European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 18, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 8 the stars and stripes . Tuesday january 18,1994 Kerrigan makes smooth return to ice Portland Ore. A Nancy Kerrigan took to the ice monday for the first practice since she was Hurt in a Jan. 6 attack in Detroit. Kerrigan skated publicly for one hour at an ice rink in her Home town of Stone Ham mass. She had no Limp or visible effect from the attack. Meanwhile skating rival Tonya har Ding whose bodyguard has been linked to the attack on Kerrigan also practice in Portland Ore. Harding said she was trying to Cope with the situation As Best she could. It s an obstacle to. Get Over and i May not be the Normal figure skater image that everybody wants me to be but i m my own person and i May be a Little rough around the edges sometimes but Overall i think i m a Good person she said on Abc s Good morning America. In a statement issued sunday night through her lawyer Harding denied any involvement in the attack on Kerrigan. Tonya Harding categorically denies All accusations and Media speculation that she was involved in any Way in the assault according to her statement read by her lawyer Dennis Rawlinson. Tonya is shocked and angry that any one close to her might be involved the statement said. She is pleased to see that Nancy is recovering  no charges have been filed naming Harding or her sex husband Jeff Gillooly in the attack in Detroit that forced Kerri Gan to withdraw from the . Figure skating championships. Harding s body guard Shawn Eckardt has been charged along with two other men but Rawlinson said the figure skater had no knowledge of the plot. Harding has said she was shocked and angry that anyone close to her might be involved. Gillooly also denied involvement in the bizarre and crazy event his lawyer Ron Hoevet told the associated Presson sunday night. Eckardt has accused Gillooly of participating in the plot. Hoevet said Eckardt was hired Only once to help with har Ding s Security and that he should not be considered her bodyguard. Harding believes Gillooly is innocent and would distance herself from him if it turns out he was involved in the attack said her coach Diane Rawlinson who is married to the skater s lawyer. Harding and Gillooly divorced last year but they reconciled in september and have been living together. . Olympic committee officials met sunday but took no action on whether to allow Harding to remain with Kerrigan on the olympic team. Asked if it would be Best if Harding withdrew soc president Leroy t. Walker said i suppose that would be the easiest possible out. Walker said the committee s deadline for deciding whether Harding will com Pete in Lillehammer Norway is feb. 21, the Day of the women s skating draw and two Days before the Competition begins. We have to push for a decision before then Walker said. I Hope that decision is within a few  Diane Rawlinson said Harding de serves to go to the olympics. Tonya is Best under pressure. Tonya always skates Best when she s angry the coach said. I think she could win the olympic  the coach said she did t believe the olympic judges would punish Harding with Low scores. I think there Are two victims in this horrible situation Diane Rawlinson said. I think Nancy first of course. But i think Tonya s also a victim. Tonya will not be in line to make the Type of Money from endorsements that she would have been in line to  the oregonian newspaper reported monday that investigators suspect the Man who attacked Kerrigan was paid $6,500 from a Trust fund set up for har Ding by the . Figure skating Assoc a Tion.  York Yankees owner George m. Steinbrenner Iii is one of several people who have donated Money to Harding s fund and investigators believe his Dona Tion May have been used for hit Money the oregonian reported without disclosing its sources. Music critic Arcille Johnson 3, of Stillwater Minn., covers her ears in reaction to bagpipe music being performed by the Maca Cister College pipe band on saturday in St. Paul. The concert helped open the children s museum inflatable play abcs exhibit organizers Likely Are hoping for better reviews than they received from this Young visitor. Grand Canyon May ban cars grand Canyon National Park Ariz. A the principle is simple a family vacation should not degenerate into an exhaust shrouded Battle to Park at the Edge of one of the world s greatest Natu ral wonders. But that is precisely what is happening at the grand Canyon and officials Are looking Tor solutions even a ban on cars. The grand Canyon experience is rapidly approach ing that of a bad Day at a shoddy shopping mall said Roger Clark a spokesman for the grand Canyon Trust an advocacy group. You can easily spend an hour and a half of a two hour visit just looking for place to  on a typical summer Day about 20,000 visitors pass through the Gates of grand Canyon National Park most of them in the More than 6,000 cars that Jam the roads and compete for fewer than 2,000 parking spaces. West rim drive which hugs the lip of the mile deep Canyon and gives Access to numerous overlooks and Trail Heads already is closed to cars in the summer. Visitors instead ride a free Tram. There Are no limits on cars elsewhere in the Park yet. We anticipate the Day when. There won t be any automobiles inside the grand Canyon National Park Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt told a gathering sponsored by the grand Canyon Trust in october. Brad Traver the grand Canyon s chief of professional services said replacing cars with mass transit is but one of a number of options being studied As part of a $1.5 million planning process begun in 1991. Among other possibilities closing some of the lodging in the Park or requiring future construction including housing for Park employees and visitor services to be in communities outside the Park Boundary. Another proposal would require visitors to get per mits much like the system already used for Back coun try hiking. Traver said this would help spread visitors Over a broader area and control crowding during Peak periods. That does t necessarily mean people would be turned away Traver said. They might be asked to re turn later in the Day or something like  As it is now almost All visitors to the 227-mile-Long Park funnel onto about 30 Miles of Scenic roads along the Canyon s Sputh rim. The main visitor Center grand Canyon Village is a Maze of narrow roads serving the Headquarters hotels restaurants shops and Camp grounds. Babbitt a former Arizona governor who has hiked extensively in the Park favors building Gateway villages outside its boundaries where people would leave their cars continuing by foot horseback or mass transit. Bureaucracy botches Relief for ailing farms Washington a it was hard enough for Curt Gillespie of Graceville Minn., to watch last year s rain destroy his crops. Now he says he s facing a second crisis a huge tax problem caused by the govern ment s tardy distribution of disaster Aid. Gillespie is one of thousands of midwestern Farmers who could get big tax Bills next year because they did not receive their 1993 crop insurance and disaster assistance payments by dec. 31. Those payments will have to be counted As 1994 in come according to the internal Revenue service. We re going to end up creating a Back to Back disaster even if we have a bumper crop Gillespie said in a recent interview. The Money in t going to be thereto pay the income  the agriculture department is so backlogged that by the end of the year it had processed Only $416 million of the $1.7 billion in anticipated claims for the 1993 floods a group of midwestern lawmakers said in a let Ter last week to irs commissioner Margaret m. Rich Ardson. For a typical Farmer expecting $40,000 in disaster Aid the delay could mean an extra $5,733 in taxes according to estimates a Minnesota accounting firm pre pared for rep. David Minge a Minn. The Federal government should provide these producers with some flexibility so that they do not unjustly suffer tax consequences from unduly Low income in 1993 or from excessively High income in 1994," the Law makers wrote. Many Farmers filing disaster claims could not even schedule their appointments with local agriculture department offices before the end of the year they said. The tardy disaster payments cause two problems for Farmer the disaster Aid will inflate their 1994 income and they will have so Little income to report for 1993 that they lose the Benefit of personal exemptions another deductions. Gillespie said he is waiting for $40,000 in crop insurance claims and disaster payments he needs to pay off the $42,000 loan he took out last year to operate his farm. Without the disaster Check he will show an in come loss of $15,000 to $20,000 in 1993 and waste his tax deductions. Gillespie said he lost his soybeans and Corn 80 per cent of his wheat and All the Grain he had stored in bins when his 400-acre farm was drenched by heavy rain last summer. The irs says it can t do anything to help. Federal tax Law bars 1994 income from being counted against Las year s losses. You d have to have the Law changed to have that happen said Johnell Hunter a spokeswoman for Theta Agency