European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 18, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday. November 18,1988 the stars and stripes pages cancelled Check service eliminated for base Banks in u.k., Iceland by Randy Mcclaln financial writer about 32,000 customers of the military s Community Banks in the United kingdom and Iceland will no longer get copies of cancelled checks in monthly Bank statements starting in january under a department of defense program dubbed Check safekeeping. A spokesman for american express the company that runs the Community banking system in the countries said the program has drawn complaints from a few of its Cus Tomcics but nothing compared to the criticism the same program has attracted in West Germany the Pentagon which contracts with various Compa Nies to manage Community Banks for it on a regional basis around the world is starting Check safekeeping in All locations. We be gotten a number of positive comments Here. It has not been ail one sided 1 said Malcolm Sparks marketing manager for american express in England in West Germany where merchants National Bank runs the Community banking system several dozen complaints have been lodged a Wiesbaden Middle school teacher gut some 50 names on a petition against the program Ando Lher petitions also arc being circulated. There Are 128 Community Bank branches in Ger Many compared to the 18 run by american express in the United kingdom and Iceland. Customers com Plain that they need cancelled checks As proof of pay mint in Many instances and they resent having to pay for a service that used to be provided free of charge. Check safekeeping starts in West Germany in february. Sparkes said american express is taking a Low key approach to introducing the program in us area. Pamphlets have been mailed to customers explaining the program but no newspaper television or radio ads Are planned he said. In West Germany. Merchants National Bank is using newspaper ads and Public service announce ments on an radio in an attempt to Calm customers fears about the program. Television commercials also Are in the works. Simply put Check safekeeping Means customers will no longer get cancelled checks in the mail each month. Instead inc original checks will be microfilmed and kept in storage until they re needed. Customers who want photocopies of Cheeks can request As Many As they like but a $ i fee will be charged each time. It s that $1 fee that has some customers in the United kingdom upset Sparkes said. Some people think this is an arbitrary decision by american express to Cut costs and increase  actually Sparkes said the is fee has been Man dated by the defense department. One reason for the fee is to discourage customers from requesting a copy of every Check they write which might bog Down the new system just As it setting off the ground. Mer chants National Bank officials in Frankfurt West Ger Many have said. American express will report monthly to Dod on How Check safekeeping is working and How it is being accepted by customers Sparkes said. A lest Over the past two years at two american express branches in England has made company officials optimistic the program will work on a larger scale. Bank branches at Raf Mildenhall and Raf Ken Heath adopted a modified version of Check safekeeping in 19s6, and Only four customers per month on aver age have requested checks Sparkes said. Copes were provided free of charge during the trial run bul Hatwill change under the new system. Sparkes said he believes Dod might remove the $1 charge at some Point in the future if the banking system min t swamped with requests for photocopied checks. The american express spokesman said he also believes customers will see bitter service As a result of Check safekeeping. Employees who have been sorting filing and stuffing cancelled checks into monthly statement envelopes will be Given other duties. At the Lakenheath Branch with the Man hours saved the manager was Able to put another employee in the customer service department and cover the Teller windows belter during the lunch hour Sparks said. Lakenheath was a High volume office with a history of customer complaints about excessive waiting limes in the lobby and now that s a thing of the past Fri seizes computer files of student linked to virus Washington a items seized in the Fri s computer virus investigation include magnetic tape from the computer account of a Cornell University graduate student implicated in he contamination of 6,000 computers nationwide. Documents released late wednesday by he Fri said the magnetic tapes belonged to Robert t. Morris jr., 23, a Cornell graduate student in computer science who has told friends he created the virus program. The program spread earlier this month throughout a number of University and military computer networks disrupting their operation. Morris has said that he did not intend for in to invade computer systems around the nation. According to the documents released wednesday . District judge Gustavo j. Dibianco in Syracuse n.y., is sued two warrants on nov. 10 for the Cornell searches. The searches were conducted that same afternoon the documents indicate. The government had said earlier that in Mig Hury to obtain documents from the University before interviewing Morris and Cornell s vice president for in formation technologies m. Stuart Lynn had said the University would cooperate fully with the investigation. No charges have been filed in the Case. According to the Fri documents investigators seized two magnetic tapes labelled tiles from mom account including backups and hard copy related thereto from Dean Krafft a  in computer science at Cornell. Federal agents also obtained two yellow Legal pads with calculus and assorted notes an associate univer sity counsel Thomas Santoro had taken the Legal pads from an office in Upson Hall a Campus building that contains computer science classrooms and offices. The Fri is conducting a criminal investigation to de Termine whether statutes concerning wire fraud Mali Cious mischief or unlawful Access to stored communications May have been broken with the introduction of the virus into military and University computer systems. How a computer virus can spread Hare is a rundown of what happens when a computer virus spreads across the country. Just As a biological Sims disrupts living cells to cause disease a computer virus introduced mall loudly invades the inner Workings of computers and disrupts Normal operation of the machines. 0 the virus can spread across the country by electronic networks or shared software without the computer user s knowledge. A Programmer writ Asa. Program that embeds. Itself in a Host program. The virus attaches a self and travels anywhere that tha Host program or piece of data travels. Whether on floppy disk local area networks or bulletin boards. Source Trum Sean inc. _ in the Case of electronic bulletin boards the virus enters machines to Telephone modems along with the hos program. 0 the virus is set Oil by either a Lima. Limit or some set of circumstances possibly a simple sequence of computer operations by he user. Then it does whatever the virus Programmer intended. Whether it is to print have a Nice Day or erased la  Triune nov Stephen Cven hos houses Leader sorry for touting amps n. Washington not Robert , the House Republican Leader apologized wednesday for nostalgic remarks about minstrel shows and the Amos n Andy radio program that have been criticized As racially insensitive. ,. In a television interview Over the week end Michel recalled those entertainment with fondness and also suggested that at tempts to replace racially offensive language in songs amounted to an Effort to revise an aspect of american culture "1 realize there is no excuse for my remarks Michel said in a statement wednesday.  my regret is even More profound be cause 1 believe my Public record of Over 32years As a congressman is without Jhc slight est  racial  on tuesday the chapter of the National association for the advancement of col ored people in Peoria Iii. Called for Michel to resign his Illinois seat the group s National Headquarters issued a reprimand. "1 find  nostalgic yearning for symbols that he him self recognizes arc considered demeaning by Many people said or. Benjamin Hooks the National executive director. The program the weekend edition of Usa today the television show began its profile of Michel with a Dis Cussion of his reputation As a highly touted Amateur Singer. He recalled evenings spent listening to Amos v. Andy.".-. When asked if he could still do an imitation of inc actors on the show White performers mimick ing what they considered to be Black dialect Michel obliged. He said As a child he had not considered such shows to be offensive to Black people. We never thought of it in disparaging terms he said. It was just a part of life and in was fun and we laughed about it. Michel also compared the replacement of lyrics that arc regarded As offensive in songs like old Man River to the soviet practice of changing interpretations of historical events. When we find ourselves in that same boat same Mold he said trying to. Rewrite history that does i Wash Well with  " ,. The congressman said in is too bad that we can l do some of the things that were part of our  he said i think we ought to Lake credit for the fact thai we be come As far As we have with All these