The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 1

o) anal Tla 26 pages, 3 sections Bloomington-Normal, Monday, July 1, 1985 Twin Cities Final 25c 1 5i Editorial: The ordeal's not over, page A6; Relatives celebrate, back page By Pantagraph wire services FRANKFURT, West Germany (AP) Released after 17 days of captivity, 39 American hijack hostages landed at a U.S. air base at dawn today to the cheers of countrymen welcoming them back to freedom. Vice President George Bush stood with relatives and friends of the hostages, as well as about 200 other people, including U.S. military personnel and their families. Many of them waved small American flags in the chilly weather as the plane arrived at Rhein-Main Air Force base from Damascus, Syria.

"You're back and America did not compromise her principles to get you back," Bush said. The hostages had left Damascus shortly after midnight, hours after a Red Cross caravan under military escort carried them out of Beirut and over a rugged mountain roads to Syria. The hostages had lived through warmly greeted the hostages in an impromptu reception line that formed near the giant airliner. "Our people are back," Bush said in a statement "They're safe, and soon they'll be heading back to their families." The C-141 touched down at 5:24 a.m. (10:24 p.m.

yesterday CDT). Friends and relatives hugged the freed hostages before the men headed off to buses taking them to the U.S. Air Force hospital in Wiesbaden, 24 miles to the west. Before leaving Damascus, the freed Americans held a news conference. "We are most happy to be Damascus with you people," spokesman Allyn Conwell, 39, of Houston said.

Conwell said none of the hostages seeks "retaliation or revenge" for the hijacking, which began June 14 when two fundamentalist Moslem gunmen hijacked TWA flight 847 on a flight between Athens and Rome. 'We will fight back' WASHINGTON (AP) President Reagan said yesterday there were "no rewards and no guarantees" given to the hijackers of a TWA airliner who triggered the 17-day crisis that ended with this presidential vow to tprrorists: "We will fight back against you." Reagan greeted the release of 39 American hostages as "a moment of joy," but said the end of the hostage crisis in which one Navy seaman was brutally murdered was not an occasion for celebration. In a five-minute televised speech from the Oval Office, Reagan warned: "Terrorists, be on notice. We will fight back against you in Lebanon and elsewhere." "Those responsible for terrorist Vice President Geprge Bush shook hands with the freed hostages early today after they arrived in Frankfurt, West Germany. A the slaying of one passenger, U.S.

Navy Petty Officer Robert Dean Stethem, 23, of Waldorf, Md. on June 15, threats by the hijackers to blow up the plane, complex diplomatic maneuvering over the gunmen's demand that Lebanese prisoners in Israel be freed, and a last-minute hitch that prevented their own release Saturday. Capt. John Testrake, smiling broadly and walking with a bounce in his step, was first off the U.S. Air Force C-141 transport plane.

Testrake, pilot of the Trans World Airlines jet hijacked June 14, was followed by other crew members and then the rest of the hostages, many of them wrapped in military blankets. Bush and his wife, Barbara, then x.o. 1 If i i AnOldsmobile worked its way Great American Race. sion, and a couple "who were having a great time" while spending their honeymoon in an offbeat way. "She didn't know she was going to marry a grease monkey," Whitney Kerr said.

Sweeping By BERNIE SCHOENBURG Springfield bureau chief SPRINGFIELD Minutes after midnight today, the House voted 7741 for a package of education reforms and two new taxes to pay' for them. The Senate adjourned before acting on the package, but it is expected to be approved there as well. "This is the most comprehensive reform program for education ever passed in the state of Illinois," said Rep. Gene Hoffman, R-Elmhurst, House sponsor of the measure. About 40 educational reforms are called for, designed to improve teacher qualifications, to better State police in through the crowd of about 15,000 Kerr, a retired manufacturer's agent, and his wife, Bea, were married six weeks ago yesterday.

"We wouldn't, have missed this race for the world," his wife said. She said they began planning school reforms clear House The PantasraohLORI ANN COOK resume its place in the the race so far "had been kind of like going to war." A favorite war story was added by a race coordinator, Rob Please see RACE, back page voters in any existing school district. Residents of many small school districts were strongly opposed to the plan, but its backers insisted that after each district was given veto power over any reorganization plan, it should have mitigated fears of forced consolidation. The package includes an 8-cent-per-pack tax on cigarettes that would replace a federal tax due to go off the books Oct. 1, and a 5 percent tax on interstate telephone calls.

While other taxes were considered in recent days, including Please see SCHOOLS, back page belt law people yesterday afternoon to their honeymoon around the race in January because they thought it would be fun, Kerr and his son, also named Whitney, were driving a 1930 Studebaker. Kerr purchased the ear in October. Kerr added, with a smile, that AREA LAWMAKERS' VOTES School reforms Peg Breslin (D-Ottawa) Yes Thomas Ewing (R-Pontiac) Yes Thomas Homer (D-Canton) No Judy Koehler (R-Henry) No Gordon Ropp (R-Normal) Ybs Sam Vinson (R-Clinton) Yes The package also includes some elements that were defeated when presented to the Legislature as individual bills, including a program to have a study of school district reorganization done in each of the state's educational service regions. Any consolidation plans that would result could be struck down by acts throughout the world must be taken on by civilized nations," he said. "The United States give terrorists no rewards and no guarantees," he said.

"We make no concessions. We make no deals." No celebration Reagan spoke as the Air Force plane with the freed hostages aboard flew from Syria to West Germany. "They will be home again soon," he said. "This is a moment of joy for them, for their loved ones and for our nation." "But this is no moment for celebration," the president added. "Let it be clearly understood that the seven Americans still held captive in Lebanon must be released, along with other innocent hostages from other countries." He also said those who brutally murdered Navy diver Robert D.

Stethem and those who killed American Marines in a recent street attack in El Salvador "must be held accountable." Before his television address, Reagan telephoned the Air Force C-141 parrying the hostages. The White House said he told Maj. Bill Edwards of Maguire Air Force Base, N.J., "I would appreciate your passing on to your passengers how proud I am of their strength' and courage, and that I look forward to their being reunited with their families as soon as possible." Tears aboard plane Edwards was quoted as telling the president that there were "lots of tears and lots of jubilation" aboard the aircraft. Secretary of State George Shultz, asked if the United States intended to exact vengeance for the hijacking, said, "Vengeance is a kind of visceral feeling people get. It's natural.

We all do. But what we really need to think about is imposing costs and looking to the future and pre-empting." He said one course being considered was "trying to close the usefulness" of Beirut airport, the scene of numerous hijackings. "Lebanon and the Beirut airport has dramatized itself by its own actions as an outcast in the world community," Shultz said. "This is not over yet." The Pantograph This sign was put up recently at the State Farm headquarters parking lot. TfflfM i huts''- lTTtTilIlin-lll Thousands turn out for pit stop By MIKE GOSLING Pantagraph staff While an estimated 15,000 Twin City and surrounding area residents ate, drank and milled around dozens of antique cars yesterday in a seemingly ideal Sunday afternoon, stories of trials and tribulations of the Great American Race were being told inside the American State Bank, 211 N.

Main St. The 107 drivers and supporters of the 11-day race, billed as the most prestigious and richest event for old cars, made a lunch stop for the second year in a row yesterday afternoon in downtown Bloomington to the biggest turnout of people to greet them so far. Inside the bank, drivers and their crews refueled their bodies, which for the most part had been driven 19 hours a day for the past week. Stories consisted of cars breaking down, roofs oemg blown off in sandstorms, unexpected ten- 149th year 182nd day Partly sunny today with a 30 percent chance of afternoon or evening showers and thunderstorms. Highs low 80s.

Winds northeasterly around 10 mph. Complete weather on C5 Abby C4 Classified C6 Comics C12 Deaths C5 FarmBusiness A4 Focus C1 On the Record C6 Opinion A6 Sports B1 2 Daily: 101 Pick 4: 3410 Copyright 1S85 Evargraan Communication Inc. TflBMf School aid plan favoring consolidations OK'd, next page; Lampkin trial costs considered, page A3 monitor student achievement, to give communities greater knowledge of their local schools, and to increase funding for some specific programs, including reading. State funding for elementary and secondary schools would increase about $360 million under the plan, with $200 million of that distributed through the state aid grace period on seat and cholesterol causes strokes," Vinson said. "There will be nothing the government can't regulate because everything affects our health." But Thompson said public-safety issues outweigh arguments that the law infringes on personal freedoms.

"Since politicians regularly promise people to get government off their backs, it may seem strange to impose it around their waists," he said when he signed the bill. "But surely there is a difference between laws and regulations which are unnecessary and useless and those which undeniably save lives, injuries and costs." Transportation Secretary Greg Baise estimates Illinois' seat-belt law could prevent 235 deaths and 34,000 injuries a year, saving $343 million in medical expenses, insurance payments, rehabilitation costs and public aid. New York saw almost a 30 percent drop in traffic fatalities in the first three months after its seat-belt law took effect, he said. Their vehicle was made before 1965, when installation of seat belts became mandatory, or if the vehicle still isn't required to be equipped with belts under federal law. Last year, Illinois became the third state to enact legislation requiring its residents to wear seat belts.

New York's law took effect in December, New Jersey's in March. Most Michigan drivers also must wear seat belts or face fines under a state law taking effect Monday. Signed in January by Governor Thompson, Illinois' seat-belt law faced strong opposition from some state lawmakers and others who complain it's an unwarranted intrusion into people's lives. "It is perhaps the worst infringement of personal liberties ever enacted in this state," says Republican Rep. Sam Vinson of Clinton.

Vinson filed legislation to repeal the law the day after Thompson signed it, but his proposal was repeatedly turned back by supporters of the mandatory seat belt law. "Pretty soon, the government will say you can't eat eggs because eggs contain cholesterol SPRINGFIELD (AP) When you get into your car today, buckle up or break the law. Illinois' mandatory seat-belt law takes effect today, requiring drivers and their front-seat passengers to wear the restraints or face a $25 fine. But state police are giving motorists a 30-day grace period, during which troopers will issue warnings instead of tickets to unbuckled drivers, says Illinois State Police Col. William Pierce.

A drive to encourage motorists to comply with the law includes television and radio announcements, signs at highway toll booths and state borders to inform out-of-state motorists of the new law. There are some exceptions to the seat-belt law. Drivers and passengers don't have to buckle up if: They must make frequent stops as long as the speed between stops doesn't exceed 15 mph. They have a written statement from a doctor saying medical or safety reasons prevent them from wearing a seat belt..