European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 29, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 4 the stars and stripes wednesday August 29, 1990 presiden suffers slight ear injury with fishing Hook Kennebunkport Maine apr president Bush suffered a pierced car lobe tuesday when a fishing line cast by his son accidentally caught his ear the White House said. Bush a press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said the president was on a fishing Outing with his House guest Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney and Bush a son Job. Jeb Bush cast a fishing line and the Hook accidentally pierced his fathers right ear lobe Fitz water said. Bush a physician on an accompanying boat attended to the wound snipping the fishhook with wire cutters and pulling the remainder or the Hook through the car according to Fitzwater. A the president was Strong and courageous throughout this exercise a Fitzwater told reporters travelling Back to Washington with Bush aboard at Force one. Fitzwater said the Hook went completely through the car lobe. Bush continued to fish for about another hour and later received a tetanus shot. When he boarded air Force one on tuesday morning there was no evidence of a wound or Bandage visible to watching reporters. And buyers headaches by the Washington Post Washington a a Gigantic data chomping computer burped last month giving hundreds of retailers and customers around the nation a $500,000 Case of financial indigestion. On july 28, visas main computer system in California billed some customers twice for the same credit card purchases. A $30 restaurant lab became a fancy $60 affair. A Nice $50 sweater got a whole lot nicer at $100. And with that $1,000 camcorder a Yoila a you re Way Over your limit. A it was an unusual and rare processing error that was detected within hours a visa spokesman Gregory Holmes said. A we deeply regret any inconvenience to those merchants or any card Holder affected and have taken necessary Steps to make sure that these types of processing errors do not happen in  according to Holmes the a Glit cheese included visa and Mastercard which also uses the visa computer facility As Well As 50 Banks and at least 200 merchants. The problem occurred after merchants sent their daily charge tallies electronically to visa to be sorted and sent to the Correct member Banks that Issue the cards and also Bill customers. But a hardware malfunction at visas san Mateo facility which processes hundreds of millions of dollars m credit card charges daily transmitted some data twice to Banks. A monitoring system at visa picked up the error quickly and began calling Banks about the problem but not before some Banks charged customers who then quickly called Back the merchants in this Snake Eais its Tail scenario. A a it a upsetting that merchants Are the ones that take it in the neck for these screw ups since the customers then think that we Are trying to rip them off Quot said Michael Schneider of Back in shape which Sells orthopaedic furniture and related goods in Bethesda my. Since visa never publicly acknowledged he foul up Schneider had to Call All of his customers about the problem a task made harder by new Laws that prohibit stores from recording Telephone numbers on charge slips. A nah they needed to do was put out a press release and bring the customers out of the dark about the whole thing a Schneider said. One retailer in new Jersey Wasny to even aware of the problem until he was balancing his stores accounts and found he had a $2,000 Windfall. A if i make a mistake i Tell people right away especially if its about Money Quot the store owner said. A but i have not heard from them at  but visa officials said it s much ado about not much since customers were not billed for any finance charges and will be fully credited by visa which services 8 million merchants and has 22,000 member Banks worldwide. Washington apr Connecticut and Wyoming got the Best grades in a state by slave report card of educational performance released tuesday by a parents group. The american association of parents and children prepared the report card after an earlier study found nine out of 10 teachers think parents done to care about education. The groups executive director Scott Star said the reports should be a a a Wake up Call a telling parents they play an important role in education. A unless you create a picture that includes parents in the education equation As Well you re really missing a big part Quot Stapf said. The year old association compiled dozens of studies by the department of education the Carnegie foundation and others for its report card. The group graded states on their Sta Wyoming win a a in education study tis tical performance in six Broad areas parental apathy head Start participation student teacher ratios per Stu Dent spending graduation rates and standardized test scores. It then averaged them for an Overall Grade. Connecticut and Wyoming were the Only states to receive an  Hawaii Texas South Carolina Georgia Tennessee and Louisiana got an a of. Nearly nine out of 10 teachers believe parents Are apathetic about education a Carnegie foundation study found last this  association is trying to remedy that with a pamphlet of 10 simple Steps for parents to take to become More involved with schools Stapf said. The pamphlet is available by mail from a pc a Herndon va., Headquarters. A study for the National Parent teacher association earlier this year also found that most parents involvement in school is Low. President Bush noted the study in a speech to the Ptah a legislative conference in March. A education is a National Mission that must include parents Quot he said. But Arnold Mcge the Ptah a governmental relations director on monday faulted Bush and the nations governors for not making increased parental involvement an education Reform goal. A parents Are frequently the orphans in education policy a he said. Since its study Pat leaders began developing strategies to increase parents role Fec said. He said schools need to create More flexible opportunities for parental participation. Schools have to recognize that the families have some unique needs today that they did no to have 10 years ago a Fege said. He noted there Are More single parents and More families where both parents work now than in 1980. The associations grades a a Connecticut Wyoming. B a Kansas Massachusetts new Jersey Minnesota Vermont Iowa Wisconsin Maryland Nebraska Montana Pennsylvania North Dakota South Dakota Rhode Island new Hampshire Maine c a Ohio Illinois Colorado Oregon new York Missouri Michigan West Virginia Delaware California Arkansas Virginia Washington Alaska Indiana Nevada District of Columbia. D a Oklahoma Mississippi Florida Idaho Utah new Mexico Arizona Alabama North Carolina Kentucky. F a Hawaii Texas South Carolina Georgia Tennessee and Louisiana. Fastest Way out in a it us a a Ragi i Bull held to raise Money for the areas homeless and m hot Pursuit during a recent mock bullfight at neither the animals nor the matadors Range Maine municipal Airport. The event was their Quick reactions a were injured. House fire kills 6 in Alabama family Oneonta Ala. Apr fire swept through a House where a smoke Detector had been installed last weekend killing six family members and severely injuring a seventh. Firefighter Michael Thompson said nothing could be done to save the victims after the Oneonta fire department received the Call. Quot the House was already on the ground he said. 1 Hompson said fire officials were unsure How the survivor escaped. Quot he was pretty badly burned. He was out of the House probably 200 or so Yards away from  state Deputy fire marshal James Epperson said he had not determined the cause of the fire but had ruled out foul play. There s not a whole lot left to work with Quot Epperson said. Owner Coy Carruth and his wife Shirley had already Leit Lor work when the fire started Early monday. T Here was no sign of anything that i saw unusual Quot Carruth said. A Caruth said he had installed a smoke Detector in the dining room during the weekend and believed it was loud enough to be heard in the bedrooms upstairs. Carruth identified the victims As his son Vincent -4 his daughter Shari 19 his son Brian 9 his Daugh Ter in Law Renae age unavailable and her daughters Christy 3, and Jennifer 14 months. Renae Carrutha a husband Royce 27, was listed in Ham condition at University Hospital in Binning