European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 21, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse A the stars and stripes thursday March 21, 1991think it s gobbledygook you re right Washington a Carolyn Boccella Bagin is a lonely crusader for Plain English in a world that Speaks gobbledygook. Her enemy is the growing Avalanche of badly written forms unintelligible letters and confusing documents that drive millions of americans nearly bonkers every Day. The enemy she says is everywhere. V College students can to understand the loan applications they re supposed to fill out. The elderly Are stumped by insurance claims. Telephone Bills Are a Puzzle. Sweepstakes entries Are verbal Jungles of Legal jargon. Think the form 1040 from the tax people is a headache to tackling form 171, the accordion like Federal Job application that a a bureaucratic Nightmare in Small Green Type. A if you have the persistence to fill out this form you ought to get the Job a Bagin says. A former High school English teacher from suburban Philadelphia Bagin is director of the document design Center at the private american institutes of research. Her Job is to transform the unintelligible paperwork of government and corporate clients into user Friendly models of simplicity and. Clarity. A a what a wrong with being direct and Clear a she asks. A Why Isnit simplicity the goal a a a the Center has redesigned Pennsylva Nia electrics customer Bills and Citi cd rpm a collection letters. One of its biggest projects was a top to Bottom rewrite of the owners manual for Ford Taurus automobiles. That Job was commissioned after a senior Ford executive understand the old manuals instructions for setting the digital clock in his new frustration is shared by Many other americans especially the elderly according to a Survey that Bagin conducted last year Tor modern maturity the bimonthly Magazine of the american association of retired the forms we now use would make the Marquis do Sade wild with envy a a Florida woman wrote about her insurance carriers paperwork. A a in be reached an age when chinese puzzles Are no longer any fun a another respondent wrote. Complaining of Small Type a woman wrote a a in be just noticed a teens when by statement in one margin that says something about a felony. When pm arrested maybe someone can read it to me along with my rights a. Some of the nearly 4,000 respondents sent examples of outrageous forms including one from the social Security administration that was studded with boxes labelled a a Sac or a be my and carried such perplexing commands As a enter co a in tid another a medicaid form gave instructions in Green virtually disappeared in their Green coloured co defendants convicted of drug plot Miami apr a Federal jury on tuesday convicted two co defendants of Manuel Noriega of plotting with the deposed panamanian dictator to. Trade m-16 rifles for cocaine. The 3-Weck-old trial in . District court was the first to be held in connection with the indictment of Noriega who surrendered to the United states after its december 1989 invasion of Panama. Jurors deliberated nearly five hours before convicting Brian Davidow and William Saldarriaga of conspiracy to import cocaine and distribution with intent to import cocaine. . District judge William Hoevler sent the Case to the 12-member jury shortly before noon and the jury spent two hours deliberating before asking to review key portions of trial testimony. The two convicted men each face up to 40 years in prison. In june Noriega is to be tried separately on the same charges As Well As on broader racketeering charges. The Case against Davidow 29, a Miami Feal estate Salesman and Saldarriaga 46, a colombian importer revolved around the ill fated voyage of the luxury yacht Krill in March 1986. Colombian police seized the yacht with More than 700 pounds of cocaine aboard before it could leave the country. The Deal involved trading 1,000 automatic rifles for the cocaine possibly to colombians m-19 rebel group via the Medellin Cartel . Prosecutors alleged. Noriega supplied the weapons Saldarriaga was to handle loading the cocaine in Colombia and Davidow was to sell a portion of the drugs once they reached Miami. Noriega was to receive a share of the profits according to testimony for the prosecution. The Krill left Panama with Noriega a autographed portrait prominently displayed and offloaded two boxes a presumably containing m-i6s a onto a Small boat near Cartagena Colombia. The cocaine then was loaded onto the Krill and seized soon afterwards according to testimony. Defense attorneys ridiculed the governments allegations As a fabrication saying drug dealers who were prosecution witnesses were eager to win reductions in their prison terms. The Star prosecution witness act . Paredes could have faced 95. Years in prison but was released on bail and of Fere a sentence of up to 10 years after agreeing to testify said Davidow a attorney Richard Sharpstein a if it weren to for the Noriega Factor they be handing out the deals they Are a said Sharpstein. A they be spinning this web of deception arid deceit from people the prosecutors usually be talking the defense put Orlando Villarreal a amet Paredes father in Law a on the stand to contradict key portions of his son in Laws testimony Paredes had said Villarreal helped Supply the m-16s, but the father in Law even under a Grant of immunity denied having any role in the Case or attending the meetings with Noriega everybody a a critic Pete the Penguin decides to take some time out to be several of his friends All residents of nearby sea ruse a Wall displaying artwork made by students at the world were transported to the school tuesday to visit Center for autistic children in Philadelphia. Pete and with the students and their Marcos to apply for philippine passport from wire reports new York a Imelda Marcos plans to apply for a passport to return to the Philippines in what May be the first step toward running for president of the country according to her lawyer. Marcos planned to appear at the philippine consuls ate on thursday morning to apply for a passport even though philippine president Corazon Aquino has ordered consular officials not to give her one James Linn said tuesday. Aquino issued a report from Manila earlier tuesday warning All philippine consular posts to deny a passport to Marcos or to her family members a until their names have been stricken off the list of disqualified persons from obtaining travel documents.�?�. Linn said his client plans to apply for a passport in order to exhaust All administrative avenues. Then he said lawyers will file suit in court in the Philippines to demand that she be allowed to come Home. Linn said there is no such thing As exile or banishment under philippine layoffs planned fort Worth Texas a general dynamics corp. Plans to Lay off an additional 2,000 employees a newspaper reported tuesday bringing to More than 7.0q0 the number of employees the Large defense contractor has Laid off this year. In earlier layoffs the company let 3,500 people go after the defense department cancelled the troubled a-12 Avenger project in january. With the latest cuts the company a employment at fort Worth will be reduced to 19,000, its lowest since 1985, a Story in the fort Worth Star Telegram said. The report said general dynamics will give Pink slips to the salaried and hourly wage employees Between monday and april 12. General dynamics like other big defense contractors is feeling the Pinch of reduced defense spending brought on by the need to reduce the Federal budget deficit
