Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Nov. 1, 1974, edition 1 / Page 1
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1 1 1 O (vj 1 y Chapel HHPs Morning Newspaper Vcl. S3, rio. 50 Chapel HIS I, north CcrcHna. Friday, Novernbsrl. 1974 Founded February 23, 1833 i : ; v EdmSston responds to investigation Stall photo by TW IMMk ., Democratic attorney general candidate Rufus Edmisten sddresses the press Thursday, calling for the resignation of state revenue Secretary J. Howard Coble. Coble issued a report Wednesday which could lead to criminal prosecution of Edmisten for failure to pay North Carolina taxes. Flanking Edmisten are (left to right) former North Carolina Governor Bob Scott, Lt. Gov. Jim Hunt and Chapel Hill Mayor Howard Lee. dmkteim retorts Cotok by Joel Brinkley News Editor -.'.' . ' RALEIGH State Revenue Secretary J. Howard Coble is a dangerous man who has misused his office and should therefore resign, state attorney general candidate Rufus Edmisten said Thursday. During a morning press conference, Edmisten charged Coble leaked confidential tax information in a manner worse than that used "during the worst years of Watergate." Coble drafted a report on Edmisten's tax situation this week which could lead to criminal charges against Edmisten. After seeing the report Wednesday, Wake County Superior Court Judge James Bailey hired a special prosecutor to determine what action if any should be taken against Edmisten. "I have talked to every living North Carolina revenue secretary," Edmisten said, "and none of them have ever so much as given a phone call to someone in my position before." Edmisten. said Coble has a "mistaken -view - of - what criminal investigations are for," arid charged hirri with pursuing this one only for political purposes. Coble has contributed to Republican attorney general James H. Carson's campaign. Carson is Edmisten's opponent in the attorney general race. Edmisten admitted during a debate with Carson last month in Memorial Hall that he had not paid North Carolina state taxes while registered to vote in this state. He paid Virginia taxes during the 10 years he served as Sen. Sam Ervin's (D-N.C.) aide in Washington. This admission has been a major issue in the attorney general race. Wednesday, Bailey appointed Raleigh attorney Howard Manning Sr. as special prosecutor after receiving Coble's report on the case. Wake County District Attorney Burley Mitchell said Coble's report "is composed of information which might possibly justify criminal prosecution" of Edmisten. "I want to thank Mr. Coble for being so politically active in this campaign," Edmisten said. He predicted he would win more than 55 per cent of the vote in Tuesday's election. Carson later predicted he would win, citing polls that "indicate a close election with a large percentage of the vote undecided." Edmisten was joined at his press conference by former governors Terry Sanford and Bop Scott, Lt. Gov. Jim Hunt and Chapel Hill Mayor Howard Lee. All read brief statements charging Coble arid Carson with conducting a devious campaign and with using tactics similar to those used by Nixon's men during the 1972 presidential campaign. "This abuse of governmental power will turn out to be a had thing for the Republicans," Sanford said, "because it will backfire and cause Rufus to be elected Nov. 5." New town buses still -unused'; repairs, license plates needed by Henry Farber Staff Writer The two new town buses which arrived last week, fresh off the assembly line, have not yet begun service because of mechanical difficulties, Town Transportation Director John Pappas said Wednesday. One bus broke down during a test run this week and had to be towed to the maintenance plant. ' "They have any number of defects," Pappas said, including bad batteries and air conditioning problems. The air-conditioning systems on both $55,000 buses were shut off before they were delivered. "It was probably snowing in Michigan" where they were built, Pappas said. "There's nothing worse than an air conditioned bus without an air conditioner," Pappas said, since the coaches windows are sealed. The recent unseasonable' heat would make riding uncomfortable, he said. Pappas said he is waiting for General Motors to send a regional service representative here to help the maintenance plant make the necessary repairs. A parts and labor warrantee will cover the costs, he said. Pappas said he is also having trouble getting license plates for the 42-seat buses. "Getting license plates is like pulling teeth in the state of North Carolina," he said. In spite of the rundown condition of the" 16- to 17-year-old buses now operating, the bus system carries the third largest number of riders of any city system in North Carolina. Citing figures published by the federal Office of Transit Management, Pappas said Chapel Hill was behind only Charlotte and Durham in ridership during September, the local system's first full month of operation. Chapel Hill's buses carried approximately 242,000 riders in September; Charlotte, 565,000; and Durham, 254,000. The local system carries more passengers than those of larger cities, such as Greensboro, Raleigh and Winston-Salem. During a meeting of the town Transportation Advisory Committee Wednesday night, members said transit officials from other cities have contacted them to find out why the local system has been so successful from the start. Committee member Gorman Gilbert said he was visited by Winston-Salem officials, whose system is in trouble, and from the Office of Transit Management in Washington, D.C. Committee member Shirley Marshall said she was approached by Greenville officials, who "are looking at us to be the prototype." The other two 42-seat coaches ordered by the town are expected to arrive any day, Pappas said. Ma T 0 n by Jane Denison United Press International WASHINGTON Attorneys for John N. Mitchell Thursday tried to portray John W. Dean 111 and Jeb Stuart Magruder as the arch villians of the Watergate cover-up, advising perjury and plotting to destroy incriminating evidence. Magruder admittedly nervous during his second day of rigorous cross-examination at the conspiracy trial of Mitchell and four other aides to 'Richard M. Nixon, nonetheless stuck to his story that Mitchell was the moving force both behind the Watergate bugging and the cover-up that followed. "No, I didn't say that " he said when confronted with an 'FBI report from April last year that said he told agents M itchell had not given his absolute approval for Watergate.: "They said that. That was their paraphrase of what I said and I think that should be made clear to the jury. 1 was very nervous that day. It was a time of stress. "I tried to make it clear that he (Mitchell) was not enthusiastic . . . He was not favorably inclined; none of us was favorably inclined to the plan. But that does not obscure the fact that in the end he did approve the plan," Magruder said. Magruder, Mitchell's deputy at the 1972 Nixon campaign, conceded that Mitchell a week later had called to ask him why bugging mastermind G. Gordon Liddy needed so much money. He said he explained the cash was needed for personnel and equipment. ECOS mails fake bombs An ECOS, Inc. publicity stunt that involved mailing 1 ,500 phony letter bombs to government officials as a protest of nuclear power plants has brought praise, condemnation and confusion. There is even a slight chance the statewide organization headquartered in the Union will be taken to court for its ploy to attract attention to the hazards of plutonium-239, a deadly powder-like waste created by nuclear power plants, ECOS Executive Director Drew Diehl said Thursday. Last week, ECOS mailed to city, state and federal officials an envelope containing a pinch of talcum powder and a letter beginning: "The powder in this envelope is not plutonium-239. Repeat: it is NOT plutonium-239, only talcum powder." Reactions varied to the letter emphasizing the dangerous possibility of the waste falling into the wrong hands. After opening the letter, a secretary at the Chapel Hill Municipal Building immediately phoned local police and fire departments. Another city official wrote ECOS congratulating the group for its method but made no mention of the stunt's purpose. The ploy received substantial attention, including a front-page story in Wednesday's Raleigh News and Observer. Excited at the prospect of additional publicity, Diehl said he almost wished ECOS would be taken to court. However, Diehl said ECOS discussed the idea with attorneys before mailing the letters. ECOS energy coordinator Watson Morris got the idea of using fake letter bombs from an article by a clinical psychologist in an environmental journal. Students, administrators offer few cures jdiredl M ffrainni by Jim Roberts Staff Writer '., Diseases of Student Government and its symptoms were the topics of most of the speeches at the second session of the Forum on Student Government Wednesday night. Few cures were offered for the diseases. Most of those who spoke, including Chancellor N. Ferebee Taylor, Student Body President Marcus Williams and CGC speaker Johnny Kaleel agreed Student Government's problems lie with the attitudes of the students. In the opening speech Taylor said, "Problems and the lack of vitality are largely attitudinal matters. Involvement is low because of attitudinal reasons." Suggestions for solutions to the problems, however innovative, were not all new. As Williams said after the forum, In one way or another I've heard most of this before in smaller and more private meetings." The forum, sponsored by the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies, demonstrated what students, administrators and Student G6vernment already knew that there are problems in bringing the activities and meaning of Student Government to students. The Wednesday night speeches also proved that solutions, if they do exist, would be hard to come by. Those solutions, Williams stressed, would have" to be multi faceted, not unilateral. Changes in attitudes will have to take place not only within the student body, Williams said, but also within, the administration. The most daring solution to the apathy towards Student Government came from Daily Tar Heel co-editor Jim Cooper, who suggested abolition of Student Government for a limited period of time. "Self destruction would allow students to see . what it's like without Student Government. Students should see the jungle atmosphere of life without Student Government," he said. 1 The Daily Tar Heel would stop publication during the period of Student Government abolition, Cooper said. "Students can see what it'sjike not to have something to read in the morning." Criticism of Student Government came freely from Taylor. "Student Government is, at least in some aspects, at a low ebb at this . institution at this point in time." ' Williams, Kafeel and CGC rules committee chairman Ben Steelman all addressed the problem of apathy toward CGC with different solutions. Williams suggested that CGC be expanded to possibly twice its present size. Kaleel rebuffed Williams, saying CGC should not be expanded, but instead should be revamped. Steelman suggested that the single-member district requirement should be abolished. This would allow grad students and off-campus undergraduates to vote for candidaes in two large multi-member districts. Taylor's suggestion for the improvement of students' attitudes toward Student Government was to convert the Di-Phi Forum into a "road show which could take this type of session to every dormitory on campus." Other speakers included Dean of Student Affairs Donald Boulton, BSM Chairman Algenon Marbley, SCAU Chairman J anie Clark, Student Attorney General . Nita Mitchell , and Undergraduate Court Chairman Charles Atkins. Keith Kapp, president of the Di-Phi Societies, said Thursday he was pleased with the; results but disappointed with the turnout. No more than 25 students attended each session. Many of the speakers recognized the need for more students to become involved with the operation of Student Government Williams suggested giving class credits and salaries to students working with Student Government. "Some of bur best students are motivated by compensation. Students are coming to the realization that the world outside Chapel Hill is hard." - "So a week after this plan was approved, Mitchell asked why Gordon Liddy needed money?" demanded Mitchell attorney Plato Cacheris. No, I didn't say that." Magruder replied cooly. "He asked why he needed that much money." Nor did Magruder budge from his testimony that Mitchell, two days after the June 17, 1972 bugging arrests, told him to have a fire to destroy wiretap reports from Watergate known as the Gemstone file. "You did not tell the grand jury that Mr. Mitchell suggested you have a fire, did you? Cacheris asked. "That's correct " Magruder replied. f orgery easy way to alter bad grades by John Woestendiek Staff Writer A student willing to commit forgery can change any course grade received at this University, a Daily Tar Heel experiment has shown. By simply presenting a forged note of permission from his instructor to the Office of Records and Registration in Hanes Hall, the student receives a Form 15 which, when filled out and returned, will result in the grade change. In this experiment, a "B" was changed to an "A". It was necessary to forge signatures three times once on the permission note to pick up a Form 15 and twice on Form 15 itself. When a DTH reporter first visited Hanes Hall requesting a Form 15, the secretary asked what department it was for. She then offered a package containing about 200 Form 15s. After being informed that only one was wanted, and being presented the forged letter of permission, the secretary supplied one copy of the form. . - The form was later filled out stating YnaT the grade of "B" was to be changed to an "A" because of an error in the averaging of the final grade. The signatures of the department chairman and the course instructor were then forged. The entire process took about one hour. The completed Form 15 was placed in the campus mail, and within one week the official grade change was recorded on a permanent transcript. Robert Cornwell, assistant director of records and administration, said it would be impossible to estimate how many illegal grade changes occur each year. "Seven to eight thousand grade changes are made each year, and there is no assured way of knowing how many are forged," Cornwell said. Last year two people were caught forging grade changes. Forging signatures of University officials is a . violation of the student code of responsibility, Marriane Hitchcock, assistant dean of student life, said. Violators are sent to the student attorney general and then tried before the honor court. Those who have been caught filled out the Form incorrectly, Cornwell said. This caused the form to be sent back to the instructor in whose course the grade change was requested. If the form is filled out correctly there is virtually no way the student can be caught. Some secretaries, however, are familiar with some deans signatures. After the forms are filled out, the grade change is sent back to the department to be recorded there. If it is one of the 31 departments in the arts and sciences division, there is little chance of the student getting caught because the form is sent to the arts and sciences office, rather than to the instructor. If the grade is for a course in a separate school, the chances of the forgery being detected are greater because the form must go back through the dean's office. The only way to detect forgery cases would be to .send every form back to the department it came from, Cornwell said. Because he has no concrete idea of how 1 unany forgeries occur; Cornwell said he was "not sure if it is worth it to crate a sizeable paperwork empire to stop forgery. "1 am not violently opposed to distributing each form back to departments," Cornwell said, but added he did not think it would help. Cornwell said he personally did not think faculty members would check each form, if and when the procedure is changed. "Maybe for a month, but not after that," Cornwell said. . He estimated the extra paper work would involve one extra man-hour a day for the Office of Records and Registration. Each form would have to be duplicated and mailed back to the departments. Hitchcock and Cornwell agreed that checking signatures would not be a fool proof method of detecting forgeries. "It's awfully tough to recognize screwy signatures," Cornwell said. Cornwell said he would discuss the matter with Raymond E. Strong, director of the office of records and registration when Strong returned from out of town. Illllll Jltllf jLki""lft"nrf''" ) ' 4 4 SUff photo by Toni Hutto Chancellor N. Ferebea Taylor eddress Dl-Fhl
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Nov. 1, 1974, edition 1
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