European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 21, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 4 the stars and stripes Friday october 21, 1977 Cleveland schools in Cleveland a the financially strapped Cleveland school system is on even shakier footing today because of sparring Between angry state senators Anda Federal judge. We Are Between a Rock and a hard place said school Board president Arnold Pinkney. We Don t know if we Are governed by the Laws of the Federal court or by the Laws of on wednesday . District court judge Frank Battisti ruled against the school Board s request to close the schools if the Ohio legislature could not bail the District out with a special funding Mea sure. Reacting to the news within a few hours state senators voted Down the measure that would have allowed borrowing funds to make up a $20 million deficit and keep the schools open for the rest of the year. School supt. Paul Briggs says the schools ran out of Money last week and the 112,000-Pupil system received permission from state school authorities to close at the end of the week. Lawyers have advised the Board Mem Bers they could be held personally liable if they violate state Laws against running schools without funds. But Battisti warned them they could be i crisis held in contempt for violating his order to keep them open. Battisti who last year ordered schools Here desegregated accused school officials of creating a crisis atmosphere and called them incompetent. He said the Board had spent millions upon millions of dollars. In a costly Effort to keep Black schools Black and White schools White. The defendants school officials cannot now take the indefensible position that the system must be closed and thus effect the Complete denial of education to these people Battisti said. Provide everyone. A Job unions planning drive to Cut 40-hour week Sunshine rides again these youngsters enjoy the Sunshine in Albany n.y., after Many Days of Clouds and rain. Swollen streams and Rivers in the upstate area Are returning to their Banks and once More kids can play outdoors. Up photo Detroit up a local labor Leader wednesday said representatives of 50 unions will meet in Detroit next tuesday to begin a Campaign to shorten the 40-Hourwork week. United Auto workers local 22 president Frank Runnels said this Marks the be ginning of a renewed Campaign to reduce the hours of labor in this in 1938, he said the fair labor Stan Dards act was passed which put the coun try on a 40-hour work week. Since that time 40 years ago the movement to reduce the work week has lain dormant said Runnels. To bring this Large a group together from local unions All Over the country will certainly have great historical significance Runnels and Bill Andrews president of the United steel workers of America local 1010, headed the Effort to organize the All unions movement to shorten the workweek. Workers in America need Only look at the layoffs and cutbacks in steel today to see what is going to happen to every Industry in our country if the hours of work Are not reduced in such a manner that we provide everyone in America a Job and an Opportunity to earn a living and live in dig nity Andrews said. They said tuesday s meeting is an o it death by injection Law protested Austin Tex. Up legislators who approved a new Law providing for death by injection said it would be a More humane system of execution than the electric chair. But attorneys for two condemned men Billy Joe Battie and Kenneth Granviel of fort Worth Tex. Complained wednes Day the Law was so loosely drawn it could allow the Choice of such painful substances As Antifreeze and Lye for the lethal injection. Lawyers for the two men urged the state court of criminal appeals to strike Down the death by injection Law As unconstitutional. They said the legislature should have specified what drug could be used for executions. Cruel and unusual punishment is presented As a distinct possibility under the present statute Battie s attorney John Brady said. It permits the director of the Texas department of corrections to use Antifreeze if he wants Granviel s attorney Frank w. Sullivan said tic director . Estelle jr., has indicated he plans to use sodium pent Athol but Sullivan said he was afraid of the Choice other officials might make. Both attorneys however said their clients were not eager to face the electric chair either. My client is not anxious to go either Way Brady said. Howard fender assistant Tarrant Bonn says terrorists have stolen millions Bonn up terrorists probably got away with More than $4.87 million in hold since 1971, the West German govern ment said. Interior ministry state Secretary Ger Hart Baum told parliament that terrorists Are known to have been involved in 40 Bank robberies since then. They also May Well have been involved in 26 other holdups in which $2.72 million was stolen Burn said in reply to a ques Tion. Sex Alcoa exec Dies Pittsburgh a Irving White Wilson former Board chairman of alumni num company of America died in a Pitts Burgh Hospital at the age of 87. County District attorney said defense Law yers would Challenge the death penalty Law no matter How specific the statute was. Fender said details of executions should be left to prison officials and courts should intervene Only if authorities select some in humane painful substance such As Lye in injections. As Long As the director of the depart ment of corrections chooses a substance that will not cause suffering will not cause lingering or disfiguring death he has the leeway to choose for himself the precise method of execution fender said. Granviel was sentenced to death for the oct. 7, 1974, murder of 2-year-old Natasha Mcclendon. Granviel confessed to stabbing the girl and a Young boy to death and rap ing and murdering their mothers and third woman. He also has confessed to killing two other women on feb. 8, 1975, and raping a fort Worth grandmother before a Friend persuaded him to surrender to police. Battie was ordered executed for the Jan. 13, 1975, Shotgun slaying of convenience store attendant Peggy Hester. Battie confessed to shooting her and a customer in the store during a $52.72 Rob Bery. Growth of a meeting held in Detroit on aug. 9. At that meeting a group of local Union leaders from the autoworkers electrical workers meat cutters steelworkers retail clerks Coal miners furniture workers and machinists met to initiate organize and coordinate a nationwide All unions move ment to shorten the work week they said. A conference was also planned for april 11, 1978, in suburban Dearborn where Law president Douglas Fraser and other International presidents will speak said Runnels. Electric fire shuts Down Penn station new York up Pennsylvania Sta Tion was shut Down for four hours Early thursday by an electrical fire which knocked out signal switches and halted All rail traffic including commuter trains in and out of the City for tens of thousands of Rush hour passengers. Power was Cut about 5 45 . Edt by a fire in an Amtrak Power substation cancelling service on All Long Island rail Road Amtrak and Conrail trains. It was restored four hours later and partial service resumed. Spokesmen for the three lines said it would take several hours to reset switch ing equipment and return service to nor Mal. The fire damaged air pumps which oper ate track switching equipment official said. Long Island rail Road terminated its Manhattan bound commuter trains at Woodside Queens where passengers were advised to take buses and subways to the City. An Amtrak spokesman said metro liner service Between new York and Philadel phia and Washington was halted with serv ice terminating at Newark n.j., where passengers were advised to take port authority trans Hudson trains into the City. Service into grand Central operated nor Mally. Italians favor death penalty Milan Italy up fifty one per cent of italians answering a nationwide poll said they favor the death penalty for crimes of exceptional seriousness the Magazine l europeo said. It said Only 19 per cent of those answer ing the Doxa poll said they were against capital punishment and the remainder said they did not know or did not care
