deadly weapon, authorities said. Police said they know of no motive and have not determined a connection between the man and the victims except that four were co-workers at Consolidated Freightways.
Portland, Oregon’s Mayor and Police Chief are embroiled in a dispute with the police union over the quality of law enforcement. The specific issue is that the city’s burglary rate, 40.8 for each 1,000 residents, is the highest in the nation for the third year in a row. The police union says the persistence of this ranking, which was an issue in the 1984 mayoral campaign, reflects incompetence on the part of both Police Chief Penney E. Harrington and Mayor Bud Clark, who appointed her a year ago just after he took office. Both Chief Harrington and Mayor Clark say that more burglars are being arrested than ever before but that they keep committing crimes because overcrowding put revolving doors on jail cells.
Vermont has been moving leftward and away from Republicanism at a time when Republicans are challenging Democrats nationally as the majority party for the first time since the Depression. The dominant faction in Vermont’s State Senate describes itself as “progressive.”. The shift has been particularly striking because Vermont has for many years been one of the most heavily Republican states in the country, one of only two to vote against Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936. In fact, when Peter Welch ran for the Vermont Senate in 1980, no Democrat had won any office in his county along the Connecticut River facing New Hampshire since the Civil War. Friends told Mr. Welch his quest was “ludicrous.” No one else even wanted the Democratic nomination.
The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Havana pleaded without success with Governor Bob Graham on Wednesday to stop next week’s scheduled execution of a Cuban refugee convicted of killing a man in a burglary. The Archbishop, Msgr. Jaime Ortega Alamino, appealed in a letter to Governor Graham to “intercede with your good works” on behalf of the refugee, Omar Blanco, 35 years old. He is scheduled to die Tuesday. Governor Graham said he had not seen the Archbishop’s letter but would not grant clemency. Court records show the condemned man shot John Ryan several times in a struggle after Mr. Ryan awoke to find Mr. Blanco burglarizing his home in 1982. Mr. Ryan’s niece, 14 years old, was also awakened and she later identified Mr. Blanco as the killer.
The Austin, Minnesota flagship plant of Geo. A. Hormel & Company, idled by a five-month-old strike, said today that it expected to have 750 meatpackers on the job by Friday. That is about three-fourths of the number needed to resume full production, company officials said. Paul Goldberg, head of the Minnesota State Mediation Service, said if the numbers were correct, the strike by union meatpackers would be “practically over.” Deryl Arnold, the plant manager, said 305 of the 1,500 strikers had returned to work. He said the company had hired about 300 new employees to replace strikers, leaving about 150 more workers to be hired by Friday to reach 750. Mr. Arnold said the plant would reach full production with about 1,025 workers, about 500 fewer than before the strike. Union officials disputed the figures. The Hormel strike began over wage cutbacks, seniority and safety.
A Common Pleas Court judge issued a temporary restraining order Wednesday against owners of Philadelphia’s Bellevue Stratford Hotel, who had planned to close the hotel Sunday. The judge, Alfred DiBona, acting on the request of hotel employees, scheduled a hearing Friday on whether the owners should be allowed to close the 82-year-old Victorian hotel as planned. The Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union argued that the closing would violate a city ordinance requiring business owners to give workers 60 days’ notice of a shutdown. The Bellevue Stratford’s owners announced the closing on January 22, citing declining business and mounting debts. Rubin Associates, the principal owner, said it hoped to develop the 18-story building into offices, retail shops and a small luxury hotel. Jimmy Smalls, president of Local 274 of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union, said he was elated after Judge DiBona’s ruling. He said: “We are on third base. We’ve got to get to home now.”
A 7-year-old Idaho boy whose father killed his mother after a bitter custody fight is once again the center of a legal dispute, with his grandparents seeking to prevent another relative from gaining permanent guardianship. The boy, Jeffrey Hayden, was left an orphan January 4 when his adoptive father, Kenneth A. Hayden, broke into the bedroom of his former wife, Judy McLean, and shot her to death. Mrs. McLean’s husband, Kermit, then shot and killed Mr. Hayden.
In Texas, the state’s “no-pass, no-play” rule has barred nearly a quarter of Dallas’s students from extracurricular activities for the third time this school year, but officials say the failure rate of students is down slightly. Figures released Wednesday by officials of the Dallas School District show that 24.5 percent of the district’s 4,300 students taking part in sports were failing in at least one subject. Under the statewide rule, students who fail a course are disqualified from extracurricular activities, including athletics, for six weeks. The district reported the latest figures compared with a 27 percent failure rate in the first six weeks of the school year and a 25.3 percent rate in the second six weeks.
A panel of leading scientists proposed the first uniform guidelines today for protecting the public and the environment against the potential dangers of genetically altered farm chemicals and other products of the infant industry of biotechnology. The recommendations were in a report prepared by 10 scientists who are helping the Environmental Protection Agency shape an approach to regulate the release of genetically altered organisms into the environment. Dr. Martin Alexander, a microbiologist at Cornell University, chairman of the panel that prepared the report, noted that the guidelines were unusual in that no such releases had yet occurred. “This is an extraordinary and historic process,” Dr. Alexander said. “Our regulatory programs have always been established after the problem is apparent. The biotechnology case is unique because regulatory agencies are moving to limit the consequences of a technology before it has caused any damage.”
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1552.18 (-6.76)
Born:
Jordan Pacheco, MLB first baseman, pinch hitter, and third baseman (Colorado Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks, Cincinnati Reds), in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Nick Evans, MLB pinch hitter, outfielder, and first baseman (New York Mets, Arizona Diamondbacks), in Glendale, Arizona.
Mark Rogers, MLB pitcher (Milwaukee Brewers), in Brunswick, Maine.
Sam Duckworth, British singer-songwriter, born in Essex, England, United Kingdom.
Died:
Ticker Freeman, 74, American pianist (“Dinah Shore Show”), and songwriter (“Baby Don’t Be Mad at Me”).
History Diaries 