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HARRISBURG, ILLINOIS • 350WEATHERTonight: Fair, low In the 60s. Friday: Sunny, high around 85. Chance of rain through the weekend, highs in the 80s, lows In the 60s.TEMPERATURESHigh WednesHay iNras 79; I owl wasII Pre6l|ltatldnAita.m.:’ 0.11Inches.THURSDAY© Vol. 78, No. 56INSIDECiocktower willbe finished, HOP says. —Page 3Commentary 2Records................4Business...............5Comics.................8Lifestyles..............9Entertainment 11Classified 14-17PULL!Crab Orchard woman taking aim in sport of trap shooting.Sports, Page 6By TIM BOVEE Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON — The number of poor Americans soared to 35.7 million in 1991, more than in any year since 1964, the Census Bureau said today.The figures, sure to become potent political fodder in this election year, showed 2.1 million Americans were added to the poverty rolls in the second year of the current economic downturn.Poor Americans accounted for 14.2 percent of the population, up from 13.5 percent the year before and topping 14 percent for the first time since 1985.The government defines a poor person as someone whose income is below the national poverty line. For a family of four in 1991, the poverty line was $ 13,924. For someone livingalone, the line was $6,932.The government also said median household income declined by 3.5 percent to $30,126, after adjusting for inflation.In 1990, there were 33.6 million poor Americans, up about 50,000 from the previous year.Before President Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty” began in 1965, typically more than 20 percent of the nation was poor. Johnson’s much-criticized big-program approach to helping the poor successfully lowered the poverty rate to below 15 percent.Since then, the poverty rate has ranged from a low of 11 percent in 1974 to a high of 15.2 percent in 1983, during the last recession.Number of poor soared in1991beenthe administrationsadministrations of Democrat Jimmy Carter, and Republicans Gerald R. Ford and Richard M. Nixon.Although higher poverty figures give Democrats a chance to blame Republican economic policies, the Bush administration can point the finger at the Democratic Congress for raising taxes, said Robert Rector, an analyst with the conservative Heritage Foundation.“Any time a recession throws people out of work, incomes are going to fall. The question people have to ask is what caused this recession,” Rector said in an interview Wednesday.But Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington advocacy group, said simple political fingerpointing masks the fact thatmore Americans poor.“We’ve had some long-term trends in the private economy that weren’t created by either party, that are increasing both poverty and income disparity,” Greenstein said.Declining wages for low-skilled work and a weakening of labor unions have lowered income. Faced with such trends, other countries, such as Canada, responded with programs that cushioned the effects on families.“It’s pretty clear the policy changes here not only didn’t cushion the effects, but made the trends worse,” Greenstein said.The government also said:□ 40 percent of the poor were children, and 11 percent were elderly.□ The South had the highest poverty rate at 16 percent. Poverty rates for other regions were the Northeast, li.2 percent; Midwest,lJ 40 percent of poor people worked, and 9 percent had year time jobs.poor lacked medicalinsurancethan in the preceding deep changes in the economy have made 13.2 percent; and West, 14.3 percent0 73 percent received public assistance.Critics of the government’s poverty statistics say the numbers are misleading.The government’s poverty level, adjusted regularly for inflation, is based on monetary income before taxes. It excludes non-cash benefits such as food stamps, medicaid and public housing. Also, ownership of a house, a car or any other property has no effect on whether a household meets the government’s definition of poverty.“When Donald Trump had a bad year, he can be treated as poor, because he had negative income,” Rector said.Illinoisans rally to help hurricane victimsStaff and wire reportsIllinoisans are rallying to aid victims of Hurricane Andrew, sending relief supplies, nurses, water, even bagels and pet food to the devastated areas of Florida and Louisiana.In Harrisburg, a new effort has begun to help the pets of Andrew’s victims.The American Kennel Club is collecting donations for the animals who are suffering, said Cheri White, organizer of the effort. Recent reports indicate animals are roaming the devastated areas searching for food, she said.Donations are being accepted at Cheri’s Pampered Pets, 620 W. Poplar in Harrisburg until noon Friday, and will be taken to Florida to aid the animals.Last weekend, residents in Harrisburg, Eldorado, Carmi and other area communities rallyedto fill a semi-trailer with food and other items to aid Floridians with basic human needs.Many other relief efforts are taking place around the state.Sears, Roebuck Co. provided a plane to fly 12 obstetric nurses from Rush-Prebyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center to Doctors Hospital in Coral Gables, Fla., to spell nurses there who have been working 12-hour shifts since the hurricane struck, hospital spokesman Dave Newcom said Wednesday night.“Rush will continue to pay the 12 nurses and cover expenses while in Florida,” he said.Some of the Chicago nurses, who left Tuesday, carried two suitcases, one filled with foodand the other with clothing, Rush spokeswoman Carolyn Reed said.Forty-one American Red Cross disaster workers from Illinois are joining more than 4,000 such workers in areas hit by the hurricane. The workers will help to open family service centers where caseworkers will hand out vouchers for food, clothing, medicine and temporary housing.A train pulling five tank cars of water donated by AJE. Staley of Decatur was sent to Florida and Chicago-based Illinois Central joined other railroads in providing free transportation of reliefRELIEF FUND—Cindy Murphy donates a check to Ron Ledford, chairman of the Saline County Salvation Army Unit, as part of a Hurricane Andrew Relief Fund set up by the army. Ledford said people interested in making a monetary donation to the fund should make their donations to the army’s Eldorado location on Route 142. (Nick Mariano photo)supplies Andrew’s victims.In Bloomington, the local newspaper launched a two-day relief effort to raise 42,000 pounds of goods to be sent to the Miami area. A C-130 transport plane from the Air National Guard at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago was to airlift the supplies on Friday.‘ ‘I think it is a wonderful outpouring of generosity on the part of the citizens of central Illinois,” said The Bloomington Pantagraph publisher John Goldrick. “I am confident the effort will ease the burden of the citizens of southern Florida.”In Chicago, radio station WJJD has been broadcasting pleas this week for needed rebuilding materials in Andrew’s wake.Employees of Kraft General Foods in Glenview, Northfield and Deerfield are being asked for cash donations to distribute to the company’semployees in FlOnda and Louisiana who were affected by the hurricane.Kraft also sent a truckload of Lender’s bagels to Florida victims.Catholics in the Archdiocese of Springfield have contributed $72,400 so far toward relief efforts. More donations were expected to come in within the next week. Seventy-six of the 171 parishes in the diocese have sent contributions so far.The money will be sent on to the national Catholic Charities office, which will use it to support its disaster response teams in Florida and Louisiana.In DeKalb, Mary Simons has organized Operation Florida Storm and is hoping to collect enough non-perishable food, bottled water, toiletry products and other goods to send at least two tractor trailers full of the items to Florida.In the Shawnee National ForestWildlife opening mowing to beginBy CURTIS WINSTON Staff WriterFIRST APPEARANCE—Murder suspect Joe W. Jordan,19, formerly of Golconda, was arraigned Wednesday before First Circuit Court Judge Arlie O Boswell, who appointed public defender Tim Fornes to represent Jordan. Boswell informed Jordan that he would be eligible for the death penalty or a term of life imprisonment if found guilty of first-degree murder of 54-year-old Ralph Thompson, who was shot three times and killed Aug. 11 at his Carrier Mills home. Jordan is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Sept. 17 at 1:30 p.m. Escorting Jordan out of the courtroom is corrections officer Gordon Smith. (Nick Mariano photo)It's OK for the U.S. Forest Service to mow the grass during the summers in the Shawnee National Forest.That’s the ruling by Floyd J. Marita, regional forester for the Forest Service’s eastern region.On Aug. 28, Marita affirmed the decision of Shawnee Forest Supervisor Rodney K. Sallee to maintain or restore 365 wildlife openings.Wildlife openings are open, grassy areas in the forest that provide habitat for both game and nongame animals.William Cronin, a Murphysboro-based biologist who is a member of the Regional Association of Concerned Environmentalists, had appealed the decisions to manage the wildlife openings. His appeal was denied by Sallee, so Cronin appealed the case to Marita, who oversees the eastern region of the Forest Service from his Milwaukee[~J Late Forest Supervisor Kenneth Henderson remembered.□ Trail improvements begin at Garden ofthe Gods.office.Marita placed a stay on the management activities June 26 until he made a ruling on Cronin’s appeal.Cronin said his main concern was the timing of the activities, which were scheduled to begin inthe early summer. He said mowing at that time would harm nesting birds, including turkey and quail, the game birds that wildlife openings attract.Marita, in his ruling, decided that the management would have no “significant adverse effects on (bird) populations.”Cronin said this morning in a See MOWING, Page 4By CURTIS WINSTONStaff Writer^HHarrisburg teachers and the Board of Education will get back to the table in a meeting called for Sunday.Jim Butler, president of the Harrisburg Education Association, the union that represents the 147 striking teachers in Unit 3 schools, said today that a federal mediator called the meeting.The meeting is called for 1:30 p.m. Sunday ‘at an undisclosed location,” Butler said. The secrecy is at the request of Federal Mediator Sheldon Walker, Butler said.Walker had been in contact with Lynn Towery, a parent who has help organize efforts to call for an end to the strike. Towery has said that Walker told her a meeting could be called as long as both parties were interested.Board of Education President Gary Ellis said today that he was glad to have “the opportunity to sit down and discuss the issues,” but was “cautiously hopeful” an agreement could be reached to end the teachers’ strike.Harrisburg teachers are striking because they have no contract. The strike is in its 12th day today, keeping 2,300 students out of the classroom.Negotiations were last held Aug.24, with the panics coming awayfrom the table in a stalemate.The last offer from the board was a three-year contract offering raisesof $400, $550 and $600 each year. The board also proposed a $40 increase in insurance benefits.Contract language dealing with hiring for vacant positions also was proposed by the board, with the union giving up its all rights to extra-duty positions and exclusiveThe Daily Register tried repeat- rights to teaching positions.edly Wednesday and today to contact Walker for comment. Messages were left on an answering machine at an Evansville, Ind. telephone number, with no response.Both the HEA and the Board of Education say they are hopeful an agreement could be reached.“We’ve been ready and willing to negoiate all along. We just hope the board is ready to negotiate,” Butler said.HEA wants the 21-year-old vacancy hiring clause kept mostly intact, with the possibilty of giving up just rights to extra-duty positions. However, it would not give up rights to teaching positions.HEA’s last offer on salaries was a three-year contract of a $1,850 raise this year followed by 6.75 percent increases the following two years. HEA also wants the board to pay 100 percent of its insurance.Education amendment won’t settle troublesomeissues, experts sayBy CHRISTOPHER WILLS Associated Press WriterSPRINGFIELD — The educationamendment awaiting voters this fall would make school funding a top state priority, but won’t settle the issues that have blocked reform for years, experts warn.Lawmakers and the courts still would have to interpret the constitutional amendment and dec ide the best way to raise and spend education money, university professors said at a conference on the ballot question.The two sides of the amendment debate have painted wildly different pictures of the amendment’s impact. Almost any of those pictures could be correct, depending on how officials resolve the issues stalling education reform, panelists said.“They’re still just as complicated, still just as divisive, still just as difficult as ever,” J. Fred Giertz, a University of Illinois economics professor, said Wednesday. “The education amendment is, in a sense, a roll of the dice.”The amendment, if adopted Nov. 3, would make quality education a “right” rather than a goal and gives the state “preponderant” rather than primary responsibility for school funding. It guarantees “equality ofeducational opportunity” for every citizen.Amendment drafters say it wouldforce the state to reverse a decline in support for education. The state’s share of school money has slipped from almost half in the 1970s to less than 34 percent, the State Board of Education says.Supporters argue it also would reduce the wide gap in education spending in different school districts. Some districts now spend $10,000 or more on each student, while othersfall below $3,000.Supporters put the amendment’s cost at about $1.8 billion dollars and say the money might be raised without a lax increase. Criucs contend the amendment would cost $3 billion and guarantee an income tax increase.And they argue the Chicago suburbs, where much of the state’s wealth is concentrated, would pay the most and get back the least because the area’s schools generally qualify for little slate aid.The University of Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs sponsored the conference on theamendment.Giertz said the amendment could cost billions if officials adopt a high standard for education funding andSee ISSUES, Page 4
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Harrisburg Daily Register
Harrisburg, Illinois, US
Thu, Sep 03, 1992
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