Daily Journal (Newspaper) - December 5, 1977, Fergus Falls, Minnesota egal options dealers don't deliver the goods BJ KALAR in -i Editor The phone rings in the evening and a man in- himself as a representative of an in- vestment firm on the East Coast Did you know that if invested in sugar 60 days ago you would have quadrupled your money by he asks This type of call has become common in the area recently according to Larry Dorr president of Co Inc a locally based investment securities firm The callers are selling commodity options a perfectly legal occupation if the operations are legitimate But it appears most of Inese phone offers are not Dorn explained that an option is the opportunity to buy a commodity under certain terms and con- ditions at a given price within a certain time He said it is highly leveraged in that the speculator has a chance for a quick gain or loss in a short period of time Callers to this area have offered commodity options in cocoa sugar copper silver and gold options are sold through exchanges in foreign countries and on commodity exchanges in this country Illicit operators claim to invest customers money through these markets but most often the money is kept These operators also sell options for a much higher price than the ex- change rate A recent Wall Street Journal article pointed out the problem with illegal commodity options sales following Is it right to charge some farmer in Fergus Falls Minn for a London option that sells for It isn't against the law The article states that many of the sales calls people get come from firms run by de- licensed stockbrokers and persons connected with Mafia organizations It may well be the biggest fraud problem in the country right now Oscar Sorlie Fergus Falls Area Chamber of Commerce president said that We as a Chamber wart to advise people in the area of these schemes lor sales of products and commodities People should be aware this is something that should be questioned There are some things going on in the area thai like to see Dorn said In the last 30 to 60 days eight or ten people have been in talk to us about calls they've received on these illegitimate deals Most recently he said a fanner received a phone call from someone in Boston who had a scheme for him to increase his money substantially over- night by investing in copper This overnight is the warning Dorn said There's a regular spiel these folks read off They're not playing the game by the rules they're obviously fraud deals in some cases linked to organized crime Dom said the average contract offered for sale goes for close to and any number of contracts can be bought kind of money going out of the area he continued In some cases they're taking big chunks of money from people and people work hard for their money Names are obtained through purchased lists explained The sellers then get access to a WATS une and simply call down the list Dorn said it's a numbers game if you call enough names you snag a few Dom simply asked questions when three different options salesmen called him after he queried the men about company credit references character reference and Chamber of Commerce affiliation click went Die receiver Dorn said he knows this situation isn't unique to Fergus Falls since he has heard of similar calls through his off ices in other towns He said though that the illegal options operators might be attracted to this area because they believe per capita income is high here since this is the to the Hed River Valley One of the tenets of investing is investigate before you invest Dorn advised That's the most important thing get an option from someone vou can trust before leaping into deals NO 285 Fergus Fells Minnesota 56537 MONDAY DEC 5 1977 SINGLE COPY Arab front freezes relations with Egypt TRIPOLI API B TRIPOLI Libya AP Five Arab opponents of tian peace overtures to Israel formed a confrontation front against President Anwar Sadat today and announced ic and token economic tions against him Iraq walked out of the Tripoli communique to freeze diplomatic relations Egypt They also called for a boycott of Egyptian companies trading with Israel of which there are none demanded that the quarters of the Arab league be removed from SNOW PUT TO GOOD USE Old Smoky ski hill and his brother Keith rode sleds over aled skiers hile Falls ws Kyte a Roosevelt Park by James Gray summit meeting undermining Cairo and appealed for support the united front Sadat's foes for Syria the chief remaining hoped to achieve and strating once again the chronic Roads getting less salt ST PAUL Minn AP There is less salt being used on Minnesota slate highways this year state officials sav But the situation may be ferent on county roads ing on local policies The state Department of Transportation said crews have dissension in the Arab world Sadat said the Arab against him caused him no concern He also told two in- in Cairo Sunday that the Soviet Union was behind the rubbish at the Tripoli meeting The leaders of Syria Algeria South Yemen and the Palestinian guerrilla movement agreed in a final military threat to Israel The meeting also resulted in a reconciliation among guerrilla groups and a hardening of Palestinian sition to peace negotiations with Israel Iraq delegates left the Libyan Peoples Palace Sunday alter four days wrangling behind closed doors The walkout un- a long-standing rift be- tween Iraq and Syria ruled by rival wings of the Baath ist party that are split over tics toward Israel Syria's in- in Lebanon and its diversion of the waters of the Euphrates River The Iraqis have sent out in- to an ing of their own in Baghdad next week and it was believed they refused to join the Tripoli front because it is likely to be led by Syrian Presiileni Hafez Assad The Iraqis came to make said a spokesman for the Palestinian rillas who are controlled by Syria He accused the Iraqis of being A Palestinian official said Iraq first demanded that the meeting reject Security Council resolutions 242 and 338 the basis of most peace efforts since the 1967 war Syrian opposition blocked this The Iraqis then demanded that the group declare its in- tention of creating an dat front but leave the actual formation to the proposed meeting In what Palestinian officials said a slap at Iraq Palestine Liberation issued a statement claiming its total con- of any party to the Tripoli Summit that rejects for- mation of the front The declaration also nut Palestinian ance si the Geneva peace con- ference Sadat and President Carter ic convene Ji the new Arab alliance should confront all surrender tions anj and ism as well as their tools in the Arab the latter an apparent reference to Sadat HAMILTON Bermuda AP British troops armed with rifles and machine guns been able to reduce salt usage Bermuda today for the first time in nearly 10 years but rioting to protest the tion of two blacks for political murders already had ended British commanders said 260 troops had been brought in Rioting subsides in Bermuda Survey shows illiteracy pet in state ST PAUL Minn first official adult illiteracy surrey in the state of Minnesota has turned up some rather disturbing statistics According to survey 20 to 30 percent of adult Minnesotans Bundle up tonight By The Associated Press Winter is expected to make itself known across Minnesota today and tonight with some of the coldest weather of the son The National Weather vice issued tra vel advisories for northeast Minnesota this ing predicting additional of one to three inches of new snow by tonight Arctic air moved into the per Midwest behind a low sure center that brought the snow Temperatures were expected to drop throughout the day with tows tonight of 23 beloir in some northein areas The cold weather should remain through with the mercury climbing perhaps as high as five above zero in the north The hitter cold will be winds of 15 loM mph are functionally illiterate which means they cannot read simple items such as job ads food and medicine labels The survey was conducted by Dr Rosemarie Park assistant professor of adult education and Dr Harlan Copeland of adult education both at the University of Minnesota and Greta coordinator of adult special programs in the Mounds View Community Education Department Park says the figure does not include those persons who have been institutionalized such as prisoners or menial patients Among factors on which the figure is based arc U.S and Minnesota census data national adult literacy tests Minnesota school literacy tests and contacts with agencies concerned with adult education across the stale Park said Neither Park nor Ploetz think the problem is failure of the school system But Park says in a few cases there may be inadequate schooling We have a large number of adults who never got into school in the first place or adults whose schooling was she said adding There are many who had to drop out for reasons such as finances or pregnancy Others may have had undiagnosed reading disabilities and there arc many who had emotional problems such as delinquents Park believes the problem is linked with the way society is structured Many of those who are illiterate are in the bottom 20 percent of society ly The study also shows that whites are almost as likely to be illiterate as are blacks and that more men are likely to be illiterate than women Currently the major effort to educate adult illiterates is I Illiteracy partially by using more equipment and by ling down on the percentage of salt in sanding operations By contrast about half of the state's counties are sticking to a bare road said Charles Swanson dent of the Minnesota County Highway Engineers ation Swanson said rural counties are under particular pressure from lawmen school districts and mail carriers o keep road surfaces clear The DOT said Minnesota's biggest year for salt use on highways was the winter of when tons were spread In comparison the state cut sale usage to tons last year officials said In 1971 the Minnesota lature ordered a cut in the use of deicing chemicals without setting any standards The der said sail should be used only at spots such as hills in- and high-speed roads where traction is critical Counties have been allowed to interpret the slate dictum often according to local sures It's nice to say we don't need any or don't want any but the first time we had an accident people call here and said Dean Anklan county Salt Continued on Page 18 from bases in Belize in Central America and England to back up the 900 men of the local lice force and the Bermuda Regiment The British island colony was calm all day Sunday and three fire bombs exploded day in a truck and a cant house in Hamilton and at a reform school 12 miles outside of murdering the British the city No casualties were nor and his aide the British lice chief and two white super- market owners in It A curfew re- mained in effect Black youths rioted and hurled fire bombs Thursday Friday and Saturday nights io protest the of two black terrorists convicted reported I think the steam has gone out of said Police Inspector Allan Lister was Bermuda's first executions in 31 years Crash of hijacked plane being Hie rioters estimated to have lone million worth of damage but no serious injuries hare been reported Three sons including two Americans died in a fire at the ampton Princess Hotel day night during the first riot but be rioting and the hotel were seven miles apart and of- said they liad been I Bermuda Weather roundup JOHORE BHARU Malaysia API Investigators are ing to determine whether the hijackers of a Malaysian liner caused the crash in which all 100 persons aboard died and whether the hijackers were Japanese terrorists One witness to the crash day night said the Boeing 737 wobbled unsteadily rose slightly then started down and exploded Wreckage dis- membered bodies clothing and debris were scattered over a square mile of swamp north of the Johore Strait and apore The Malay Mail newspaper said the eyewitness reports in- some kind of tussle be- Iween the hijackers and the crew The explosion may have been caused by explosives ried on board by the hijackers considering the wide area over which the wreckage was the paper said Among the dead were the ban ambassador to Malaysia and his wife two World Bank officials from Washington Hoerr and and Malaysia's minister All Haji mad Malaysian Airways said about 20 of the 93 were foreigners Sources at the Kuala Lumpur airport said the pilot radioed that members of the Japanese Red Army took over the plane But he airline said it could not confirm this and did not how many hijackers there were They took over the plane about 10 minutes after it left Occasional periods of light snow or flurries with blowing Penang island off the drifting snow this evening west coast of Malaysia on a Occasional cloudiness with few flight to Kuala Lumpur the Malaysian capital and apore with 93 passengers and a crew of seven an airline spokesman said The plane stopped at Kuala Lumpur but the hijackers forced the pilot to take off most immediately for apore the spokesman reported The explosion occurred shortly after Police said they were in- to determine how the hijackers got on the plane undetected Communications snow flurries tonight and Tuesday Much colder tonight and Tuesday The present temperature will fall to 18 below to 25 overnight Highs Tuesday 5 below to 10 below Wind northwesterly 20 to 30 mph by evening Probability of measurable precipitation 20 percent this afternoon Minister V Manickavasagam said security at all Malaysian airports would be tightened High Sunday 14 -5 At At Noon Precipitation 24 hours ending 8 today Trace Sunrise Tuesday Sunset Temperatures One Year Ago High 17 -13 The the Pinto Sanfa Mario and On the Inside On tbr local scene Page 1 Since yew asked Page II Arm happenings Page 11 ROME AP An Italian ambassador's letter written in indicates that Christopher Columbus made his first age to America with four rather than three as records Prof Marinella vini Mazzanti of Urbino sity says Mrs Mazzanti says the letter was written from Barcelona on March 9 HM by de Gennaro the of the king of Naples It went to de brother the ambassador to the duchy of Milan and the scholar said she found it in the archives of the family which ruled in Modena then According to history bus first expedition in search of a westward water route to the Far East consisted of three caravels the Nina Pinta and the Santa Maria But Mrs Bonvini Mazzanti says de naro in telling his brother about the explorer's departure from her home in Irom Spain For the entreaties of one called Columba it pleased the king that he should rig four caravels because he said he wanted to go across the Grand Sea and sail straight westward long enough as to reach the Orient since the world being round he could but make a turn and find eastern part Columbus returned aboard the Nina followed by the said Mrs zanti a history in a telephone interview near Urbino The Santa Maria was wrecked on Christmas Day of 1492 when Columbus WHO men in a fort called on the Hispaniola The fourth ship remained behind with those in the fort She said arc references to this fourth ship being left be- hind in Columbus diary though the diary is cise about the number of ships and in the report he sent to King Ferdinand's treasurer from on March 14 Id days after he docked there on his return journey But she said they were never interpreted as meaning he had departed with a fourth ship When Columbus returned to the fort on the next journey he reported the men had been killed and everything had been destroyed Obviously the vel also had been destroyed by infuriated natives he professor said She said the ambassador's letter was based on Columbus Lisbon to the Span ish monarch and jueen bella and the envoy told his Mother four times he had read it
