national/regional
Space walk first
by U.S. woman
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.
(AP) — “This is really
great...superb...1 love it.”
That was the reaction of
astronaut Kathy Sullivan, who
Thursday became the first
American woman to walk and
work in the inhospitable en
vironment of open space.
She and David Leestma spent
more than three hours outside
Challenger’s cargo bay, often
shouting with joy like kids at a
playground. They seemed
almost reluctant to come back in
and had to be prodded several
times by commander Robert
Crippen.
“Six seconds, front and
center,” he said once. “Good
job, time to come in,” he said
later.
Sullivan acted as a plumber's
assistant to Leestma as he at
tached a refueling line to a tank
fitting, testing tools and techni
ques that may someday refuel
spent satellites that are now
abandoned as space junk.
Later, her body dangling over
the side at a 90-degree angle to
the spacecraft, Sullivan helped
Leestma align a loose antenna,
so that pins could be driven into
two holes electrically from in
side the cabin.
That done, she floated to the
other side of the spacecraft and
did some troubleshooting on
another antenna that caused
locking problems in the flight.
Bundled in bulky space suits
costing $2.1 million each and
restrained by tethers attached to
the sides of the ship, Sullivan
and Leestma had a wonderful
V
r
time as they clipped wires,
removed a dust cap, unscrewed
a nut and attached a valve and
hose to a tank filled with
hydrazine.
“Look at that,” said Leestma,
as he removed the dust cover.
“We got it right off the bat.” He
held it up triumphantly to the
TV camera with a pair of
grippers.
The real fuel transfer was to
take place by remote control Fri
day with the astronauts back in
Challenger’s cabin.
“That is just superb,” said
Sullivan as Leestma completed
the operation. He worked rapid
ly on the installation in an area
that resembled the underside of
a kitchen sink in size and
accessibility.
The astronauts remained out
of the cabin after the work was
finished to stow an antenna
whose power was disconnected
earlier in the flight.
“I’m going to sit back and
watch the world go by,” said
Sullivan at one point.
Another time she said,
“Amazing!”
At the time they left the cabin
air lock, the spacecraft camera
looked out on the cloud-mottled
Earth below and a bright moon
above.
Leestma looked out at the
world overhead and said “Look
at that. Cape Cod is beautiful.”
From inside the cabin, Sally
Ride pointed out Long Island,
N.Y. to Sullivan, who was born
in nearby New Jersey.
The other five crew members
were also monitoring the space
walk from Challenger’s cabin.
Before this flight, there had
been 38 space walks by
Americans, all of them men. A
Soviet cosmonaut, Svetlana
Savitskaya, became the first
woman space walker last July
25.
Older parents:
future trend?
WASHINGTON (AP) — After
postponing childbearing into
their late 20s as they pursued
careers in recent years, large
numbers of American women
are now waiting even longer —
often to their late 30s — to have
children, new government
statistics show.
"An increasing proportion of
women who have been delaying
childbearing seem to be
postponing their first births un
til their mid- or even late 30s,”
the National Center for Health
Statistics said in its final report
on births in 1982.
The study, released this
week, also found use of mid
wives to assist in birth has been
increasing and reported a rise in
childbearing by unmarried
women.
The trend to postpone
childbearing into the middle or
late 20s has been widely noted
in recent years as young women
pursued education and
established themselves in
careers before embarking on
motherhood.
But the new statistics indicate
even further delays than have
been reported in the past. There
was a substantial increase in
first births to women in their
30s, while those in the 25-29
age group actually had a small
decline in first births and the
rate. for younger women also
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fell.
Between 1981 and 1982, the
first-birth rate fell by less than 1
percent for women 15 to 19
years old, by 1 percent for
women 25 to 29 years and by 2
percent for women aged 20 to
24, the report said.
“In sharp contrast, the rate
increased by 10 percent for
women aged 30-34 years and by
18 percent for women aged
35-39 years,” the study said.
Women aged 30 to 34 averag
ed 14.6 first births per 1,000
women in 1982, the report said,
more than double the 7.0 rate of
a decade earlier. And for those
aged 35 to 39 the increase was
83 percent, from 1.8 to 3.3 first
births per 1,000.
"A couple decides if and
when to have children based on
the relative value they place on
children, leisure time, career
and a lifestyle of privacy and
mobility,” David E. Bloom
observed in a study of
childbearing in the September
issue of American
Demographics magazine.
Logging protest
charges let fall
ALBANY (AP) — A judge has
dismissed charges against three
men who were accused of fail
ing to help a police officer at the
scene of a logging protest in the
Willamette National Forest.
The charges were dropped a
day before arguments on the
constitutionality of Oregon’s
Riot Act were to be heard as part
of the case.
I,eo Hund. Eric Neville and
Paul McAdams were charged
with failing to assist sheriff's
deputies in removing protesters
from a logging road July 23 as
protesters began sitting in the
road.
Authorities said the three
were standing beside the road
in the Pyramid Creek area east
of Sweet Home.
Defense lawyers challenged
the law under which the three
were accused on several con
stitutional grounds. Because
McAdams and Hund were tak
ing photographs for newspaper
publication, the charges also
raised the issue of freedom of
the press, the attorneys said.
Trials for those arrested for
blocking log trucks in the forest
last summer will begin later this
month.
The charges against Hund.
Neville and McAdams were
dropped Wednesday by a Linn
County circuit judge without
comment on dismissal order.
Senate passes
area money bill
WASHINGTON (AP) — A
continuing resolution bill ap
proved by the Senate Thursday
includes funding for several key
Oregon projects, Sen. Mark Hat
field’s office said.
The bill, a compromise
designed to fund government
operations as of Oct. 1, includ
ed $37.3 million in grants for
highway improvement projects
in the Portland area and $19
million for continued construc
tion of the Banfield Light Rail
system between Gresham and
downtown Portland.
Other Oregon-related items
included in the bill include $5.4
million to implement a new
10-year resource management
plan for counties that contain
old Oregon & California
Railroad timber land. The plans
would call for an increase in the
allowable cut of timber on the
land.
High court says
measure stays
SALEM (AP) — The Oregon
Supreme Court on Thursday
ruled that a state lottery
measure will stay on the Nov. 6
ballot even though the ballot ti
tle is wrong.
Ecumenical Ministries of
Oregon, which opposes the
measure, asked the court to
keep the proposed constitu
tional amendment off the ballot
because of a wording error in
the title.
But the court unanimously
said it couldn’t do anything
about the problem.
The only way under state law
to fix a faulty title, the court
said, is to bring a court
challenge within 20 days after
the title prepared by the at
torney general is filed with the
secretary of state.
Ecumenical Ministries filed
its challenge in August, more
than three months after the title
was drafted.
The Supreme Court said in
any case it couldn't remove a
measure from the ballot under
current law but could only
rewrite the title.
“The legislature did not to
empower the secretary of state,
attorney general or any court to
order removal of a ballot
measure" because of an er
roneous title, the court said.
The title drafted by Attorney
General Dave Frohnmayer’s of
fice for Measure 4 incorrectly
says 50 percent of lottery pro
ceeds would be used for prizes.
12-year-old boy
turns in parents
GRANTS PASS (AP) — A
12-year-old boy with a rigid
sense of right and wrong turned
in his parents for growing mari
juana, the Josephine County
Sheriff’s Department said
Thursday.
Deputy Dave Claar said the
boy, whose name was not
released, told school authorities
his parents were growing pot.
School authorities relayed the
information to deputies, he
said.
Deputies arrested Sheri Jean
Waltman, 29. and her husband,
G. Dennis Waltman, 36. at their
home outside Grants Pass on
Wednesda" charges of
manufacturing a controlled
substance, Claar said.
A search of their home turned
up 250 high-quality marijuana
buds, valued at $40,000, which
had apparently been harvested
earlier in the week, the sheriff’s
department said.
Claar said the boy felt his
parents should abide by the
law, so he turned them in. He
was placed in a foster home.
Friday, October 12, 1984