European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 10, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 4 the stars and stripes monday. October 10,1988 Rise in crime rate ends 5-year drop e Washington a crime Levels Rose 1.8 percent last year the govern ment reported sunday ending a five car decline the Reagan administration iad attributed partly to vigorous Law enforcement and Loughr treatment of criminals. People living in the West were the most Likely to have been victims of crime last year while residents of the North East were the least Likely to be victim i de. Said the study by Lac Bureau of Justice statistics. Nationally the number of personal and household crimes Rose about 61  in 19b7, to More than 34.7 Mil lion. In i a tit number of crimes hit the lowest level in the 15-year history of the government s National crime Survey 34.1 million. Even with the increase crime Levels last year were 16 percent lower than in 1981, the Peak year with 41.5 million crimes committed said Joseph Bessette acting director of the Bureau a Justice department Agency. Administration officials have suggested that the decline in crime was attributed to sterner Law enforcement and a More cooperative Public. Some Aca Demic experts analysing the data have stressed that the size of the most crime prone age group those in their mid to late teens has shrunk in the 1980s. The crime prone age group will continue to decline until the Early 1990s, demographers say when in is anticipated by Many experts that crime Levels will Lake a decisive turn upward once again. Last year s slight crime increases prob ably suggest a greater Concan Talion of Low income groups at the Young age lev Els where crime goes on said Alfred Blumstein Dean of the school of Urbanand Public aet airs at Ca magic Motlon University in Pittsburgh. Last year the number of personal crimes Rose nearly 250,000, or 1.4 per cent from 1986, to More than 19 million with increases in All four categories of rape robbery theft and assault which includes murder. The amount of household crime Rose by nearly 360,000 or 2.3 percent to 15.7 million with increases in burglary larceny and motor vehicle theft. To 1987, the number of personal crimes per 1,000 people was 125 in the West 101 in the Midwest 91 in the South and 71 in the Northeast. House hold crimes touted 22 in the West 166 in the Midwest 179 in the South and 116 in the Northeast. The West was the Only Region to show an increase in personal crime last Yea compared with 1986, up 8,6 percent. In the South i fell by 4 j percent while the Northeast and Midwest showed no significant change. The National crime Survey was com piled by questioning some 93,000 people last year in 46,000 Homes. Hundreds find untold fun of storytelling fest Jones Boroucki Tenn. A Tennessee s eldest town was alive saturday with tales of Monkey Kings and Devil imps at a 16-year-old storytelling festival that has helped revive National interest in the ancient in Kari tellers from California to nov York entertained annul 5,000 people under Large striped tents set up on hillsides along a Creek and near Railroad tracks downtown aaa Pargh screeched Hrenda Wong Aoki As she became an angry Monkey King. The Monkey was pulled Down to the underworld but saved from death in the great wok by eating forbidden peaches that made him immortal. The san Francisco Teller of tales from the Orient was among 15 featured yarn spinners including Folk Singer Pete a Cager Seeger. Who lives in Beacon n.y., picked a handmade 35-year-old Banjo As he Sang of a Coal Miner s rebellion and the plight of american indians. This festival is redefining storytelling and bring ing in Back to life Seeger said. I m just an Amateur. I m having a wonderful Lime listening to these esp Crl  the three Day National storytelling festival is sponsored each year by a Jonesborough group with a Mouthful of a name the National association for the preservation and perpetuation of storytelling. The festival is bigger every year and a sixth tent was added this year to accommodate crowds that spilled under rolled up Lent flaps into the Sun. Jackie Torrence from Granite Quarry n.c., had children in stitches when she added her own Brand of humor to the classic tale of the Selling of a soul to the Devil. Jack a not so Bright poor Man with Only a Skinny cow to sell runs into the Devil dressed in Black Ana sitting on a Rock. He Sells the cow to the Devil for a bottomless purse of Gold but he pays later when he Dies and is put in charge of the Devil s 100 million caged imps. Amateur tellers tried their Luck in the Center of a Small Circle of Hay Bales called the swapping ground. Among those who got up to Tell was 9-year old Luke Shaefor of Dexter mich., who spun one about a dragon. I be Fot to make it a Little bit slower he said after he was done. It s fun. 1 like telling stories. It s my Way of having  Jym Kruse -10. Of Fremont neb., said he trav eled to Jonesborough for his second year of tip gathering among the masters. Kruse is a College pro Fessor Campus pastor and storyteller in a state with no such festival although similar cd cols arc crop Ping up across the country. I come id see master tellers demonstrate How you do it Well he said. I always find new inspiration. They serve As mentors rather than sources of information for  spreading the word new York gov Mario Cuomo joins a group of Young people in Albany on Friday to spread one message just Sty oof Cuomo got together with the group of drug busters in front of the Sale capital. 3,000 leave Homes White Epa Crew blows up tank containing chemicals Nitro. . A More than 3,000 people left their Homes sunday while a hazardous waste Crew blew up a corroded Lank believed to contain As much As 30 pounds of deadly Hydrogen cyanide. The 4-foot-Long Cylinder was abandoned at the site of the defunct Artel chemical co. Plan now a Federal superfund cleanup site with 3,400 Oiler Drums and barrels of hazardous materials Many of them unidentified and most of them rusting. As lit lie As 50 milligrams less than one sixth the size of the average aspirin of Hydrogen cyanide can kill. The explosion occurred at 1 54 ., and a fire was Sian cd to Burn off the tank s contents. Harold Yates of the Federal environmental Protection Agency said that at 2 01 ., no air readings indicated any Hydrogen cyanide Down  Epa officials had not been certain of the tank s contents so analysis will examine u videotape of the explosion to look for a in Hlaic purplish Corona an indication of the presence of Hydrogen cyanide sur rounding inc main body of the flame Yalcs said. He said the fire would have 10 be out and inc wreck age of the Cylinder would have to be inspected before anyone would be allowed Back into the evacuated area. Ambulances arrived shortly after Dawn sunday to begin taking the elderly and handicapped to evacuation centers but City buses from nearby Charleston that rolled through the town were relatively empty almost people chose to go to relatives Homes and local shopping  is going to be the Best thing that s happened for the Charleston town Center and he Huntington mall. These people Are going shopping Nitro mayor Don Kames said. Traffic steadily increased throughout the morning on . 25, inc main North South route through town but abruptly slopped at 12 30  When state police cily police and Kanawha and Putnam county deputies sealed off the Interior of the town. After inc area within 1,000 Yards of the Plant was evacuated three men who work for a disposal company hired by the Epa carried the Cylinder 100 feel to a  file who ran the Plant As Fike chemical co. For 33 years was sure the tank held Hydrogen cyanide one of the most poisonous substances known. A former Plant employee told inc Epa the tank had not been moved since 1981. The Federal government built Nitro in world War 1 for the manufacture of explosives and munitions. Now the Kanawha River Valley through the Charleston area is studded with chemical plants