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Show "tx IHIaDw ADDDmnt lit? VncSwTiDaDnnQtl; On Monday, Steven Judy was put to death in an electric chair in Indiana for murdering a mother and her three children. For what crimes do you think the death penalty is justified? JoeBeuschel I think for premeditated murder and atrocious crimes, tne death penalty is justified. A crime of passion, perhaps, could Page A2 Thursday, March 12,1981 i warrant life imprisonment, depending on ine cirtuuww S3 - "1 S "0. Hopefully, city has learned from Prospector Park problems The Prospector Park subdivision has been a growing thorn in the sides of both residents and city officials since the approval of the first phase in 1977. Broken promises by the developers to make improvements in the area irritated the sore spot over the years, and by last fall, the problem had become a festering wound. Property owners complained that as citizens, they deserved deser-ved the support of the city in locating the elusive developers develop-ers to force them to make the improvements. Although sympathetic, the city initially took the position that since the subdivision had not been accepted, it was not its responsibility respon-sibility to mediate problems between land seller and land buyer. But when a detailed research project was initiated by the City Council last year, it became evident that the city had played too passive a role all along. Contrary to its own decree, the Planning Commission continued to approve new phases of the subdivision before the required improvements were made in previous phases; bonds that would have allowed the city to make the improvements im-provements itself were released; important documentation documen-tation and meeting minutes either were misfiled or never filed in city offices. Efforts by the city to gain cooperation from the developers develop-ers were futile, and last October a suit was filed in district court against Murray First Thrift, et al. That suit was set tled this week out of court. An agreement was signed that guarantees the improvements will be madewithin a year. A $200,000 irrevocable letter of credit now supports those guarantees. vj City officials are a little older and a little wiser now, bjit it has been a painful growing up process. It's clear that developers have been aware for a number of yearf of Park City's incredible growth potential, and they've been capitalizing on the fact that the city government has! not been prepared to cope with it. But the city has realized that its biggest problems have been an inadequate staff and a lax enforcement of its Sown policies. j City Manager Arlene Loble said this week that boiji of those problems have been addressed, and that the city now 's in a position to not only keep pace with development! but io anticipate it. When developers now approach the city, they are met with a beefed-up planning and building department depart-ment that scrutinizes and inspects projects from the ground up. Bonds are demanded guaranteeing that city-required improvements will be made, and occupancy permits bre withheld until those improvements are completed. The city will undoubtedly make mistakes in the future, and it will learn the hard way where its shortcomings are. But hopefully, it will not make the same mistakes again that created the fiasco in Prospector Park. BBM acEEfiSTKf'i gkmsi HeAR ne'5 mm us to me time big horn,,. BUT ONLY AS ADVISORS,,. TWHt-TIt 63 wi 5 T! by Jack Anderson yy U5SCjilDy 9 UU5UTiiCiH & Joe Spear Note to federal cost cutters: track down those deadbeats Washington President Ronald Reagan Rea-gan is cracking down hard on waste and fraud in government. In this spirit, we can pass on a suggestion worth billions : Just collect the money that is owed to Uncle Sam. The sad fact is that the federal government has the lousiest bill collectors on earth. Anyone who has ever been hounded for a $15 or $20 mistake in his or her income taxes may find this hard to believe: In fiscal year 1979, the back taxes and other debts owed to the federal government for more than 90 days amounted to a staggering $20 billion. According to the bookkeepers, that $20 billion in overdue bills amounts to just about 40 percent of all the money owed io the government. In other words, two out of every five dollars owed to Uncle Sam is past due. Any private businessman who had to carry that many deadbeats would face bankruptcy. President Reagan's crackdown on fraud and waste, moreover, won't guarantee that the government will ever recover the money, much less collect the penalties that are due. Four years ago, Rep. Jack Brooks, D-Texas, identified 14,000 audit reports in 34 government agencies that showed money was owed to the government. The total amount of this particular uncollected debt came to $4 billion. Now the General Accounting Office is reviewing the figures to see if any improvements have been made. The report is not yet ready, but the title alone tells the whole sad story: "Disappointing progress has been made in improving systems for resolving billions in audit findings." A Big Business: The nation's third largest industry prospers from inflation, infla-tion, is immune to recession and is not bothered by unemployment. We are speaking of organized crime. It's a multibillion-dollar industry whose business deals are enforced with muscle and murder. Organized crime could never flouish on such a scale without government connivance. It's protected by cynical alliances between urban politicians and underworld bosses. One crime family alone costs the American public a bundle. This is the Vito Genovese family, based in New York. Those who don't shoot heroin or play the numbers may think they don't contribute to the Genovese mob. The truth is that anyone who drives a foreign car, eats bananas or drinks coffee has been paying tribute to the Genovese family. According to law enforcement sources, the Genovese mob has control over most East Coast shipping, from Miami to New York City. The family controls these docks through the longshoremen who work on them. A secret Justice Department report states flatly that a majority of longshoremen's locals are "completely dominated by organized crime." It's not just ripoffs on the waterfront that enrich the Genovese mob. This crime family was also responsible for dumping huge amounts of poisonous chemical waste illegally in Elizabeth, N.J. The dump exploded, exposing millions of people in New Jersey and New York to the toxic fumes. The Genovese mob is also deeply involved in brutal contract killings. Secret Surveys: The president's private pollster, Richard Wirthlin, has been asking Americans across the land some detailed questions. What do they like about Reagan? What do they dislike? What's the most important problem facing the country? The second most important problem? 1 jf -y; . , 4 'jr., , f Lea BarneS Mainly I think the death penalty should be enforced in cases of premeditated murder. Joe Schorr I would say a crime of murder the degree of which to be determined by a jury warrants the death penalty. In a determination of first degree murder by the jury, the judge should be able to impose the death penalty. Jim Greenbaum A premeditated murder definitely should yield the death penalty. A crime of passion should be dealt with by the discretion of the judge and jury. Jane Semmens I feel that Steven Judy deserved the death penalty. If people in this country were punished more for the crimes committed, they would think twice before committing the crime, and the chances of getting off would be far less than they are presently. 1 m J .. !! m I i ! - " . 1 - Matt Merritt I believe that some criminals cannot be rehabilitated. Prisons should not be a place just to lock people away, but a place to rehabilitate . Rehabilitation prospects should be determined by a judge and jury. If the decision is reached that the person is indeed not capable of rehabilitation, then society should have the right to impose the death penalty. by Stanley Karnow ; French government tightening control over media as election approaches Then the questions focus on federal spending. Should spending be increased, in-creased, reduced or kept the same for unemployment benefits? For Social Security? For food stamps? Fdr defense? And so on. j Wirthlin has reported back to the White House that most Americans lilte Reagan. They like his style and applau i ' his performance. They wish him success with his economic program. But the majority are also withholding judgment. They aren't convinced that Reagan can slow inflation be reducing federal expenditures and cutting taxeSi They have a "wait and see" attitude:- Wirthlin has advised the president that he must educate the public before he can expect them to accept his economic ideas. So Reagan is planning a propaganda blitz. He will turn loose his subordinates on radio and television to promote his economic program. Headlines and Footnotes: Western , observers were counting coffins to find out how many casualties the Soviets suffered in battles with Afghan freedom fighters. As a countermea-sure, countermea-sure, the Russians began building" bigger coffins to hold three or four bodies and began burying their dead in mass graves right on the battlefield... Government whistleblowers take note: The Office of Special Counsel, which was created to handle whistleblowers' tips, takes an average of 195 days to process a case from start to finish. And it's usually about three months before the understaffed office even begins to investigate complaints A secret Defense De-fense Intelligence Agency report says that Cuba has developed surface-to-air missiles which can travel threev,times as far as their old ones. In other words, Cuban missiles can now easily hit targets above Florida. Copyright, 1981 United Feature Syndicate, Inc. ! Paris To some degree or another, the French press traditionally has been an instrument of political parties, business interests or both. But now the government and its corporate supporters suppor-ters are tightening their influence over newspapers, magazines and especially radio and television here in ways that would shock an American journalist accustomed to unbridled freedom. The trend coincides with the presidential elections scheduled to take place in May. Though President Valery Giscard d'Estaing seems at the moment to be unbeatable, he is taking no chances. Thus he is exerting heavy pressure on the media to espouse his cause. Managing television is relatively easy. France's three channels are run by the government, and their directors and department heads are hand-picked by Giscard for their loyalty to him, So there is no need for him to dictate to them directly. Instead, the television executives practice a kind of self-censorship, self-censorship, avoiding issues that might tarnish Giscard's reputation. Frequently, Frequent-ly, however, uncooperative broadcasters broad-casters are politely purged. Not long ago, for example, when one television commentator referred to allegations of Madame Giscards dealings on the Paris stock exchange, he was quietly transferred to the foreign staff. Similarly, a televised press roundup was dropped from the air after it reported repor-ted that Giscard allegedly had received diamonds from Emperor Bokassa, the former ruler of the Central African Republic. The story had been widely Newspaper published in the newspapers here, but it presumably was considered to be unfit for television. "We have public responsibilities to take into account," explained a spokesman for the channel. A journalist friend of mine puts it differently: "Television belongs to whomever is in power. If Giscard were defeated, his successor would do the same. It's the system." The government exercises the same sway over radio. Only one station, France-Inter, actually is owned by the state. But three others, while theoretically independent, are controlled con-trolled by a government company whose boss is a former Giscard spokesman. Unlicensed private radio stations pop up from time to time, but their programs often are jammed. Their protests against police persecution usually are ignored by the government. Another ominous development that has been unfolding Tiere lately is the growing power of press lords who sympathize sym-pathize with Giscard and therefore owe their clout to his patronage. A law dating back to 1944, for instance, in-stance, prohibits the concentration of newspapers in individual hands. Nevertheless, Never-theless, a Giscard supporter by the name of Robert Hersant owns two daily newspapers in Paris in addition to other publications in the provinces. Another Giscard crony with important impor-tant media holdings is Sir James Goldsmith, Gold-smith, who has dual British and French nationality. He owns the popular French news magazine L 'Express and an irreverent London weekly called Now. Last month, when Now published an article critical of Giscard by its Paris correspondent, Goldsmith voluntarily withdrew sales of the issue in France so as not to offend his friend the president. Even more troubling to proponents of press liberties here was the recent acquisition of Hachette, the largest French publishing and distribution company, by one of the biggest weapons manufacturers in France. The weapons corporation, Matra, now owns more than 100 subsidiaries formerly controlled by Hachette, among them a news magazine, a women's weekly, several major book publishers and France's leading producer of paperbacks. Though Matra spokesmen claim that the conglomerate will not be subservient subser-vient to the government, French media specialists think otherwiseThey point out, quite accurately, in- my dplnfoil, that a weapons firm with close government govern-ment links cannot afford to give its publications a free rein. All this does not mean that there are no outspoken newspapers here. Ldj Monde, the most respected Paris daily, regularly needles the government. Even more rambunctious is the Canard Enchaine, a lively weekly that regularly attacks Giscard with brutal wit. On the whole, though, it seems to me that a French equivalent of Watergate never would have been revealed here, which is paradoxicaLfor a nation that prides itself on its devotion to civil liberties. ( Released by The Register and Tribune Syndicate, 1981) Subscription Kates, $6 a year in Summit County, $12 a year outside Summit County Published by Ink, Inc. USPS 378-:! 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