European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 1, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Sunday june 1, 1986 the stars and stripes Page s Flash Woods mudslides kill 4 near Pittsburgh Pittsburgh a heavy thunderstorms Trig gered lash floods and mudslides along two tributaries of the Allegheny River on Friday evening and at least four people were killed As High Waters inundated Homes and businesses 2nd Cut off rescuers the Rush hour flooding from Pine Creek and Little Pine Creek struck Pittsburgh s Northern suburbs and caused fires Power outages and traffic Jami in Northern Allegheny county. Police called for boats and helicopters to Rescue Resi dents from Loo did areas but the number of evacuee and the Rcv Rily of their injuries were not known. Water was More than 6 feel deep in some parts of the in a of Emu and Many cars were submerged. About 10 people climbed to the roof of the municipal building Wail ing 1o be rescued by boats. In Indiana township rescuers were walking up la their hips in water witnesses said. Our wagons can i gel through said Deputy Coroner Floyd Coles the one Wagon is on the scene. The other three wagons Are blocked by the flooding. I m Lucky o gel Thijn an infant was rescued from a car that was under water in Shaler township according 10 Kaka to. A mudslide forced the closing of the westbound Lane of the Pennsylvania Turnpike about 5 Miles West of Pennsyl Vania route 2s at the Allegheny Vij Fly interchange stale police Cpl. Rdward Vogl said. Westbound traffic was hacked up Tor More than five Iii los. Lightning started several House fires in Piu Burgh Washington county and the Monongahela Valley but none was reported to be serious. Scattered Power outages also were reported throughout southwestern Pennsylvania. About 500 Homes in washing ton county were Widi Siul electricity according lowest Penn Power co. About 3 to 5 inches of rain fell in two hours and hailstones the Sie of quarters pounded towns along the Manon Gahala River according to j. Bracken Urivi. Direct Lor of Jhc Wei Ringlon county emergency services. Wii code breaker honoured posthumously Washington api Thuie Cape Joseph j. Rochefort was finally Hon ored by his government Friday when he received .1 posthumous medal from presi Dent Reagan for cracking a. World War ii japanese code and providing the . Navy with the key to one of its greatest victories at the Ballir of Midway. Reagan presented the medal to Rocic fort i family in a Brief White mouse Cere Mony attended by lop . National Security officials. The while House refused to permit reporters to cover the event. Roche foil who died in 1916, a denied the distinguished service medal twice during his lifetime. But it was granted him last fall by special order of Navy Secretary John leh Man. Reagan presented the medal to Roche fort s son retired army col. Joseph Roche fort or. And his daughter Janet Rochfort Elerding. They left the while House after the ceremony without speaking to reporters. Also present during the ceremony were vice president George Bush defense score tary Caspar Weinberger Cia director Wil Liam Casey Lehman and adm. William Crowe chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. The citation noted that Rochefort s unrelenting efforts resulted in breaking the Japa Nese code and defeating he japanese during the Battle of m id Wiy from june 2-4,1942. Rochfort who has been widely acknowledged 10 he one of the top . Code break ers during world War ii. Headed a code breaking station at Pearl Harbor Hawaii which was known As station hypo. After the diva saying japanese defeat of the . Fleet a Peart Harbor on dec. 7. 1941, american farces Here on the defensive across the Pacific in the Early months of 1942. During the Spring of that year Roche forms team successfully broke japanese codes and concluded that a huge enemy War Fleet then being assembled in the Western Pacific was planning to Midway is land a Small . Outpost West of Hawaii. But other n avy intelligence analysts in Washington said the japanese planned to attack Johnston atoll or the West coast of the United states. After a Long intr service Battle adm. Chester Nir Nili the Pearl Harbor com Mander decided to accept Roche fort s View and deployed his badly outnumbered forces near Midway. The american Fleet totally surprised the japanese and destroyed four enemy aircraft carriers jul one its greatest victories forcing the japanese on the defensive for the rest of the War. The citation presented by Reagan on Friday noted that the Banle of Midway is acknowledged As he Lur ninja Point of the Pacific War after the Battle Nimitz recommended Rochefort for the medal but it was denied by service official in Washington who argued that a number of intelligence offices besides station hypo ha1 contributed to the Victory. Instead Rochfort was ordered to san Francisco u Here he ended up commanding a floating dry Dock. Nimitz petitioned again in 1958 t or 4 medal for Rochefort. But the Navy a Ain dented it noting that world War ii Mei Al cases were already closed. When Lehman finally granted the medal late last year he offered no Public reasoning for overturning the earlier decision. But i he decision came shortly before pub Ira lid of a Book and i was there which Drew upon thousands of pages of de classified documents about the Early Yean of the Pacific War in detailing Navy Intelli gence successes and failures. The Pri Nury author of the Book was i he late rear adm. Edwin Laylon the Pacific Fleet intelligence officer at Pearl Harbor through out ii Wui. Laynn details fight ing Between intelligence officials at Pearl har Bor and in Washington and argued that Koch fit s bureaucratic enemies succeeded blocking the acclaim . At to s $2 billion rate reduction going into Ettelt Washington api american Telephone & Telegraph co s �2 billion rate reduction will be permitted too into effect sunday the Federal communications commission said Friday. The company immediately announced More reductions although some of the cuts come because of reductions in the Price Long distance companies pay local companies to connect their Calls la the local network the growth in the number of Long distance Calls is also Factor. This is a sheer efficiency said Albert Halprin chief of the acc Bureau that regulates Loag distance Tele phone prices. He Laid he expects another at to Long distance Price Cut in the s50-million"io-175-Mihia Range in the next few Days. Thai would equal Only a fraction of a cent per Calt but would be significant for big businesses with huge phone Bills he said. Meanwhile at to said it would reduce wats 800 service and some business private liner charges by s52 million. Other private line charges Are set far increases. Sci said it will match the new at to rates by drop Ping its charges by almost to percent Starling on july 1. Long distance Price reductions have been caused in part by the acc s policy of shifting to the consumer the Coil of the line that connects an individual phone to the phone company s Cental office. A portion of that Cost had been figured into the Price of an out of Szalc calf. Starting sunday residential phone customers will pay $2 a month for i heir connection. About is billion will be raised by that charge. At the same time Long distance companies will Start paying about is billion less for their connections to those local lines. The savings plus those from More efficient use of i he phone network. Will be passed on to customers in the form of the lower Long distance rates. Richard Kessel executive director and chairman of the new York state consumer Protection Board said. The average residential consumer is being put into a position where they Are subsidizing a reduction for Long distance Telephone rates for business customers he said that according to his Agency s calculations an average new York state resident makes three to five Long distance Calls a month. The rate reduction is never going to reach those peo ple he said in a Telephone interview. Two reports blame insurance Industry for increasing Cost of liability coverage by the Assoc med press the insurance Industry itself bears most of the responsibility for the High coat of liability insurance facing inc nation s cities doctors and businesses according to two studies released Friday in Boston. Despite alarming reports of a liability crisis the Industry is profitable and is not suffering from an explosion of litigation in mate courts the authors of a report to stale attorneys general concluded. The study blames the Industry for under pricing insurance in the 1970s to attract revenues for investment and adds the emphasis pm a need for change in the civil Justice system 0 Rescue the insurance Industry from financial problems is therefore entirely similar conclusions arc drawn in a study released by the consumer federation of America. In the past decade jury award in damage Case have increased at the same Pace of inflation and economic conditions have raised costs the study says. The report to the nation s top Legal offi cers was prepared for discussion at the National association of attorneys general convention in Seattle this month. The report notes the recent skyrocketing Cost and restricted coverage of liability insurance for organizations municipalities and professionals. But it rejects the Industry claim thai premiums Are rising in response to growing jury awards and criticizes a february Federal report that agreed with the Industry and prompted president Rea Gan to Call for an examination of the nation s tort system the Legal mechanisms for resolving injury claims. In a speech to the american tort re form association in Washington Reagan recounted stories of big liability claims won by a Man who suffered a heart attack when he tried to Start his Lawn Mower and by a Man who sued a Telephone company be cause he was standing in a phone Booth when it was hit by a car driven by a Drunken Driver. I suppose All this might be amusing if such absurd results Only took place occasionally the president said. Yet today they have become All but tie administration has asked Congress to approve major liability Law changes including a 1100,000 limit on punitive dam Ages and awards for pain and suffering. During the bal 20 years the number of awards involving is million or More has increased from just one a year to More than 400. The president said. Between 1975 and 1985. The average award in a product liability Case More than quadrupled. To j1.8 million he said Dur ing the same period the average medical malpractice verdict i said average went up More Titan 350 percent to Over $1 the authors acknowledge that in 1984 and 1985 the Industry paid out Mare in claims than it took in through premiums. But they argue that when the Industry s investment income is combined with capital gains and us credits insurers registered a net profit of s1.7 billion last year. While the Federal report noted a 753 per cent increase in he number of product liability cases filed in is. Courts Between 1974 and 1985, the attorneys general report says that tort claims in state court Rose Only 9 percent in the past six Yean while population Rose 8 pc Iceni. Sands of time in the stars and stripes 40 years ago today. June 1, 1946 Union Boss John l. Lewis whose demands for a wage a crease and a we far fund for 400,000 soft Coal miners were granted two Days ago sent 76,000 hard Coal diggers out on strike to Force Simitar Anthracite operators. 30 years ago today. June i 1956 can. Alfred m. Cru Cather warned Congress that Russia s announced reduction in its armed forces will not substantially affect the soviet aggressive strength against fee Europe. 20 years ago today., june i. 1966 londoner Graham Hill was confirmed As he Winner of the Indiana Polis 500. Hill s winning Speed was 144,317 Mph. ?0 years ago today. June a 1976 Martha Mitchell a saucy defender of the Nixon administration who turned on it during the watergate scandal died of cancer. Mitchell the it trapped wife of former attorney Genera John Mitchell was 57
