Sulphur Springs News-Telegram (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 102, No. 45, Ed. 1 Friday, February 22, 1980 Page: 1 of 24
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VOL. 102—NO. 45.
Friday
FEBRUARY 22,' 1980.
15 Cents
TWO SECTIONS
Fuel prices fan flames
of hefty inflation leap
Snoopy and the kid
Mona Barnett, Snoopy in the Sulphur Springs High School
production of "You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown”, perches
atop the dog house in true Snoopy form to talk to Charlie Brown
(Greg Tinsley) during a recent rehearsal. The musical is set for
a three day run at the auditorium in the school administration
building Feb. 29 through March 2. Tickets, on sale at the door,
are priced at $2 for adults and $1 for students.
—Staff Photoby JOHN GORE
By EILEEN ALT POWELL
j Associated Press Writer
! WASHINGTON (API - A new surge in
gasoline and heating oil costs helped push
consumer prices 1.4 percent higher in
January, the largest monthly increase in
more than 61'2 years, the government
reported todpy.
The rise in the Consumer Price Index
was the biggest since a 1.8 percent jump in
August 1973, when then-President Richard
M. Nixon lifted price controls and beef
prices shot up dramatically.
The culprit last month was not food,
which rose a modest 0.1 percent from
December, the Labor Department
reported. r
“Rising fuel prices were responsibile for
more than a quarter of the change,” said
department analyst Patrick Jackman.
“Basically, it’s the recent increases by the
Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries starting to work their way
through the system."
West shudders in wake
Deadly storms
By C.W. MIRANKER
Associated Press Writer
Caskets floated out of rain-sodden
graves as levees crumbled and dams
overflowed in Southern California, forcing
thousands of persons to flee before the rain
subsided today. A sewer line ruptured in
Phoenix, Ariz., dumping 35 million gallons
of raw waste daily into swirling flood
waters.
Drier weather was expected today in
Southern California, as a high pressure
system pushed the path of a Pacific storm
further north. "This is great! The storm
we were looking for (No. 7) has weakened
to practically nothing. The tail end is
moving north of us," National Weather
Service forecaster Eleanor Vostee said
today.
But 9 days of rainstorms pummeling the
West have left at least 31 persons dead.
Damage estimates have hit nearly $425
million, and officials predict "it will go
much, much higher."
The rains have destroyed much of
California’s strawberry crop, with losses
likely to exceed $10 million. Also
threatened is the almond harvest, which
represents the entire U.S. output.
Six California counties — from Ventura
just north of Los Angeles to San Diego on
the Mexican border — were declared
national disaster areas Thursday by
President Carter. About 500 National
Soviet leader issues
tough talk' warning
Beautification start
The old cedar tree that shaded the front of the Hopkins County Heritage Museum
building for more years than memory allows was killed last year during a spring
storm, but now has a replacement. Planting the young tree near the cedar's old spot
are Sterling Beckham, kneeling; Wanda Galyean, standing, chairwoman of the
Chamber of Commerce Beautification committee; and Mrs. R. C. Cates of the
Hopkins County Historical Society. Beckham, one of the ten presidents of the
Beautify Texas Council, recently obtained five Bur Oak trees for Sulphur Springs.
The Civic Center, Austin, Travis and Houston schools will also receive one of the
fast-growing trees not currently found in this area.
-Staff Photoby JAN BLAKE
News briefs
Spring' to stay a while
The warm, near summer-like
weather that has graced Sulphur
Springs the past few days is expected
to remain in the area for at least a few
more days, according to the National
Weather Service forecast.
Variable high cloudiness was*
predicted by the forecasters for
Friday, with clearing skies on tap
later in the evening. The clouds are
expected to return from the west on
Saturday and remain in the area
through Sunday.
The long-range forecast is calling
for partly cloudy skies and mild
temperatues with a chance of showers
late Sunday and early Monday.
Daytime temperatures should be in
the 60s with overnight lows in the 40s
through Tuesday.
Suspect evaluation ordered
MOUNT VERNON - Richard
Robinson, 18, of the Purley com-
munity was ordered to the Rusk State
Hospital for “a complete
psychological and psychiatric
evaluation, not to exceed 14 days” by
Judge Lanny Ramsay here Thursday,
according to Eighth Judicial District
Attorney Jim Chapman.
Robinson is charged in the murder
of Gay Davis Joyner, 68, also of the
Purley community.
Mrs. Joyner disappeared from her
residence late Thursday afternoon
(Feb. 14) and her body was found
Friday afternoon near Lake Cypress
Springs by Franklin County Sheriff
Don Qualls, who said the woman had
been shot in the head.
Robinson was arrested Saturday
evening in Mount Pleasant and Gary
Seekings, 24, of Mount Pleasant was
arrested late Saturday night in
Burleson on a Titus County murder
warrant.
Qualls said that his information was
that Seekings has subsequently been
released on a $10,000 bond.
Bond on Robinson has been denied
and Qualls said that he was taken to
Rusk State Hospital Thursday af-
ternoon.
Chapman said his office was han-
dling pleas in Hopkins County Friday
and was scheduled to be here again on
Monday for pleas and pre-trials.
MOSCOW (AP) — President Leonid I.
Brezhnev warned the West today not to
talk tough to the Soviet Union.
He declared his people’s unity
“manifests itself with special force when
people are talking to us with voices of
force,"
In a nationally televised address,
Brezhnev drew prolonged applause when
he declared: "The Soviet Union’s defense
might is maintained at the proper level.”
"The Central Committee of the Soviet
Communist Party can assure the Soviet
people that we have everything necessary
to repulse any armed provocation," the 73-
year-old Soviet leader said.
He was making a political campaign
Hospital board sets
election for April 6
The Hopkins County Hospital District’s
board of directors have set Saturday, April
6, as election date to fill two posts on the
board.
Both incumbents whose terms expire,
Rayford Stinson and David Jackson, have
indicated their intentions to seek re-
election, Memorial Hospital Ad-
ministrator Glenn Kenley said.
The election date was set to coincide
with balloting for posts on the Sulphur
Springs Independent School District board
of trustees.
Holdover board members are Allen
Jacobsen, Charles Gilreath and Harold
Arnold.
In other major business in Thursday
night’s regular session, the board set in
motion the machinery to purchase a 400-
ton centrifugal air conditioning unit. The
electrically operated unit will replace the
hospital’s current gas system, and is
estimated to provide about $30,000 in
energy savings per year, Kenley said.
The new air conditioning unit and ac-
companying system alterations should be
in operation by mid-May, "when we’re just
getting into our iiigh-usage months,”
Kenley said. The complete system is ex-
A number of OPEC nations — including
Saudi Arabia, the United States’ largest
crude oil supplier — raised prices last
month. In recent days, several of them
have announced cutbacks in production,
which could increase prices further.
Gasoline prices rose 7.4 percent in
January, the biggest increase in the more
than four decades the I-tbor Department
has kept statistics, officials said. Fuel oil
prices shot up 5.3 percent, more than in
recent months but not a record.
Major price increases also were
reported for housing, which rose 1.4
percent from December because of higher
fuel oil costs and higher mortgage rates.
Medical care costs also rose substantially,
up 1.3 percent because of new year price
adjustments at hospitals and in doctors’
fees.
Consumer prices had risen 1.2 percent in
December after increases of 1 percent in
each of the preceding two months.
If prices rise for 11 more months at
ease
Guardsmen were helping with evacuations
and disaster work.
More than 7,000 people — some plucked
from the water by helicopter — fled their
homes Thursday in Riverside County,
which stretches from Riverside, about 60
miles east of Los Angeles, to the Arizona
border.
Meanwhile, the Northern California
coast braced for more rain, and heavy
snow fell in the mountains. In Idaho and
Utah, the threat to brimming dams
abated.
At least 10 caskets were unearthed by
floodwaters at the Verdugo Hills Cemetery
just north of I<os Angeles, and others
bulged just below the topsoil. The area was
declared a health hazard, and crews were
removing the coffins as they slid toward a
roadway.
speech before a capacity audience of 6,000
at the Kremlin’s huge Palace of
Congresses.
“The peaceful future of Soviet power has
been ensured reliably," Brezhnev said.
He pointed to the Soviet Union’s path of
steady economic growth at home and a
policy based on detente and cooperation
abroad during the 1970s.
"No one will ever be able to push us off
this course," he said.
Brezhnev told the Kremlin audience:
"Let our adversaries remember the
lessons of history. The unity of the Soviet
people manifests itself with special force
when people are talking to us with voices
of force.”
pected to cost between $125,000 and
$135,000, Kenley said, “and should pay for
itself in three or four years through energy
savings."
The administrator said air conditioning
makes up by far the largest portion of the
hospital’s gas bill each month. "Our gas
bills have run as much as $18,000 a month
during the high-use summer months,”
Kenley said. “When the hospital was first
designed and built, gas was our most
economical energy source. But that isn’t
true any more.”
The board instructed Kenley to contract
with hospital engineers to prepare
specifications for the new unit along with
specificatons on installation of the system.
In other matters, the board expressed its
intent to place up for bids a lot on hospital
property, subject to deed restrictions.
Those restrictions specificy that any
building erected on property originally
part of the hospital grounds be used for
medical purposes.
Routine review of financial statements,
approval of bills and discussion of
requesting bids on technical equipment
concluded the regular board session.
Up in smoke
Hopkins County Deputy Clarence Jones and Sheriff John E. (Junior) Tittle
(destroyed a large quantity of marijuana and other evidence Thursday afternoon by
using the incinerator at Memorial Hospital. The destruction was on a court order
from Judge Lanny Ramsay. Evidence is retained until defendants have been tried,
and then destroyed — with some evidence accumulating in the sheriff's storage
room for two years or longer, Tittle said.
' —StoMMwt* by JIM MOORE
*. I
January's 1.4 percent pace, the year would
end-with an inflation rate of more than 18
percent.
By contrast, prices last year rose 13.3 ,
percent - the worst inflation rate since
World War II price controls were lifted in
1946.
The Carter administration predicts
prices will rise 10.4 percent this year, but
that would require monthly increases in
the range of 0.8 percent or less — a
phenomenon that has not occurred since
1978.
Meanwhile, the l,abor Department
reported that wage increases did not keep
pace with soaring prices.
Average weekly earnings fell 1.1 percent
from December to January. A 0.3 percent
increase in average hourly earnings was
more than offset by the 1.4 percent surge in
prices.
Moreover, spendable earnings — what a
married worker with three dependents has
to spend after Social Security and federal
income tax deductions — fell 1.1 percent
last month.
"Over the year, real spendable earnings
were down 6.9 percent,” the report said.
The Consumer Price Index stood at 233.2
in January, or 13.9 percent higher than in
January 1979. The figure means that goods
that cost consumers $100 in the base year
of 1967 cost $233.20 last month.
Fear that today's announcement would
show a worsening of inflation as 1980 began
helped send the stock market Into a
nosedive on Thursday, market analysts
said.
The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials
fell 18.34 to 868.52, its largest loss since it
tumbled 26,45 points Oct. 9. And declines
outnumbered advances by more than £1
on the New York Stock Exchange.
Paul A. Volcker, chairman of the
Federal Reserve Board, told a House
Banking Committee hearing earlier this
week that inflation could worsen before
getting better.
“Price increases, at least as recorded in
the most widely read indexes, could well
accelerate in the first quarter, partly
because the latest round of oil price in-
creases will be reflected in those num-
bers," Volcker said. “The real question is
how much progress can be made in
reducing the inflation rate."
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Keys, Clarke. Sulphur Springs News-Telegram (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 102, No. 45, Ed. 1 Friday, February 22, 1980, newspaper, February 22, 1980; Sulphur Springs, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth824576/m1/1/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hopkins County Genealogical Society.