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Show ' 1 t The Daily Herald Monday, December 4, 1985- -i . fison population Jolly old St. Nicholas Fed raid ends credit card ring growing rapidly WESTMINSTER, Calif. (AP) More than 20 people were arrested in connection with vast credit card scams that allegedly enlisted Vietnamese immigrants with gambling debts to bilk banks and stores out of as much as $100 million. Secret Service and FBI agents along with police from Orange, Los Angeles and Riverside counties raided homes and businesses in Southern California on Thursday. They carted away hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gold bullion, jewelry, gambling chips and cash. James E. Bauer, special agent in charge of the Secret Service's Los Angeles region, said the raids shut down two separate rings operating out of Orange County's "Little Saigon" district. 1 Sailor faces groping charges SAN DIEGO (AP) Investi- gators have recommended nine charges including assault against a Navy cook who allegedly groped a female sailor aboard a commercial airline flight. At a session similar to a civilian pretrial hearing. Navy officials will consider the recommendations made Sunday to determine if there is enough evidence to proceed against Chief Petty Officer George Powell. The Article 32 hearing is expected to occur sometime over the next two weeks at Navy Surface Forces Command Pacific in San Diego, which has jurisdiction over the case. The charges include four counts of indecent assault, two counts of simple assault and one count each of drunk and disorderly conduct, showing disrespect for a commissioned officer and failure to obey a lawful order, said Lt. Cmdr. Bruce Cole. is discovered BALTIMORE (AP) Johns Hopkins researchers say they have found a black hole 100 million s from earth, only the third such stellar body ever found. light-year- The black hole, discovered using images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, contains the mass of about .2 billion stars the size of our sun. The discovery was to be announced today at the European Space Agency in Paris. Black holes are the remains of collapsed stars, and are so massive that not even light can escape their gravitational pull. Astronomers need to catalog several more black holes before they can understand how they form, said Laura Ferrarese. the Hopkins graduate student being credited w ith the discovery. i By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN Associated Press Writer A record WASHINGTON wave of new inmates flowed into state and federal prisons during the 12 months that ended last June, enough to require 1,725 new beds each week. The United States also set another record for its rate of incarceration. It locks up a greater share of its residents than any other nation. During the 12 months, the inmate population grew by 89,707. The previous record annual increase was in calendar 1989, Eg v. T 5P l :- AP Photo gather around St. Nicholas, played by search of a candy cane from the jol- old man during the annual Christmas Festival Children John ly on the streets of the tiny mountain community of Georgetown, Colo., Saturday. The festival attracts shoppers from around the region. Tyler, in 'Centrists' consider backing independent By JOHN M. DOYLE Associated Press Writer A group of centrist politicians, WASHINGTON unhappy with the ideological tilt of both major parties, is debating whether to buck an independent candidate for president. Former Massachusetts Sen. Paul Tsongas said Sunwhich has increased to eight day that the group planned to declare its views at a conference Dec. 8 in Minneapolis. He stopped short of saying whether group members will endorse a candidate at that time, but he said they are considering backing an independent. "It would be an individual decision both about running and supporting a candidate." Tsongas said of the group members, w ho have been discussing policy by telephone conference call. Former Connecticut Gov. Lowell Weicker. another s talks, added. participant in the "Fielding a candidate w as not ruled out." 1 New black hole required each week of 1994 Ml 1 higher than other industrialized ,725 new beds behind-the-scene- who has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate this year, said that next two weeks the group will decide publish its policy recommendations or "get behind a messenger of this message." "The outcome is strictly up for grabs," he said. Weicker was a Republican senator from Connecticut before he won election as governor as an independent. The group of Democrats and independents, including two who have left the Republican party, now numbers eight. They have been discussing solutions to the nation's problems in telephone conference calls over the past two months, including one on Sunday. Until last week, those discussions had been secret. John Anderson, a former Republican congressman from Illinois who ran as an independent presidential candidate in 1980. joined the group Sunday, although Weicker said he and Anderson have been talking for months. Weicker, independent within the whether to middle-of-the-ro- ad when 84,764 inmates were added, according to the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics, which released its midyear report Sunday. As of June 30, there were 1,004,608 state prison inmates, up 9.1 percent, and 99,466 federal inmates, up 6.1 percent. The record increase "was a little higher than most years. But the annual average since 1980 has been 8.7 percent, so there's been steady growth," said Allen Beck, the bureau's chief of corrections statistics. Despite some popular misconceptions, Beck said, "There's been no change in the level of overcrowding. Since 1990, new prison capacity has been keeping pace with inmate growth." Average time served has declined slightly, he said. The report shows the largest prison inmate growth, up 27 percent to 127,092, was in Texas, where Beck said sizeable prison construction is under way. The bureau said the overall incarceration rate as of Dec. 31, 1994, reached 565 inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents. That counts prison inmates, mostly sentenced to more than one year, and jail inmates, mostly sentenced to less than one year. There were 483,717 adults in jails at last count in 1994. The U.S. rate tops the latest figures from Russia of 558 per 100,000 and is eight to 10 times nations in Western Europe; said Marc Mauer, assistant director of The Sentencing Project, a private group lobbying for alternatives to , imprisonment. By June 30 of this yearlhe felony incarceration rate reached 403 per 100,000, the bureau said. Mauer said that would puslr rate to about 600per 100,000. The last year the nation's prison population dropped was 1968, when it dipped to 187,000 from 199,000 in 1967, according to of, the re'pbrt. Beck, a The population has climbed steadi- ly since 1973. Mandatory sentences for drug, and violent crimes and - an or likelihood of once arrested have caused the increase, Beck said. Between 1980 and 1993, 'drug offenders increased from 25 percent to 60 percent of all federal, increased being-imprisone- d inmates. , 'f; During the same period in state prisons, violent criminals, rnos,t convicted of aggravated assault, accounted for 40 percent and drug : criminals for nearly 31 percent of inmate growth, Beck said. The chance of going to jail for drug offenses rose more than five-- : fold between 1980 and 199,2., U went from 19 imprisoned out.,, of every 1,000 people arrested,. in 1980 to 104 out of every 1,000 1992. Similar increases were seen, in incarceration rates for aggravated assault, robbery and sex offenses, Beck said. ' .Ili.iK The report said the number.-.ofblack inmates has grown at a faster, pace than the number of white inmates. As a result, 6.8 percent of all black male adults were-'in- ' prison or jail compared with less1 than 1 percent of white male adults. The difference results from the high concentration of blacks c among drug and aggravated assault defendants, said bureau statistician Darrell K. Gilliard, coauthor of the report. Black leaders and inmate's1-recentlhave protested federal sentencing rules that set' penalties five times higher for crack' cocaine, used mostly by blacks; than for powder cocaine, used ' ' mostly by whites. - ' ' ! 1 Epilepsy drug recalls cause loss of FDA offers doctor, because stopping could cause serious seizures, the FDA assurances of safety to public emphasized. But some patients question whether they can believe the reassurance. They say the FDA shouldn't have waited three years to unveil its investigation of Dilantin, and federal regulators should have publicized the recalls. By LAURAN NEERGAARD Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON Inc. has recalled a popular epilepsy drug eight times this year alone, causing a crisis in confidence among patients, but no medical problems, according to Warner-Lambe- Alleged AIDS victim kills two A SAN ANTONIO (AP) man burst into a home looking for a teen-ag- e girl he claimed had given him"AlDS and opened fire, killing two people and wounding three before shooting himself to death, police said. The man reloaded his semiautomatic pistol and went back into the house to shoot several times Sunday as children and others lied through w indow s and back doors, witnesses told police. The gunman's body was found in the garage. His name was not immediately available. Police say the girl he was looking for was not at the house when the shootings occurred. One of the wounded was a woman who threw herself on top of children in the house in order to shield them, authorities said. rt federal regulators. In a strongly worded message to users of Dilantin, the Food and Drug Administration said last week that there's no reason to worry. The 1995 recalls, and other problems with the drug dating back to 1990. were for minor quality fluctuations that were not medically dangerous. "We have no evidence ... that the Dilantin available today is not in as expected performing said in FDA the patients." calls of doens to phone response from epilepsy patients worried after pleaded guilty to a felony for hiding quality problems with the drug. No patient should stop taking Dilantin unless directed to by a Warner-Lambe- rt "How can have any faith in the FDA or any drug ever again?" asked Betty Gruehl of South Euclid. Ohio, whose son suffered two days I of seizures while takins Dilantin in 1991. "The FDA wouldn't necessarily know if there was a problem because they never told the citizens what was going on." added Gruehl. who says her son had never suffered serious seizures until 1991. Many epilepsy patients suffer seizures despite taking medication, and the FDA has not detected any increased seizures by Dilantin patients since the fluctuations began in 1990. But patients asked that seizures and at least two deaths that occurred before 1992 be investigated. Dr. Murray Lumpkin, the FDA's deputy drug director, said the FDA didn't consider it necessary to alarm patients by telling them of health. was 68 percent dissolved. None of the recalled batches was off by more than 2 percentage points. A University of Tennessee study funded by the FDA found Dilantin's quality could be off several more percentage points before the drug became dangerous. But even small fluctuations are illegal, and the FDA cracks down on them because a company allowed a small violation might do worse next time, Lumpkin said. , Lumpkin said the recalls should give patients "assurance that if people are watching this drug this closely, then what they're getting is good drug. The system is forcing a drug that's hard to make to be made correctly." last week to pay a $10 million fine for concealing quality problems with Dilantin between 1990 and 1992. Several batches of the drug did not dissolve at quite the proper rate off by betw een and 3 percentbut the FDA said the age points fluctuations were too minor to endanger anyone. Federal records show recalled Dilantin eight times this year, mostly for the same quality fluctuations. The company also had 12 recalls for other products, while the most issued by any other drug firm this year was six, said consumer advocate Dr. Sidney Wolfe of Public Citizen. In six of the 1995 recalls, Dilantin was absorbed into the body slightly faster or slower than required. For example, Dilantin is supposed to be at least 0 percent dissolved two hours after taking it. One batch was recalled because it Warner-Lambe- agreed rt 1 Warner-Lambe- Test kit for breast-canc- er ; the recalls because they were for problems that didn't affect patient rt This year's remaining two Dilantin recalls were for putting the wrong bottle cap on the injectable form of the drug, discoloring it. rt most likely had more recalls than other firms because it has been under special legal scrutiny since 1993 to ensure it meets manufacturing laws, FDA officials said. Warner-Lambe- Warner-Lambe- rt officials would not comment on the recalls, saying it was unfair to compare companies. Four of the recalls came because Warner-Lambe- rt stopped manufacturing certain drugs and, by law, had to pull remaining stocks. Patients may get more Dilantin information by calling the FDA at or Warner-Lambe- rt at ( , rejected; By LAURAN NEERGAARD Associated Press Writer GAITHERSBURG, ! -' Md- A genetic test kit designed io predict which women have aggressive breast cancer afid will need strong therapy aftpr surgery failed to gain approval of a federal panel of scientists. Several hospitals and commercial laboratories now test breast cancer patients for a gene that is believed to spur' tumor cell growth. But the testing is experimental and performed under little government oversight, and doctors say its quality differs from lab to lab. Oncor Inc. on Thursday asked the Food and Drug Administration for permission to sell a test kit for the gene that it hopes will improve these laboratories' accuracy and help patients choose, a, " ' treatment. . 4 upreme Court mulls riqhts of simafes to challenge cassis By LAURIE ASSEO Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON The Supreme Court is usin a Georgia death-roinmate's appeal to consider setting new limits on prisoners' right to challenge their state convictions in federal court. Inmate Larry Grant Lonchar, convicted of a triple slaying, says a lower court wrongly refused to delay his execution after he filed a federal appeal in the convoluted w last-minu- te case last June. But Georgia prosecutors say that even though it was Lonchar's first federal appeal, he had manip- ulated the judicial system and abused his right to have the appeal heard. The Constitution gives state inmates the right to challenge the legality of their convictions in federal court. However, the court ruled in 1991 that repeated federal appeals generally must be dismissed as an abuse of the system. The case being argued today asks whether an inmate's first federal appeal can be dismissed as abusive. The Supreme Court delayed Lonchar's execution until it issues a decision, expected by July. Lonchar was convicted in 1986 of kiiling three people over a gambling debt. He told police to "shoot me" when he was arrested and refused to help his lawyer defend him. After he was sentenced to death, SIO.O(K) Lonchar refused to cooperate with federal appeals filed by relatives on his behalf. He filed one appeal in state court less than an hour before his scheduled execution in February 1993, but later dropped it. He filed a second state appeal last June, again just hours before his planned execution. The state appeal was denied, so Lonchar filed his First federal court appeal on June 27. Among other things, he said wanted to wait for enactment of a new state law that would allow him to be executed by injection instead of electrocution so his organs could be donated. A federal judge let the appeal go forward, but the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to delay Lonchar's execution to allow a hearing. The court said Lonchar had abused his right to appeal. It cited his delay in filing the appeal, his refusal to cooperate with appeals filed by his relatives, and the fact m that his main goal was to delay'the execution. Loncha 's lawyers said those reasons do not justify a refusal to' hear his first federal Lon- - . char is mentally ill andappeal. he "finally1;1; decided he wanted to live," said in court papers. .' Prosecutors said allowing Db'n char s appeal to go forward would . encourage other inmates to use'4 such a "creative method" to delay"1; their executions. ",u The case is Lonchar Thomas, . 5. .1- |