Thursday, February 6, 1986
Page 2
Daily Nebraskan
News Digest
By The Associated Press
ill LJ.L',Z.
Indebted farmer kills self minutes before sale
WAYNESBORO, Ga. - A 67-year-old
farmer shot and killed himself
moments before his property was to
be auctioned for unpaid debts, the
latest in a series of violent incidents
linked to the farm crisis.
"He just couldn't stand to see his
whole life go on the steps of the
courthouse," Deborah Jennings said
after her father, L.D. Hill III, shot
himself Tuesday at his east Georgia
home.
"He was trying his best to pay his
bills."
The shooting occurred about 20
minutes before the 700-acre farm was
scheduled to have been sold at 11
a.m. on the steps of the county court
house, Burke County Sheriff Greg
Coursey said Wednesday.
"He wanted to stop the sale, which
in fact he did," Coursey said. Hill's
death officially has been ruled a sui
cide, the sheriff said.
Hill owed $62,000 on the land, Jen
nings said.
She said the family was proud that
Hill had tried until shortly before the
scheduled auction to repay the debt.
"It showed his principles. It's given
us new pride in our daddy," she said.
"It just tore us up when we heard
about it," said David Morgan of Dub
lin, president of the Federal Land
Bank of Central Georgia and the
Nebraskan
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Farmers Production Credit Associa
tion, a federal agency that held the
note on the farm.
The association had loaned Hill
money through the Federal Interme
diate Credit Bank of Columbia, S.C.,
Morgan said.
Hill had visited FPCA officials in
Waynesboro before the auction to see
if he could sell part of his property to
relieve the debt, Morgan said.
'He just couldn't
stand to sec his
whole life go on the
steps of the court
house.' "It wouldn't have been enough," he
said. "We had been working with Mr.
Hill for over a year, and it just got to
the point where it looked like there
was nothing he or we could do. Sev
eral attempts to help him had failed."
Georgia Agriculture Commissioner
Tommy Irvin said he was not sur
prised by the death.
"I'm anticipating more of this,
especially as foreclosures pick up in
the next three or four months," he
said. "It's a traumatic experience for
WASHINGTON President Reagan, beginning a five-year drive to elim
inate federal budget deficits, proposed a $994-billion fiscal 1987 spending
plan that would cut deeply into domestic programs but continue increases
in military spending. It projects a deficit of $144 billion, the fourth largest
in history.
Here, at a glance, are highlights of Reagan's budget submitted to Con
gress on Wednesday.
DEFENSE
Reagan proposed a $320 billion military budget that would dramatically
increase space-defense spending and maintain virtually every other major
weapons program intact.
The plan includes a nearly 6.2 percent boost in actual outlays for the
Pentagon to $274.3 billion, but Congress is likely to focus on his request
for $311.6 billion in budget authority, which includes long-term money to
buy ships, planes and missiles. This sum represents an 11.9 percent
increase over current levels.
When the money earmarked for nuclear weapons production by the
Department of Energy is, added to th$t amount, defense .outlays would
' ' cfimb to $282.2 tfflldti ah'd overall 'budget authority would' hit $320'.3' ' '
billion.
SOCIAL .wisiiR
Reagan moved to require employable adult welfare recipients to look
for jobs, increase premiums for Medicare insurance and put a cap on
Medicaid spending for the poor.
He proposed to boost spending for Medicare and Medicaid and allow for
a 3.7 percent cost-of-living increase for Social Security beneficiaries next
January. But the budget includes a $23.6 billion cap on Medicaid spend
ing, an estimated $1.3 billion less than what is projected for 1987 spend
ing under current law, and would increase premiums and deductible pay
ments for Medicare coverage of doctors' bills.
Many other health, welfare and education programs would face cuts.
FARM
Reagan proposed a 17 percent cut in the Agriculture Department's
budget, including substantial reduction in direct farm lending, crop insu
rance and agricultural extension. He also called for trimming the most
expensive item, of farm spending commodity price and income supports
and proposed savings in the food stamp and other nutrition programs.
Overall, the budget would provide spending $44.6 billion next year for
farmers to feel they're a failure, even
when most of the time the failure is
beyond their control."
The Federal Land Bank and the
FPCA have begun foreclosure pro
ceedings against 293 of Georgia's
50,000 farms, said Steve Rich, a spo
kesman for the state Agriculture
Department.
The Farmers Home Administration
plans to notify about 4,000 Georgia
farmers that they may face foreclo
sure if they do not make plans to res
tructure their debt, Rich said.
Hill's death was the latest in a ser
ies of violent incidents among heavily
indebted U.S. farmers, who have been
faced for years with rising costs and
falling prices for their crops.
On Dec. 9, 63-year-old Iowa farmer
Dale Burr, described as distraught
over his crumbling finances, shot his
wife, a bank president and another
farmer before killing himself.
In Minnesota, 45-year-old Ludwig
Muller shot himself to death at his
home Dec. 8, the day before he was tp
have made a final effort to stop fore
closure on his farm.
In March 1985, hay farmer Floyd
Morgan of Veteran, Wyo., committed
suicide after agonizing over how he
could support his family and sustain
his farm in the depressed agricultural
community.
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Nebraskans convicted of such
suspended under current hx
Commomvcdih rcconciilcrrllcn urrpsi
LINCOLN Gov. Bob Kerrey said Wednesday that a new investigative
report on the collapse of the Commonwealth Savir. s Co. rr.cy give the
Legislature a new perspective en whether the Etitc ccs csre r.er.cy to
those who lest money v.hen Con;rtcr;v;cdth f;ilcd.
At a news conference, and aun in testixnezy ttlcra the Legislature's
Revenue Committee, Kerrey mads reference to a c:;.Jcr.tial report
compiled ty the StsJe Patrol. An edited vckIch cf th'j rcrcrt will be
relcrr : i Frldry, Kerrey sail
' "llj hope is that this report will provide us t:ih the !' rl far tr?.
that we owe these depositors mere th:r $3.5 tJZhn" Kerrey said,
referrir-4 to a settlement previo'y pl lyl.-' : -
Kerrey tcli reporters, "When you red th:2, if it C::::Ct r.a!:e you
phj'sicsliy skk, you have no serdthity fzt arysr. cvt- U ycuncT
CAPS CANAVX2.1L, Fla. - i:ASA tr.:i i.: tl'A c-crcs
Wednesday cn an ct;:tttUt ccu!i hz Cz":rz: : - ; .:t rlJJ. rccld
t'OcstcF &s stsncy caCIvaS prejre to cvw v..-- - 1 . v t v v n.t.a
they tlir.k cased the shuttle U explcda fa f.r-:r-. - . - ' .
Sources reported, r.gsrtib, tl::i ships I: I rrc.vrrc ! 17 fv-tt cf
explcsivesfrom a'ucstmct pic':: "-f tlzX wz3 tie t:iz d C;a!kr.g5rs
nin fuel tank when it lifted cZ Iho cxplocivcs I'.l r,; 1 1; :n detonated,
the sources said, removing thcra frcr.i the list cf pr.: '.LI 3 ca-C3 cf the
catastrophe.
Members of the National Aeronautics and ptes Ad.rir.iitratioB's
interim re1ew board are to be witnesses in Wschir.cn tod.7 whea a
presidential investigating commission has its first hecrir..
Their testimony will provide the first substantive pu' lie information
about the accident from NASA since Challenger exploded in a fireball on
Jan. 28, killing all seven in the crew.
NASA on Wednesday sent ships to a spot in the Atlantic Ocean where
sonar indicates one of the shuttle's solid rocket boosters splashed down
after it separated from the fireball. The ships put robot submarines
overboard to photograph the object, which officials hoped was the right
booster the chief suspect in the explosion.
Depending on how much of the 149-foot booster remains, it might take
weeks to raise the wreckage.
spares mw
all food and farm programs, down from the estimated $54.1 billion this
year.
EDUCATION
Reagan proposed cutting federal spending on school aid from $18 bil
lion to $15.4 billion next year, including an end to all financial assistance
for 1 million college students and a halt to interest-free loans for students
still eligible to borrow.
He asked Congress for an immediate $1 billion cut in the Department
of Education's spending authority for fiscal 1986 and further cuts to save a
total of $2.6 billion in fiscal 1987. Most of the actual spending cuts would
come primarily from student aid and vocational education programs.
JOBS
With the unemployment rate dipping below 7 percent for the first time
in almost six years, Reagan proposed to cut federal spending for job train
ing by 15 percent next year. He would eliminate the 19-year-old Work
Incentive program aimed at helping welfare recipients find jobs, cut the
Summer Youth Employment Program by one-third and slash the Job Corps
py one-nan.
l: Altogether, tthe proposed budget cuts would -reducfyi ejw&f of 'peo:""
x p,fe" who 'get some form of federal jobjtraiMasat!c&isHiw fewer -than
2vmillion' from the 2.2 million thiseaK1' rn. -
FOREIGN AID
Reagan proposed a $1.2 billion increase in international security assist
ance to help friendly nations acquire "modern military equipment neces
sary for their defense," and recommended a 16 percent cut in spending for
the United Nations and affiliated agencies.
He also sought a modest $76 million increase in development and
humanitarian assistance to $4,978,000 in fiscal 1987. Overall, his foreign
aid request totals $15.9 billion, compared with $14.6 billion this year.
Israel and Egypt would remain the biggest aid recipients.
ECONOMIC FORECAST
Using optimistic assumptions in fashioning his budget plan, the presi
dent predicted robust economic growth into the next decade, with unem
ployment dropping and inflation remaining well under control.
He also said that if Congress approved his budget plan, he could meet
tinKM,- get balancing lw's tar8et of reducing the federal deficit to
al 11991 neXt yCar md produce a budget surPlus of $1.3 billion in fis-
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