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Show ?,:.,ft.-,..- Inside Today: Nation State Expert: Quake could nail Utah students grade their schools higher than do students in Japan U.S. Saturday, September 22, 1990 PageA2 LUST" 77 2 a Sports Oath costs Boy Provo ambushes Scouts funding Orem High Page J . A5 Page . B1 50 Cents Issue No. 53, Provo, Utah Central Utah's Newspaper for 116 Years 21-1- 7 ush: terrorism will bring 'serious conse - WASHINGTON Presi(AP) dent Bush said Friday that Iraqi for terrorism against support Americans would bring "serious consequences" and declined to rule out a first strike against Iraq by U.S.-le- d military forces. "We hold Saddam Hussein responsible if there is any terrorist act against us," he declared. The president stressed his concern about terrorism by Iraq in a morning session with congressional leaders and again in a brief news conference on the White House lawn as he prepared to leave for a weekend at Camp David, Md. FDIC files civil suit The White House later announced that the administration would ask Congress early next week to expand arms sales to Saudi Arabia, with an expedited first phase of equipment and training. A request for other items that are not as urgent will be sent early next year, Deputy White House Press Secretary Roman Popadiuk said in a statement. Popadiuk would not discuss the amount of the proposed new arms sales, but reports circulating have put the figure as high as $21 billion, well above the $2.3 billion package already submitted to Con is doing to Kuwait." Iraq The New York Times said, however, the first phase of the sale would total $5 billion to $8 billion and include thousands of trucks and TOW antitank missiles. It said more controversial sales of 5 fighter planes and M- -l tanks would be in the second phase next year. Resorting to unusually strong terms, Bush also voiced a "deep and growing concern over what "There seems to be a systematic dismantling of Kuwait that does violence to the rights of every single Kuwaiti but also sends a signal that he (Saddam) is trying to incorporate Kuwait into kind of a piece of territory of Iraq," Bush said. He spoke as the Persian Gulf crisis heated up on the diplomatic level, with Iraq's decision to expel billion. F-1- three American diplomats. The United States retaliated by expelling three Iraqi diplomats from And he gress. The Washington Post, quoting an unidentified source, said the $21 billion was being scaled back under congressional pressure to about $10 that if the United Nations decides to widen its embargo against Iraq to include intercepting air traffic, "obviously the United States would do its part." said did not want to send a signal "that I'm shifting more to the military." In his meeting with congressional leaders, Bush said, "I indicated to the congressmen that I want to see a peaceful solution. Obviously these economic sanctions are going to take some time to work." On other gulf topics: Bush said Saddam is welcome to try to persuade U.S. TV networks to air his videotaped message to the American people but "there's very little he can say." To reports that Saddam's tape runs as long as 90 minutes, Bush said, (See GULF, Page A2) Washington. Bush said economic sanctions against Iraq authorized by the United Nations remained "the major thrust of our policy." But, asked whether he could make a commitment not to take the first shot at Iraq, Bush said: "I'm not making any commitments. ... There are so many contingencies. ... The treatment of American citizens is one thing that concerns me greatly." At the same time, Bush said he Cattlemen, f rme V aqainst t . Neis Bush - WASHINGTON (AP) Federal regulators filed a $200 million suit against President Bush's son Neil and otner officers of the failed Silverado Banking, Savings and Loan Association on Friday, accusing them of "gross negligence" contributing to the institution's col lapse. The civil suit, filed by the Federal Deposit In- surance Corp. in U.S. District Court in Denver, said the defend- ants "repeatedly breached their t duties" to the Denver-base- said al In the nation's second r.iost arid state, the drought has hit the southern half the Neil Bush Bush and the other outside directors failed to properly monitor the affairs of Silverado and the conduct of its senior management. "Our conclusion is that Silverado was the victim of sophisticated schemes and abuses by insiders and of gross negligence by its directors and outside professionals," FDIC Senior Deputy General Counsel Douglas H. Jones said in a statement. "We are seeking in this case to recover every available dollar for the federal deposit insurance funds and the American taxpayers," Jones said. Bush, 35, served from August 1985 to August 1988 on the board of Silverado, which was seized by regulators on Dec. 9, 1988. The failure cost taxpayers an estimated $1 billion. Bush and his attorneys were not immediately available for com- rate case ment. He has denied any wrongdoing concerning Silverado in a sepaconflict-of-intere- 750-ac- re hardest, meteorologists and ranchers stitution and its depositors. It ar year." in- d - In a normal SALT LAKE CITY (AP) year, southern Utah rancher Van Wiley will run 500 cattle on rangeland that stretches from his valley home in Antimony to the towering mountains on either side. But a four-yedry spell has deteriorated into the worst drought Wiley has seen in 72 years on his ranch in south-centrUtah. This year he's running just 250 animals. "We use a lot of ponds for our livestock, and many of them are dry," Wiley said. "We have been getting a Little rain, but it's too late to do us any good this st brought against him by the Office of Thrift Supervision. The FDIC said improper loans and investments were made by Silverado's officers and approved by its directors. Many of the trans- actions violated federal ions, it said. regulat- The law firm and its attorneys placed "the interests of a few insiders over those of the institution they were retained to protect," the FDIC said in a statement. agree. Many springs and reservoirs are bone dry, and forage is so sparse that federal land officials have sharply curtailed grazing rights to preserve what there is for next year. But that doesn't mean the nortn hasn't suffered. Gary Rose, who runs cattle on 105,000 acres of private and public land in the northwest corner of the state, says agree they haven't seen a dry spell like this since the 1930s, the dust bowl decade. "I've lived here a number of years and I've never seen it this dry," said Rose, a past president of the Utah Cattlemen's Association and current president of the Utah Beef Council. With measures such as piping water to cattle troughs, Rose has been able to survive the drought, now in its fourth year in the north. Next year's success depends on whether the winter brings enough snowfall to fill the aquifers, streams and reservoirs in the spring. "If we don't get a substantial amount of snowpack, we'll get out of business," he said. How dry is it? Greg McCurdy, staff assistant climatol-ogis- t at Utah State University, said the Palmer Drought Index, which includes temperature and precipitation, classifies drought conditions on a scale that measures extreme drought at minus 2.0 to minus 3.0 and severe drought at minus 3.0 to minus 4.0. Utah's rating at the end of August was minus 4.5 to minus 5. Bill Alder, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City, said conventional wisdom holds that old-time- rs a dry spell will last three to four years, perhaps five at the longest. The last single year of severe drought was in 1977, when winter passed with barely a hint of precipitation. But that May, enough rain fell to provide sufficient culinary and irrigation water, recalled state climatologist Gaylen Ashcroft. And 1983 brought the beginning of a four-yea- r wet cycle that flooded the Great Salt Lake, sent mudslides rumbling down canyons along the Wasatch Front and transformed Salt Lake City's State Street into a makeshift canal for the raging spring runoff. This year, however, the water year that ends Sept. 30 shows just 77 percent of the statewide average of 10.59 inches of precipitation annually. Some areas of southern Utah have had barely half the normal amount, while percentages hover in the 70 to 80 percent range elsewhere, Ashcroft said. And in all but the Uintah Basin and the northern mountains, Utah is in extreme drought, he said. By way of example, the level of the Great Salt Lake has dropped 9 feet since s. its peak in the Bear Lake, on the Utah-Idah- o border, is down 12 feet and giant Lake Powell to the south has dropped a staggering 61 feet, Alder said. Alder said it's difficult to say when the spell will break for good. "It took us a long time to get into this drought, so it'll take us a year or two to get out of it," he said. Irrigated farms have, for the most part, kept crops green, said Vic Saunders of the Utah Farm Bureau. On the 400 or so acres Kash Winn Utah's Ferrin, operates in production is down 25 percent on his cultivated fields, and he's only been able to graze a fraction of the cattle he normally puts out. About 220 acres are planted with silage corn, alfalfa, oats and barley. He's taken only 29 cattle, not the usual 96, out to the Bureau of Land Management grazing land where he holds permits. Together, the shortfalls will cost him $15,000 in income this year. And even though September has brought some rain, Winn said, the land needs more. "In this area, we never say bad things about wet weather," he said. Oddly enough, the heavily populated Wasatch Front region has been the least hard-hi- t, Alder said. ' - . - - ' , ' ""tV i mid-1980- east-centr- al iiuuului-Ii- i ii ii iiiiiii iMiiaMiwiTiiiiiii 11 111 myitvBii'i ri rl - estimates the Provo Republican sent more than 523,000 "postal patron" mailings to constituents with a "frank," the signature stamp that allows lawmakers to send cards and letters postage-freUtah's top mailer, however, is Lake, Rep. Wayne Owens, e. D-S- spent $236,244. Republican Rep. James Hansen of Ogden spent $4,160. i tT i imwwrtr, r iim i w I n himh mm i 11 cattle rancher who lost his entire hay supply Monday night in a fire of undetermined origin, is appealing for help from people who have cattle feed to sell. Dean Willes, 681 S. 500 West, Lehi, owner of Willes Cattle Ranch, said he has purchased all the A Lehi hay he can from suppliers he knows, but that source has now dried up. Willes said he must either find more cattle feed or liquidate his livestock. Anyone having cattle feed to sell is urged to contact him at his home or call him at 768-912- 0. 41 ,V - ' - r. '"V " B By JUDY FAHYS Herald Washington Bureau WASHINGTON Taxpayers chipped in about $69,320 last year to help Rep. Howard Nielson deliver his message to Third District Utahns, according to a new study released Thursday. The National Taxpayers Union who i Herald Photo Trent Nelson Taxpayers ch ip in for tr anking pn vile ges V j James Davidson, chairman of the member public interest e group, said the first attempt to calculate the congres200,000 House-wid- sional mailing costs showed the need for legislation to bring the practice under control. "Under the guise of official mailings, the American taxpayer is being asked to fund what amounts to political campaigning," Davidson said. The group is a vocal advocate of reforming the congressional mailing system, which gives members of Congress an allotment of 40,000 envelopes per month, low-co- st printing services, stationary allowance and other ber.efits. Perquisites like these give incumbents a significant advantage over their challengers, said David Keating, NTU's executive director. "We already essentially have public financing of campaigns, but only for incumbents," he said. "Congressional mass mailings help make incumbents almost invulner- able." In spite of the group's months nine of and checking, NTU was quick to say its figures probably do not reflect the data-gatheri- situation accurately. Its study for about 298 million of the 372 million pieces of mail sent by House member? in 1989. Rules that allow some mailings to go uncounted and that do not include first-clamail made it impossible for the group to calculate a closer estimate, NTU said. Nonetheless, House mailings are expected reach an average of 2.1 million pieces per day this election year, with the cost reaching $136 million for the combined years of 1989 and 1990. ss study said Nielson mailed two of three town meeting cards them districtwide at a cost of $47,119 in postage. A single four-pag- e newsletter mailed to all 156,-34- 4 households cost $22,201, or 14 cents per household, he study says. Lawmakers spent an average 31 cents per household on newslet-teraccording to the survey. The Find it Arts Entertainment Classified Ads B3-C- 8 Comics Horoscope Legal Notices Movies National Obituaries Sports State Stocks TV Schedule Weather World s. Have a story idea? Call the Herald newsroom Weather A" 373-505- 0 A6 A7 B3 A7 A3 A4 B1-B- 2 A3 A8 Inside A8 A3 Chance of scattered afternoon and evening thunderstorms and slightly warmer, with high temperatures to near 90 and a low in the mid-40See Page A8 s. Air Quality Friday's air quality was good in all areas of the Wasatch Front, with a slight decrease in pollution levels expected. |