4The Daily Tar HeelWednesday, April 3, 1991
WORLD BRIEFS
Calvin creator to take
nine-month hiatus
KANSAS CITY, MO. It's enough
to make a person want to pack up a
sandwich and his favorite tiger and run
away from home, or lose himself in
outer space, or change into a hungry
Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Bill Watterson, creator of the popu
lar comic strip "Calvin and Hobbes" is
taking a nine-month hiatus beginning
May 5, said his syndicator, Universal
Press Syndicate.
The mischievous Calvin and his pet
tiger, Hobbes, will be appearing in re
runs from 1985 while Watterson takes
time off.
Calvin's adventures of the imagina
tion include crash-landing on strange
planets, being captured by aliens, turning
himself into dinosaurs, traveling in time
and literally jumping out of his skin.
"HadI imagined 'Calvinand Hobbes'
would last this long, I would have paced
myself," Watterson said. "The strip re
quires a great deal of research, and I
need to do more interplanetary explo
ration and paleontology work before I
continue."
Journalists flee from
Iraqi-Kurdish fighting
ANKARA, Turkey At least 35
foreign correspondents fled into Turkey
from attacks by Iraqi troops, officials
and reporters said Tuesday. Most of the
reporters had to cross a swift river or
hike across rugged mountains, they said.
Turkey's semi-official Anatolia
News Agency quoted some of the re
porters as saying that one journalist had
died and two were injured in clashes
between Iraqi troops and Kurdish rebels.
The journalists' names were not given,
and the report could not be indepen
dently confirmed.
The reporters decided to flee Iraq,
"because there was no authority left
there (northern Iraq) and we really feared
for our liyes."
Gen. Dogan Gures, Turkey's mili
tary commander, said Tuesday 200,000
refugees were expected to try to enter
Turkey after the collapse of the Kurdish
rebellion. He said the government had
not yet decided whether to admit the
refugees.
Another journalist who escaped was
Jim Hill of Cable News Network, who
said Turkish soldiers began firing at the
group as the journalists swam toward
the Turkish shore, with bullets hitting
the water nearby.
Iraq claims Kurdish
rebellion will end soon
NICOSIA, Cyprus Iraqi state press
said Tuesday that only a few more days
would be needed to stamp out fighting
with Kurdish rebels, who reported re
newed skirmishes around the strategic
oil center of Kirkuk.
The collapse of resistance in major
cities like Erbil, Dohuk and Zakho in
dicated the rebellion was crumbling
throughout the northern region and "they
know their inevitable end is near," the
official Iraqi News Agency quoted the
newspaper of the Baath Party as saying.
INA, monitored in Cyprus, quoted
the Al-Thawra newspaper as saying
Kurdish areas would be purged of rebels
battling the Saddam Hussein regime
within days and the region would return
to an unspecified degree of political
autonomy.
Nixon meets with
Gorbachev and Yeltsin
MOSCOW President Mikhail
Gorbachev met with former President
Richard Nixon on Tuesday and assured
him he is still the same "old Gorbachev,"
indicating he is not abandoning the re
form process.
Presidential spokesman Vitaly
Ignatenko said at their Kremlin meeting
that the two discussed whether there
had been a reversal of Soviet reforms.
However, the official Tass news
agency said Gorbachev told Nixon: "The
United States can be sure that they are
dealing with the old Gorbachev. ' "That
was apparently a play on the" old Nixon'
and new Nixon' labels meant to dis
tinguishNixon's image during different
points in his political career.
Ignatenko said Gorbachev told Nixon
that republics seeking independence
"must accept the constitutional process."
Nixon in turn told Gorbachev that
Americans were concerned about events
in the breakaway republics of Lithuania,
Estonia and Latvia, Ignatenko said.
Nixon also met Tuesday with
Gorbachev's political rival, Russian
leader Boris N. Yeltsin, and hinted that
he hoped for better relations between
the two in the future.
"He is a very responsible political
leader, and I hope he would play a role,
possibly even with President
Gorbachev," he said of Yeltsin.
"We are for reforms, and whoever
can do it first and best, we are for," he
added.
The Associated Press
.Budgets
proposed to iplan for shortfall
By David Etchison
Staff Writer
To tax or not to tax?
That is the question North Carolina's
governor and legislators are asking as
they plan for an expected revenue
shortfall in the 1991-92 budget.
"We're already $400 million in the
hole for next year," said Nancy Pekerak,
spokesperson for the governor. "We
just won't have that revenue coming in.
That's the shortfall."
The $400 million shortfall will be in
the continuation budget made up of all
current programs that will be continued
in the next fiscal year, Pekerak said.
Gov. James Martin and Lt. Gov.
James Gardner both introduced budgets
that propose different remedies for the
shortfall.
Although some points of their plans
are similar, Martin and Gardner differ
on whether to raise taxes to boost rev
enues. The governor wants to discon
tinue payments of $242 million aid to
counties, Pekerak said. The money for
these payments originally came from
intangible and inventory taxes taken
from businesses and banks, but these
taxes were repealed years ago, she said.
"In order to support the counties,
we've still been sending that money
back to them as if we were still collecting
the intangibles and inventory tax, which
we aren't," Pekerak said.
The governor plans to withhold that
money from the counties and instead
give counties the option of raising their
sales tax by 12 cent.
"Basically, that $242 million appro
priation has been a gift from the state,"
Pekerak said. "Any monies that are
controlled by the state are subject to
decisions by the legislature. It's not a
very stable source of revenue for the
counties."
Gardner said he believes the budget
can be balanced without requiring any
form of tax increase. The revenue can
be regained in other places, he said.
His budget will take the $28 million
needed each year for driver's education
in the public schools from the Highway
Fund instead of the General Fund. The
General Fund provides money from
income taxes for most state operations.
Gardner would also like to increase
tuition for the University of North
Carolina system by 20 percent for out-of-state
students and 10 percent for in
state students for the next two years.
This would raise approximately $28
million.
"Those monies need to go into public
education because that's where our
problem is' right now," he said.
With these three ideas, "you've got
almost $100 million Gov Martin didn't
address at all," Gardner said.
Trimming the budgets of state de
partments helped cut costs by about
$ 1 60 million during this year ' s financial
hard times.
Both the governor and his lieutenant
favor continuing the practice of "zero
ing in on some of the bureaucracy we've
built up," as Gardner said.
The governor hopes to maintain
current levels of spending and to use
"management flexibility" cuts to save
$200 million.
Departments will be given less money
than they received in the previous year,
but the department heads, instead of the
legislature, will decide where the cuts
should be made.
"You cannot have a part-time legis
lature micro-managing a $10 billion
business," Gardner said. "And that's
what the state of North Carolina is: it's
a business in the service business."
There's no way the legislators can
know what cuts can or need to be made
in each department, he said. Only the
department heads can make those de
cisions effectively.
Dave Crotts, senior fiscal analyst for
the General Assembly, said the legis
lature has come to a different conclusion
in calculating the size of the budget
shortfall.
"The legislative position is that the
true size of the continuation budget
shortfall is $779 million," he said.
The governor took into account some
one-time, "quick fix" reductions in
calculating the shortfall he would deal
with, Crotts said. Legislative leaders
don't necessarily agree with him and
are looking for longer range solutions to
budget shortfalls.
LA. mayor to call for police chief's resignation
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES Mayor Tom
Bradley will call for the resignation of
Police Chief Daryl Gates, one month
after the videotaped police beating of a
black motorist shamed the city, a source
said Tuesday.
Bradley, who has hesitated to ask
directly that Gates quit despite persis
tent outrage and daily calls for the po
lice chiefs ouster, planned an evening
news conference to call for his resig
nation, said a City Hall source who
spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The mayor's office would only say
Bradley planned "a major announce
ment concerning the police department."
The mayor doesn't have the power to
fire Gates. Only the Los Angeles Police
Commission can order him out of office.
Momentum for Gates' ouster has been
building since the March 3 clubbing of
Rodney King. Hours before the mayor's
announcement, the American Civil
Liberties Union said it had signatures of
20,000 people calling for Gates to resign.
The King beating, captured on video
by a bystander in suburban Lake View
Terrace, was repeatedly shown to mil
lions on television and led to condem
nation by President Bush and civil rights
groups.
Gates was attending a meeting
Tuesday afternoon where brutality was
being discussed and not immediately
available for comment.
"I'm glad the mayor has responded
to the overwhelming cry for Police Chief
Gates to resign. Each day another or
ganization has stepped forward to ask
for it," said Ramona Ripston, executive
director of the ACLU of Southern
California.
"I think the mayor is cautious by
nature, and he wanted to be sure that
when he did it, it was what the com
munity wanted, what the city as a whole
wanted," Ripston said.
Several investigations were under
way in the King incident. In addition to
Justice Department probes, a blue-rib
bon citizens panel selected by Bradley
began an investigation Monday, and
Gates appointed another panel last week.
Earlier Tuesday, leaders of a newly
formed group of black law enforcement
officers claimed there was widespread
racism within the police department.
"Silence is complicity and we have
agreed to break that silence in an effort
to gain the community's trust and sup
port," said Officer Carl McGillhead of
the 100-member African-American
Peace Officer Association.
"We are also calling upon our fellow
officers of all colors to uphold their oath
of service by following our Iead,"McGill
said.
Fire prevention groups want to oust Tire Marshal Bill'
The Associated Press
NEWARK, N.J. "Fire Marshal
Bill," the combustible character who
sets himself ablaze and blows himself
up on the TV show "In Living Color,"
sets a dangerous example for children,
fire prevention groups said Tuesday.
The New Jersey Fire Prevention and
Protection Association announced at a
news conference a campaign to have
the character removed from the air. On
the FOX television show, "Fire Mar
shal Bill" is a firesafety instructor who
routinely puts metal objects into electri
cal outlets and burns his hands on hot
stove tops.
The character, portrayed by Jim
Carrey, endangers the lives of children,
association representatives said. They
said children could injure or kill them
selves trying to re-create the character' s
actions.
"We want him off," said William
Schultz, association president. "The
network and the show owe an apology
to burn victims nationwide."
"In Living Color" spokesman An
drew Shipps said FOX executives would
reserve comment until they evaluate the
group's allegations.
Show co-producer Eric Gold said
from his Los Angeles office that the
show tries not to respond to special
interest groups.
Other groups calling for removal of
"Fire Marshal Bill" included the Na
tional Fire Protection Association and
the N.J. Fire Protection Association.
"He's like a pyromaniac," said Judy
Marquet of the St. Barnabas Burn
Foundation in Livingston. "He almost
enjoys the fire. The problem is they are
spotlighting a dysfunctional behavior."
A character whose face is a seeming
mass of skin grafts is not farcical,
Marquet said, and insults those who
have had skin grafts.
The National Fire Protection Asso
ciation of Quincy, Mass., also has written
FOX chairman and chief executive of
ficer Barry Diller asking for the
character's removal.
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