St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 24

On Today's Editorial Page Th Mayor's Financing Pton MeWsVeHOfU UuvW FINAl SPORTS Vol. 108, No. 121 76 Pft" THURSDAY, MAY 1, 1986 Copyright 1986 23 Illinois cs yes Coolant Loss Began Trouble, U.S. Panel Says INSIDEDisaster i UTILITY STOCKS feel fallout Page20A i MAJOR IMPACT Ofl Soviet crops caned unlikely. Pag 21A i ST.

LOUISANS with Ukrainian ties eeek Inform tton.Pag 22A EUROPEAN countries criticize Soviet secrecy Page 22A Cofiptod FfOM Mow Stnrict MOSCOW Despite Soviet claims that a nuclear Are at the Chernobyl power plant Is under control. Western governments urged their citizens Wednesday to leave the stricken Ukraine. The damaged plant continued to spew radiation across Europe. The Kremlin said radiation levels were dropping at the devastated plant But one Soviet diplomat was quoted as saying the situation was "out of control," and VS. sources In Washington agreed.

In the Soviet government's most detailed casualty report, officials said Wednesday that two people had been killed In the accident and 197 hospitalized. But unofficial, unverified reports spoke of higher casualty totals. The statement playing down the severity of the accident and Its effects Stern of the private space agency Sa-tellitbild also said satellite pictures indicated two reactors bad gone Into meltdown at the stricken nuclear power plant The plant is north of Kiev, the third largest city in the Soviet Union, with 2.3 million people. A meltdown occurs when nuclear fuel melts. Unless the meltdown is contained in some structure.

It spews radioactive steam into the atmosphere. U.S. officials said in a press briefing based on U.S. Intelligence reports that a problem developed in the first reactor Friday, leading to a meltdown Saturday and a chemical explosion Sunday. The fire continued to burn out of control Wednesday, and smoke and vapor were pouring from the plant they said.

The first indication of a nuclear See DISASTER. Page 23 ently had begun sometime Saturday and that a chemical reaction between leaking steam and the graphite used as a fuel moderator had led to a "violent explosion" on Sunday. The panel's officials said the time estimates were "back-calculated." using data obtained from radiation monitors in Sweden. "The fire followed the explosion," Denton said Wednesday. "I would expect that today, the charcoal Is still burning, from the top down.

There's still very high temperature In the core. The radioactive levels within the plant itself are very high. I would expect It's very difficult to take any corrective action." Separately, a State Department spokesman said Wednesday that the Soviet Union had expressed "appreciation" for the VS. offer of technical and humanitarian assistance. But he said Soviet diplomats had provided no information to the-United States about the accident beyond the sketchy details that have been released In the Soviet press.

The Soviet government announced late Wednesday that 197 people had been hospitalized because of the accident at the Cherbonyl plant The statement denied See PANEL, Page 24 Blues Hit High Note Insurance Bill Clears Hurdles On Final Day By Jon Sawyer Pott-Ditpetch Washington Bureau WASHINGTON Members of an inter-agency panel set up to monitor the Cherbonyl nuclear disaster said Wednesday that a loss-of-coolant accident had led to a meltdown of nuclear fuel and subsequent explosion at the Soviet reactor. "We can only speculate about what the Initiating event was," said Harold Denton, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission official who is serving on the task force. "But It's quite clear that whatever happened led to a loss of coolant and that fuel melting began to occur." Denton said the meltdown appar 2-1 Victory The Leafs tied the game on a goal by Brad Smith at 2:18 of the second period. His shot from the extreme left of goalie Greg Millen bounced off the backside of the goalie and into the net That was all of the scoring in the second period. So the game went to the final 20 minutes tied.

Lavallee got the game-winner at 7:34, and the rest was up to Millen, who stopped 32 of 33 shots and will take a 6-2 playoff record into the next series. As the crowd counted out the final seconds, Millen inched up in goal, and finally raised his arms in triumph. Dow Drops A Record 41.9 Points NEW YORK (AP) Pessimism over the economy's health put stock prices into a tailspin Wednesday, knocking the Dow Jones industrial average into its biggest drop ever in terms of points. Analysts say the decline was accelerated by "program trading," computerized trading systems designed by big investment firms to profit from slight disparities between stock prices and stock index futures. Such trading often results in big rises or falls in stock prices.

The Dow Jones industrial average skidded 41.91 points to 1,783.98, surpassing the previous record of 39.10 points set Jan. 8 when the average fell to 1,526.61. STOCK tables PagelOD By Jim Mosley and Fred W. Lindecke Post-Dispatch Jefferson City Bureau JEFFERSON CITY Motorists in Missouri would be required to have liability insurance under a bill passed and sent to the governor on the closing day of the Legislature's session Wednesday. The legislators finished their work for the year Wednesday night with 10 minutes to spare before the midnight deadline.

The chamber then bade farewell to two lawmakers who are retiring: Reps. Earl Schlef, D-Dell-wood, and John J. Fowler, R-New-town. Schlef has been in the House 20 years. Fowler eight When Majority Leader Anthony D.

Ribaudo, D-St. Louis, announced adjournment the legislators threw papers Into the air an traditional display. Another tradition of sorts was followed in the Senate, where Sen. J.B. "Jet" Banks a Democrat from St Louis known for his sartorial splendor changed his suits 16 times.

Shortly before midnight, legislators scrambled so quickly that at one point the clerk responsible for reading bill numbers erroneously read the title of a controversial measure calling for public financing of state election campaigns instead of one proposing the sale of the National Guard Armory In St. Louis. Only Sen. John Bass, D-St. Louis, caught the mistake in time.

But before they could adjourn, the legislators considered numerous bills, including the liability insurance measure. Rep. Dewey G. Crump, D-Maryland Heights, said the measure was intended to "attack the problem" that exists because 20 to 25 percent of the drivers in Missouri lack liability insurance. The insurance bill was perhaps one See LEGISLATURE, Page II Kevin ManningPost-Dispatch Norris Division final Wednesday night at The Arena.

The Toronto goalie is Ken Wregget. The Blues' Doug Gilmour (right) tries to skate around the Maple Leafs' Chris Kotsopoulos in the first period of the followed reports from Washington that U.S. intelligence officials believed a meltdown bad occurred or was occurring in a second nuclear reactor at the four-reactor Soviet plant Other officials called the possibility of a second meltdown "conjecture." But a Swedish analyst Mikael MORE DETAILS on the Blues' victory. Pago 1D and turned up the noise level a couple of notches. An overflow crowd of 18,034 jammed into the venerable old dome on Oakland Avenue and generated a roar that deafened the senses and helped silence the scrappy Maple Leafs from Canada.

For the first time since 1972, the Blues advanced to the semifinals of the Stanley Cup playoffs. They will meet the winner of the series between the Calgary Flames and the THE REAGANS will miss the real Bali Page 1B more often from poverty and an unequal sharing of wealth than from a Soviet drive to dominate the region. Indonesian Foreign Minister Moch-tar Kusumaatmadja said communism would come to Southeast Asia not "on a battleship from outside" but from poor and bitter people inside. The way to fight communism. COURT BLOCKS abortion law appeal Page 14A blacks from juries on the ground that they would be more sympathetic to the defendant The court took the unusual step of overturning part of a precedent that had set a difficult burden of proof for a black defendant who contended that prosecutors were abusing their peremptory challenges.

The prece On Ice: Blues Capture Division With By John Sonderegger OfthePoat-Diapatch Staff With The Arena rocking to the fight song of old, the Blues came marching in Wednesday night and knocked off the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 in the seventh and deciding game of the Norris Division finals in National Hockey League postseason play. Kevin LaVallee, zipping in from the slot, took a pass from Bernie Federko, who was behind the Toronto goal, and whacked a shot past rookie goalie Ken Wregget with 12 minutes, 26 seconds left in the game. That was the game-winner INSIDELegislature REDUCED INTEREST rate on credit cards diet Page 10A CHILD ABUSE hot line changes get nod Page 10A GENE MCNARY'S tax proposal la Page 10A INTERSTATE BANKING, bill is signed into law Page 10A LEGISLATIVE SCORECARD of winners and Page 10A Change OK'd For Lien Law By Fred W. Lindecke Miasouri Political Correspondent JEFFERSON CITY A bill seeking to give homeowners more warning of the danger of Missouri's lien law was passed by the Legislature on Wednesday night and sent to the governor. The impetus for the measure, sponsored by Rep.

Claire McCaskill, D-Kansas City, came from the death In 1984 of Christial Branson of Bland, who blew up her home and fatally Injured herself rather than see her home sold to satisfy a 1 ,200 lien. Branson had paid a contractor to install air conditioning in her home. But he disappeared without paying an air-conditioner company $1,200 for the air conditioner he installed. The company filed the lien against her home. The bill passed by the Legislature leaves intact the ability of suppliers See LIENS, Page li guilty and one was convicted.

The charges were that the four had accepted money from contractor Robert Jacox of Edwardsville In jet turn for weed-cutting Throughout the three-day trial, Derango characterized Wooten as a naive newcomer to East St. Louis politics who had got caught up in events over which he had no control. Derango said in his closing -arguv ment Wednesday morning that the prosecution's two main witnesses Jacox and former East St Louis Alderman Julius "Mickey" Walker-r--had lied about Wooten's participation to get reduced sentences in their own-felony cases. "They said only one thing that was the truth," Derango said. "And that's; when they called each other a liar." Walker and former Alderman AK fred Byrd pleaded guilty last year of bribery in the case.

Each was $2,000, given probation and ordered See WOOTEN, Page 7 Reagan, Asians Split On Soviet Threat East St. Louis Alderman Is Acquitted Of Bribery Edmonton Oilers, two-time defending Stanley Cup champions. The Campbell Conference finals, also a seven-game series, will begin 1 on Friday night in either Calgary or Edmonton. The second game also will be in the Canadian city, and the third and fourth games will be at The Arena next Tuesday and Thursday. The Blues took a 1-0 lead in the first period Wednesday night on a power-play goal by Eddy Beers, who knocked home a rebound of a shot by Greg Paslawski at 8:27 of the opening period.

That was all of the scoring in the first 20 minutes. Mochtar said, is not through guns after the revolution starts but through economic development that produces jobs and through schools, roads, sanitation and health care. Mochtar was joined by Philippines Vice President Salvador Laurel, who urged Reagan to make large and rapid commitments of aid to his country so that it can bring about economic change before the communist New People's Army makes further See REAGAN, Page 1 Of Black Jurors dent was set in 1965. Peremptory challenges allow attorneys for the prosecution or the defense to exclude a certain number of potential jurors without citing reasons. The 1965 precedent required defendants to show a longstanding pattern of prosecutors' exclusion of blacks.

But the court ruled Wednesday that this "crippling burden of prooP was See COURT, Page 14 TEMPERATURE By Lawrence M. O'Rourke Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau BALI, Indonesia President Ronald Reagan told leaders of Asian nations Wednesday that the Soviet Union wanted to spread its control over Asia and that he was ready to help resist any advances. The president said Vietnam's occupation of Cambodia posed a threat to the entire region. But two of the Asian leaders said threat to independence resulted Supreme Court Limits Exclusion By H.J. Jackson Of the Post-Dispatch Staff East St Louis Alderman Thamous.

Wooten Jr. was acquitted Wednesday of charges that he accepted a $400 bribe in return for his influence in awarding weed-cutting contracts in his ward. A jury in U.S. District Court in Alton deliberated only 25 minutes before returning the verdict. Wooten, D-3rd Ward, cried when Judge William Beatty read the verdict.

Wooten later declined to comment on the decision. But his attorney, Ralph J. Derango of Belleville, said, "Justice was done; the system works." Assistant U.S. Attorney Joel V. Mer-kel prosecuted the case.

He said, "I don't think it was the right verdict but that's the jury's function." Wooten was one of four current and former East St. Louis aldermen charged after an investigation in 1983 by the FBI into influence-peddling. In the other three cases, two pleaded 1 By William Freivogel Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau WASHINGTON Prosecutors may no longer follow the widespread practice of intentionally removing blacks from juries hearing criminal cases against blacks, the Supreme Court said Wednesday. The court ruled 7-2 that the constitutional right of black defendants to equal protection of the law was violated when prosecutors removed PRECIPITATION NHL Playoffs American League Blues 2 Toronto 1 New York 3 Minnesota 2 Calgary 3 Edmonton 2 Kansas City 7 Detroit 3 National League ston8fl San Diego 5. Montreal CincinnitTo rr Milwaukee 5 Oak and 1 San Francisco 6 Pittsburgh 5 1 D.

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