European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 20, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 6 stateside the stars and stripes tuesday october 20,1907 Blaze in Mississippi City knocks out electricity Columbus miss. A a Blaze that slatted in a Mattross warehouse saturday nigh engulfed half a Block or i he downtown area which was icel without electricity sunday morning. Columbus fire chief Bobby Gail said the depart ment threw everything we be got into fighting the fire calling on the City entire staff As Well a units from the five Lowndes county fire District and col Umbus apr the Only injury reported was a firefighter s Oil hand. The fire which was reported about 8 p.m., look about four hours to control officials said. It began in a Ware House of Parker appliance and fun Milure co. And burned three adjacent buildings owned by the company. Damage estimates weren t available. Stolen goods involvement denied by Florida official Miami a Dade county s top appointed offi Cial known As a snazzy Dresser declared he was inno cent after turning himself in on charges of buying Sto Len suits from his Clothier s Home. County manager Sergio Pereira immediately sus Pended himself from hts Job after a Dade county grand jury indicted him on three counts of grand theft. That third deem felony charge carries a maximum punishment 01 up to five years in prison and $5,000 in fines "1 have done nothing in violation of the Law said Preira who was released on his own recognizance. I cannot comprehend Why i have been singled out for prosecution. Boy kills sister with gun in his Uncle s Miami office Miami a a 4-year-old Bey playing at an Uncle s Security company office picked up a .38cali bar revolver and shot to death his 3-year-old sister police said. It s tragic but it appears to be totally accidental said metro dad spokesman Jim Mutton. The boy David Dallas and his sister Maggie were Al Dallas Security patrol while relatives prepared guards for the night shift. The boy fired one shot that nil his sister in the head Hulton said. I m pretty sure he bought it was a toy said the children s Uncle Alfred Dallas. We have some guards who arc armed and apparently one of them had t picked up his weapon off the counter yet. Before any body even realized what was going on the boy grabbed the gun and pulled the  boy 11, drowns after into 15-foot Well falling Slater to. A an i a year old boy who was Riding his ska Leboard near a construction site drowned after he fell into an abandoned Well police said sunday. Christopher Brown of Rural Gilliam was flown to the University of Missouri Columbia hospitals and clinics where he was pronounced dead said Chuck Lay a Hospital spokesman. The boy fell into a Well near a convenience store site in Slater a town of about 2,500 in Central Missouri said officer Kathy Deibel of the Slater police depart mint. Pentagon s medical review is a real Success Story by Norman Ruck a military writer Washington after More than is year of Effort prompted by medical horror stories the Pentagon instituted a sophisticated peer review system 10 document the Quality of care delivered in military Hospi tals. And based on initial results it appears that military physicians Are stacking up favourably against their civil Ian counterparts. The Pentagon cannot be sure however because it has discovered that the private sector lacks a standardized system As sophisticated As thai created by the military for reviewing the work of doctors on High risk cases. This is a real Success Story said or. William Mayer assistant Secretary of defense for health affairs. " we re ahead of the private sector and we Row have a valuable tool for monitoring the Quality of our care under the system established in August 1985 with the backing of defense Secretary Caspar w. Weinberg or Independent civilian doctors Analyse the Quality of care dispensed by military physicians. Mayer ordered creation of the system in the Wake of news reports of shoddy care and internal audits that spotlighted problems such As excessive moonlighting by military doctors. The situation worsened in 1985 when he chief heart surgeon at the both Coda naval medical Center the Navy s flagship Hospital was charged with mans laugh Ler in the deaths of several patients. Or. Donald Billig inter was court Martiale convicted and sentenced to four years in prison in connection with the deaths of three patients. Mayer discussed the system last week As he released an internal analysis which found that based on prelim Inary data Only j.5 in 1.000 cases of High risk diag noses reviewed fail to meet criteria for medical care endorsed by civilian specially societies such As the american College of surgeons. Because no other medical care system Public or private utilizes As yet this standardized review against medical care standards created by civilian professional society members we arc unable to compare what we firmly believe to be our very impressive results with those of  the system samples about 10 percent of All High risk cases handled by the military s 168 hospitals each month. The cases selected involve cancer heart sur Gery meningitis neonatal and maternal deaths and hysterectomies. Medical records arc computerized and then com pared against standards for diagnosis procedures the appropriateness of surgery the innocent owners put police officers in a very precarious situation says Dennis Flaherty executive director of the Minnesota police and peace offi cers association. If you Don t take action when some one Points what could be a dangerous weapon you could be  so people carrying toy guns risk draw ing fire from police who think the weapons Are real. Last april a sheriffs Deputy in ran Cho Cucamonga calif., fatally shot a 19 year old when the Young Man wielding a toy gun rounded a Comer of a building. The Deputy said flashes of Light from the $40 toy convinced him in was a real gun. A teen Ager in Beaverton ore., was luckier in april 1986. Sheriffs Deputy Dennis Kisor told an 18-year-old to Haft after he saw the youth insert a clip into what appeared to be a sub machine gun. The Young Man kept walking toward Kisor pulled out the weapon and said it was a squirt gun. If i had followed my training i would have killed him Kisor said. The Burbank ordinance came after a Man wielding a toy replica of a pistol interrupted a live broadcast aug. 19 on Knic to and ordered consumer re Porter David Horowitz 10 read a statement. Gary Stollman 33, has been ordered to stand trial on a felony burglary charge of stealing air time from the station. Horowitz said he thought the gun was real. He read the Man s rambling four Page statement about alien beings and a Cia conspiracy but technicians took he station off the air. Us weeks later the Burbank City Council approved a ban on the Sale of realistic toy guns. Officials said enforce ment would not begin until Jan. 1, allow ing merchants to sell the toy weapons they have in Slock during Christina publicity about misuse of toy guns has prompted stale legislators to propose Laws that would go even farther tha Burbank s. A Hill in the new Jersey legislature would ban Possession of toy guns in the slate. Stale sen Francis x. Graves or. Says the measure might save lives. Thus far we be been Lucky Graves said. But we heard horror stories about police being confronted by someone with 3 toy gun and How earthshaking it would be to shoot someone and find out they re not carrying a real  in Massachusetts slate rep. William f. Galvin is sponsoring a Bill that would ban sales of All toy weapons except those with transparent barrets