Waterloo Courier Cedar Falls (Newspaper) - May 13, 1988, Waterloo, Iowa Most metro banks comply with new check clearing rules See page A6 FEATURES Kasten Comedy Theatre makes you laugh and think See page B1 Ailing metro track star may run two races at district See paged 35 cents 40 pages 4 sections Council members set option tax priorities By PAT KINNEY Courier Staff Writer Waterloo and Cedar Falls council members have in- formally agreed that any local option sales tax would be used primarily for property tax relief and street repair The 1 cent sales tax which is being studied by a committee of citizens from both cities was the main topic of discussion at a quarterly meeting of the two councils this week No formal actions are taken at the meetings Council members generally agreed that the sales tax proposal would have to be initiated by citizens not ment Former Waterloo council member Frank Dowie who heads a sales tax study committee has declined comment until a formal announcement of findings is made CEDAR FALLS Mayor Jon Crews said his city staff as a courtesy to Bowie's committee drafted a possible sales tax ordinance for discussion which must be adopted by the city councils before being put on the ballot breaks down allocation of revenues Crews said under the ordinance 60 percent of any tax revenues would have to be used for property tax relief with at least half of the remaining revenues used for street repair All told Crews said at least JO percent of the sales tax revenues would be used for property tax relief or street repair It would also allow some leeway for a portion of the tax less than 20 percent for any infrastructure projects the individual cities may designate including streets sewer or buildings That could allow Waterloo to use part of the tax revenues to pay for a new sports complex if city officials and voters so choose Crews said They could also choose to use the entire portion for street repair Crews emphasized the ordinance was a draft for dis- cussion purposes It has been distributed to Cedar Falls council members FIVE WATERLOO and Cedar Falls council members contacted after the meeting said there was general ment that if voters are to accept the tax the majority of it would have to be used for property tax relief and street repair it was also mentioned at the meeting that the study commitee is looking at timing of a sales tax and whether a special election would be appropriate UNDER STATE law voters in all Black Hawk County communities would have to vote on the sales tax The communities which are contiguous to each other would vote as one block and the tax would be implemented in all those communities or none of them The other communities could vote separately Voting as a block would be the cities of Waterloo Cedar See OPTION TAX Continued on page A2 coi 4 C 1988 Waterloo Courier Inc UNI freshmen sophomores lead grade point gains By ANNE PHILLIPS Courier Staff Writer CEDAR FALLS Led by the gains of its freshman and sophomore classes grades earned by students at the University of Northern Iowa have hit their highest point in more than a decade University officials are attributing that climb to better college aration on the part of incoming dents as well as the nationwide at- tention directed to the quality of education in the 1980s The mean grade point earned by all UNI undergraduate students was 2.76 on a 4.0 scale for the fall semester In letter terms that grade would fall under a B but above a C The mean is the point where half the grade points are higher and half are lower That figure compares to a 2.69 grade point earned by students in the fall of 1986 and marks the highest mean grade point at the university in 13 years Undergraduate students in the fall of 1974 also tallied a mean grade of 2.76 The grade points represent the grades for the fall semester only and are not cumulative The greatest climb in mean grade points in the fall 1987 was made by its freshman class UNI re- port The mean freshman grade point climbed from 2.48 to 2.60 between the fall of 1986 and the fall of 1987 UNI sophomores showed a similar gain climbing from 2.67 to 2.76 while the grades earned by juniors climbed slightly from 2.74 to 2.78 Only seniors showed a decline in grades earned in the fall semester But the seniors dropped only slightly from a 2.95 grade point in 1986 to a 2.94 in 1987 UNI Registrar Robert Leahy said the grade point earned by students typically increases from the freshman to sophomore years Leahy does not believe that grade inflation more lenient grading dards is a factor in the recent gains because not all classes are ing at equal rates The registrar said that grades have been steady in the last 10 years with only minor tions Grade inflation was more predominant in the early 1970s when the last high was reached he said Average grade point for all under- graduate students in 1967 the year UNI became a university was 2.34 he said In 1975 that same figure was 2.69 Jack Wielenga UNI director of admissions said a number of factors likely contributed to last fall's climb in Wielenga said the increase may in part be an early reflection of the university's new core admission standards which will be in effect this fall Publicity and awareness of those See GRADES Continued on page A2 col 4 Catch of the day Christopher Lemon 6 keeps her in as Bobbie Emerson gives him a hand during a fishing expedition at Cedar River Park Wednesday after- Courier photo by DAN noon Emerson took her two boys and three cousins to the park to try their luck in the children's fishing pond say OSHA should postpone IBP fine AIDS cases worldwide up 72 percent ATLANTA AP The number of AIDS cases jumped at least 72 cent worldwide with the epidemic concentrated in the Americas and spread in three distinct geographic patterns the World Health tion reports In a report published Thursday by the U.S Centers for Disease Control the WHO says cases of AIDS had been reported for 1987 as of March 21 That brought the global total to in the seven years since the disease was detected the report said It also noted that 1987 reporting is not complete and the total so far represents a 72 percent increase over 1986 By comparison the number of acquired immune deficiency syndrome increased 92 percent from to 1986 and 110 percent from 1984 The report came on the eve of a meeting here on how to stop AIDS AIDS Cases Around the World Cases reported to the World Health 7 1 Organization by continent v 1 L 1 1 988 with no with 1 or more TOTAL Includes Center for Disease Control 1988 figures AP from spreading among U.S age youth More than 100 educators from across the country were ex- to attend the three-day con- ference which begins tonight and is by the CDC and the National Education Association The WHO has reported AIDS cases in 138 countries since 1981 Thirty-six other countries have told the based organization that they have had no cases Gov Terry Branstad signs bills on AIDS prevention and University Hospitals opens its AIDS clinic The real number is thought to be much higher because reporting has only just begun in some places such as some African countries The WHO said AIDS reporting in- three broad yet distinct geo- graphic patterns of Regions containing in- countries with large numbers of AIDS cases such as North America Western Europe Australia New Zealand and parts of Latin America In these areas most cases have occurred among homosexual or bisexual men and among abusers of drugs Male patients out- See AIDS Continued on page A2 col 4 OMAHA Neb AP The U.S Occupational Safety and Health Agency shouldn't fine IBP Inc million before an industry study of repetitive motion injuries is com- a representative of 450 U.S meatpacking companies said day OSHA proposed the fine day for alleged disregard of repetitive motion injuries at its kota City plant Until the American Meat Industry study is completed it's to be throwing fines around against the nation's No 1 said Bob Hibbert vice president and general counsel for the institute Meatpacking companies are trying to reconcile how to succeed and how to create a safe work environment Hibbert said The industry is looking at rotating workers or redesigning jobs he said OSHA is concerned about worker's health said Dr Ralph Yodaiken director of office of tional medicine in Washington To prevent this disease tive motion we've got to design jobs in such a way that they don't cause the Yodaiken said Building collapse in Mexico kills 18 40 more believed trapped AGUASCALIENTES Mexico AP Rescue teams tunnelled through tons of concrete today searching for missing victims after four floors of a downtown building collapsed The Red Cross said 18 people were killed and 96 injured The rubble buried the ground floor offices of a furniture factory Authorities said it was not im- mediately known what caused the building whose upper floors were under construction to collapse Thursday Juan Manuel Diaz duty officer for the Red Cross in said 40 people were believed to be trapped inside the building But we cannot confirm that this figure is correct We are going by Diaz said in a telephone interview Diaz and police duty officer Juan Jose Navarro Rincon said the furniture factory was operating while the upper floors were still being built Both said the building was a reinforced concrete structure From some reports I heard here they were apparently pouring fresh concrete when it caved in ly the building did not resist the Navarro said in a telephone interview Local authorities appealed for help from the army and national Red Cross headquarters in Mexico City for equipment to cut through the concrete that trapped those inside said Margarito quez a spokesman with the police department He said construction workers were on each of the floors of the unfinished structure when it collapsed at about 5 p.m 6 p.m CDT on Thursday One of the dead was an unidentified boy about 10 years old said Esperanza Cardenas a Red Cross spokeswoman Rescue workers were using specially trained search dogs and tunnelling equipment to locate any missing people said Commander Marco Cerilla chief of the Aguascalientes police department He said personnel from the ican army national Red Cross quarters and federal Public Security department arrived to coordinate the search effort Aguascalientes capital of Aguascalientes state is about 320 miles northwest of Mexico City Jorge Alberto Castaneda Alvarado head of the Aguascalientes Civil Engineers Association said day that a committee of engineers and architects was being organized to investigate the collapse OSHA proposed the second largest fine ever levied by the agency against an individual U.S company Last November OSHA fined Bath Iron Works in Baine Maine million IBP has 15 working days to settle with OSHA or contest the fine Com- pany officials said they would contest it The citation represents a guided attempt by OSHA to force the meatpacking industry to accept un- tested theories about the prevention of repetitive motion disorders IBP officials said in a prepared ment Repetitive motion injuries occur when a nerve leading from the arm to the hand is pinched Yodaiken said Crippling injury can result he said In its citation OSHA said 620 IBP workers were exposed to such in- juries in 1985 1986 and the final quarter of 1987 There were 377 actual injuries OSHA said Meatpacking had the highest in- jury and illness rate of any industry in the country in and 1986 U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics ed IBP officials said Thursday that they have stretching and flexibility exercises for workers and are ing to improve knife design INSIDE Because of problems with the press computers a late change in the layout of today's paper was required Pages are not in the order that we would have liked The Courier regrets any inconvenience this may cause
