4 5 THE PLAIN DEALER 1. METRO a 7 4 PORTAGE SUNDAY, MAY 19, 1, JOE DIRCK COMMENTARY City's against picking trash before its time ost of the time, what we call "news" conferences is the and product statistics of press and governmental pronouncements. In other words, dull but important. But every once in a while, the news realizes its highest and most timehonored definition just plain. weird.
Seldom, however, do we get a run like last week's, which featured among other oddities: The capture of a man accused of being the Willoughby BVD Bandit, a burglar who earned his uppercase nickname the highest honor a crook can receive for his unique m.o. of sneaking into men's homes and snipping off their underwear while they slept. The Lorain County "love slave" trial, still continuing, in which a woman claims that after moving in with her boss, his wife and four children, she was forced to give him her savings, work for free at his business, clean and cook for him, tie his shoes and submit to his bizarre sexual demands. He says she offered. The Cleveland man who can't get a driver's license because the state of Ohio won't take his word for it that he isn't dead.
All this and more on our next "A Current Yes, it was quite a week. But for my money, the weirdest story of all was the one about the city of Cleveland contemplating a crackdown on garbage thieves. Oops, 'scuse me recyclable materials thieves. It seems that some enterprising environmentalists are taking advantage of the city's pilot curbside recycling program by grabbing the stuff before the recycling truck can get there. Lately, they have been so bold as to work their way down streets just a block ahead of the city crews.
Their motivation, beyond an undoubtedly deep commitment to the preservation of planet Earth, presumably is financial. Those blue plastic bags containing cans and bottles can be worth real money if you gather up enough of them, apparently. The aluminum in particular is selling for 31 cents a pound these days. To battle this shocking crime spree, the administration wants to spree, the administration wants to declare a War On Garbage. Central to its plans for getting tough with trashnappers is proposed legislation setting fines of $25 for a first offense, ranging upward to $100 for habitual offenders.
What? No mandatory sentences? Now, I'm all for law and order, but at the risk of being called soft on crime, I do have one question about this growing concern over the societal crisis of recyclables theft. 4 So? I mean, we are talking about trash here, aren't we? Rubbish? Waste? When residents put their metal and glass containers in blue bags and leave them at the curb, it's not out of some burst of municipal spirit. They just want them gone and don't give an empty co*ke can whether the city or some hairy guy in an old pickup truck does the job. Maybe 11 years of Reagan-Bush has warped my outlook, but it seems to me this is yet another example of government butting in where it's not needed and stifling private enterprise. Trash-picking has a long and noble tradition.
Soon after we moved into our new house and did some remodeling, I left a big load of trash at the curb one evening for bulk pickup the next day. There were some old kitchen cabinets, worn-out light fixtures and a ratty stuffed fish we found in the garage and knew intuitively the previous owners had not left behind accidentally. Wouldn't you know, by morning it was almost all gone, snapped up by. roaming, uh, collectors. Think I called the cops? I was glad someone.
could use the cabinets, happy someone needed the light fixtures, amazed anyone wanted that old fish. My feelings are pretty, much the same about empty cans. We also have curbside recycling where I live, and I faithfully put our blue bag out every week. From that point on, it's first-come, first-served as far as I'm. concerned.
So if any private operators want to swing by my place before the city shows up, be my guest. And if you like our cans and bottles, we've got some other trash you might be interested in, too. Let's talk. 1 Clinic IKON DIE 1 1971 PORKY DIED 1971 6 YEA 6 YEARS ZOYEARS to ba matter Captivitu.no now kind. SON World Hone of CRUFL the To SHAW Members of the Network for Ohio Animal Action demonstrate in front of Sea World yesterday morning in protest of killer whale captivity.
3 makes waves over 'The killer whales living in a small tank is the equivalent of (humans) being blindfolded for Scott Savage, 1 LP demonstrator "It is not right to confine these ex- "We love our animals," Ted tremely intelligent animals," said Turner, curator of animal training, Sherry Ziemski, president of the said shortly before starting the 12:45 organization, which has about 200 ac- p.m. Shamu show. "None of us work tive members in the Cleveland area. here because we want to see killer "We don't care what Sea World says, whales die, for crying out loud." this is not' educational, watching a But Ziemski said the Sea World killer whale flip over in a tank." leaflet was pointless. Sea World officials disputed the "There are no facts in their flier," group's claims, printing leaflets of she said.
"They say we're lying, but their own that were also handed out they offer nothing to refute our facts. to patrons near the entrance. Sea I want to know from Sea World what World's leaflets labeled the animal they think we're lying about." action group's information" "distorted Sea World closely monitored the and, in most cases, simply false." protest. Two security guards were on The wreckage of a single-engine airplane remained yesterday afternoon. A flight instructor and student Protest 4.
By ALAN PLAIN DEALER REPORTER. Shamu, the country's most famous killer whale, made a splashing 1991 debut yesterday. Swimming, spinning, leaping and waving, the killer whale, as he does every year, Aurora delighted the crowds for Sea World's 1991 opening day. 1.4 From the inside of Sea World, it was a picture-perfect scene, as laughed, parents snapped photographs and everyone applauded. But from the outside, a group of animal-rights activists were trying to paint a.
considerably less pleasant picture. About 30. members of the Network for Ohio Animal" Action, holding picket signs and handing out leaflets near the Sea World entrance, tried to warn the public that Sea World's tivity of killer whales was greatly reducing the animals' life spans. S. WILLIAMS in a wooded area near the Portage County Airport were killed in the crash.
Flight instructor, student killed in crash during basics lesson By ALAN ACHKAR PLAIN DEALER REPORTER A flight instructor and his student were killed yesterday when their single-engine plane lost power and crashed into a wooded area near Portage County Airport. Eugene F. Petrus, 44, of Hartville, was teaching Nancy J. Jaeck, 51, of Navarre, basic flight techniques in a fourseat plane identified as a. 1962 Portage Piper Comanche.
County The crash occurred shortly be-, fore noon, as the plane was about one mile southwest of the Ravenna airport. "The pilot was attempting an approach when the left wing dipped down," said Sharon L. Moore, a dispatcher for the State Highway Patrol in Ravenna. "The pilot tried to accelerate, but lost power, striking a tree and coming down in the wooded area." The plane remained on the ground Brother seeks Two Cleveland Heights boys drowned in an indoor swimming pool at a Boston Heights hotel yesterday when one boy slipped into the water and his brother Boston: jumped in trying to save Township him. The victims were identified as Edward Mims 11, and his brother, Wattale Christmas, 13, of Powell Ave.
Boston Heights Patrol Officer Joe Kraynik lab has minor spill Radioactive agent easily cleaned Unless it. is ingested or inhaled there would be no internal injuries, Marabito said. Phosphorus-32 is a radioactive isotope of phosphorus and is used to diagnose and treat diseases as well as for F. Phosphorus-32 has a half-life of about 13 to 14 days, Marabito said. That is the period in which half the radioactive atoms disintegrate.
The amount spilled: is not considered large, he added. SEE By HARRY STAINER PLAIN DEALER REPORTER A U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspector was at the Cleveland Clinic yesterday to investigate a spill of radioactive phosphorus-32 in one of the laboratories Thursday. "All of the contamination is minor," said Russell Marabito, a spokesman Cleveland for the NRC regional office in Chicago. "It is not life It is not considered a significant amount of radioactive material." The NRC inspector, James Cameron, said four workers were contaminated by the spill, which was less than a thimble-full of radioactive liquid.
The spilled onto a countertop. The employees picked up' the material on their hands and then spread it to clothes, he said. The spill was discovered several hours later, he said. The phosphorus32 was removed with mild soap and scrub brush, he said. The NRC found out about the spill Friday, he said.
Cameron said he didn't know how the spill occurred. That will be invest tigated this week, he said. The material apparently was tracked home by one of. the employees, Marabito said. An employee's car was also contaminated; he said.
The NRC investigated the incident because some of the radio; active material escaped the laboratory, he said. radiation Phosphorus-32 that does produces a type of not go through the skin, Marabito said. It can cause skin burns, depending on the amount and length of exposure. 1- Shamu hand, and employees continually asked the protesters to move away from walkways and driveways. Sea World also videotaped and took photographs of the protesters.
At the outset of the 12:45 p.m. show, Turner mentioned the protest to the 4,000 people who crammed Stadium. "Basically, they've told us that we don't care about our killer whales," he told the audience. "I think we all know that's not true, or you wouldn't: be here today." The crowd responded with a hearty round of applause. The animal rights group says that killer whales have a natural life span of 40-70 years, but live an average of less than six years when confined by Sea World.
The group also says 18 killer whales, more than half of those ever held by Sea World, have died prema4 turely. Sea World, formed 25 years SEE Stress, small talk for dispatchers on the late shift Editor's note: All names have been changed except those of Police Department employees. Duty Till By GRANT SEGALL PLAIN DEALER REPORTER A few of the night workers show up before 10 p.m. "I was supposed to sleep," Doug Davis "At 6:30, my neighbor started mowing the lawn with no muffler." 6. "You should fix it for him," Mark Cebron says.
"Permanently." 1. The workers make small talk in a lounge atop the nine-story Justice. Center, trying to ignore the jangling and crackling radios in the next room. Cebron is- sitting next to his wife, Kay, whom he met on the job and married in court downstairs. Linda Gleisser rolls up in a wheelchair.
"What's the verdict?" Mark Cebron asks her. She updates him on a fight and an eye injury. She turns out not to be talking about a police matter but a mishap in her fishbowl. She predicts a verdict for the fish: recovery. At 10:20, a voice booms from the next room: "They're all waiting for you! Crime is waiting!" Davis rises.
"It's showtime." The workers walk into the Police Department emergency phone room. A few of them hunt up favorite chairs and slide them across the linoleum. The crew on the 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. shift keeps working.
The workers on the 2:25 to 10:25 shift rise at the 'next break in the action and yield their stations. The time is 10:25. The night has officially begun. The rounded by trees, with its propeller and the rest of the front end smashed. The back end' was nearly severed from the rest of the plane.
Officials did not know yesterday what caused the left wing to dip or why the plane lost power. They were also unsure who was piloting the plane at the time of the crash. Representatives from the National Transportation Safety Board were expected to begin investigating the crash today. Jaeck was participating in a basic flight course offered by the Lake Erie Chapter of The 99s, an international association for women pilots. The course, called the Pinch Hitter's Course, is offered annually by the group at Portage County Airport.
The one-day course is intended to teach pilots' wives basic flight techniques in case of emergencies. There SEE SEE The night has officially begun. both drown the deepest part of the pool and apparently slipped in. His brother, Wattale, jumped in to save him. The 6-year-old girl witnessed the incident and ran for help.
She found three hotel maintenance employees who went to the pool but were unable to swim, police said. The boys were removed from the pool by a hotel guest, Matt Steers of Grand Rapids, who saw the emergency from his thirdfloor room at the hotel. Boston Heights emer- half dawn. a million Clevelanders safe until; Teah, they over here shooting and a caller says. "Ain't nobody got here yet?" "Give me your address," Michelle Hardnick says, her pen hovering, over a complaint ticket.
"On Bessemer." Hardnick presses for something more specific. The line goes dead. She copies an address, a phone num ber and a. household name from an Ohio. Bell listing on a computer: the unverified information is screen en above the phone.
She hopes Hardnick riffles through a notes book for the police district and zone. finishes the ticket, punches the time on it and puts it in a slot of conveyor belt chugging past: her desk. The ticket wobbles around bend toward Channel 4, the 4th District's radio station. a Hardnick dials the caller twice. The line is busy.
She crosses the room, confers with Channel 4 operator Terry Havanec, comes back and gets through. "Hello? Is this the Barnes. residence? This is the Cleveland Police Department. Is there a problem- sur- to save brother, said the two boys were staying at the Regency Inn Hotel, 344 E. Hines Hill with their sister, Lakeita Christmas, 21, and the boys' niece, LaToya Christmas, 6.
Around 9 a.m., the boys were given permission by their sister to go to the pool. Police said there were signs at the pool saying an adult must accompany any swimmer under the age of 18. Edward was standing on steps leading out of The 5 SEE in hotel pool gency personnel administered nary resuscitation to the 11-year-old, who still showed a pulse, but attempts to save his life were unsuccessful. The 13-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene. The pool, which ranges in depth from to 12 feet, is in a greenhouse-style building in the hotel.
Police said signs were posted telling swimmers that no lifeguard was on duty and that swimming was at their own risk. 3.
