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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 8, 1986)
National_ ____ U.S. Agriculture Secretary announces resignation WASHINGTON (AP) — Agriculture Secretary John R. Block, who has presid ed over the most difficult times for American farmers since the Depression, announced Tuesday he will resign next month. Block said he had accomplished his foremost goal: pushing through Con gress a five-year farm bill aimed at link ing agriculture more closely to market: and less to federal subsidies. 'Tve done a great deal. I’ve made a difference,” a relaxed Block, his wife Sue at his side, told a room packed with reporters and department officials. “1 believe that today, now, is the time to leave.” Block, 50, said he planned to leave his $86.200-a-year Job by mid-February, but he specified no date. Sources said Richard Lyng, a former deputy to Block, was his likely successor. Throughout his five-year tenure. Block has been a controversial figure as he car ried the Reagan administration’s free market banner and alienated many farmers, and as he himself dealt with financial problems on his large llllonis hog farm. "These have been stressful times for our farmers." Block said, adding that his own farm was now doing better under the management of his son. He said he did not plan to return to the farm, but said he had made no final decision on what he will do. Speculation has been that Block plans to take a Job with a Washington organize tlon In the food and agriculture area "I do believe we are starting to turn the corner," Block said of the farm economy, which has been in a serious slide nearly since he first took office in 1981. Block declined to talk about who his successor would be. saying he would discuss that only with President Reagan. But he said he believed a decision would be made soon to avoid disruption of farm programs. .. ."".... —UQ Bookstore^ NEW ITEM! Broasted Chicken To Go Or To Stay Full Chicken Dinners with coleslaw and fries ★NEW HOURS: 7AM-7PM, MON.-FRL* Parents to fight for son’s right to die : BOSTON (AP) — Three month* ago, Lynn and Jack Bellingham thought they would do anything to save their deformed newborn son Ricky. . But alter approving 13 surgical pro cedures at a cost of $t million, the couple is now preparing to go to court to demand that Children's Hospital relinquish control of the infant and let him ' die in peace, not pain " "Enough is enough.” said Mrs Bell ingham. 26 "My question to the hospital is. What do they consider life?1 The baby has a right to be at peace like any other human being.” Ricky has been in Intensive cere since his birth Sept 24. five weeks premature. I le has a deformed esophagus ami trachea a liver infer lion, internal bleeding, blot clotting problems, an enlarged gall bladder and a hernia. He is sedated with morphine, connected to an ar tificial respirator and fed through a lube to his stomach. Doctors told the Bellingham* their son would need at least two more operations in the near future, and thal his prognosis was uncertain. "Becauae of the infections, he has a decreased brain capacity, but we don't know I how much.” Mid Mrs Bellingham Last week. the couple asked the hospital not to perform any further surgery and to remove Intravenous feeding tubes Mrs Bell ingham said the hospital told her it was con sidering a court petition to gain custody of the boy in order to continue medical treatment We said. No surgery and the hospital told us to get a lawyer.” she added. "We will fight it It s a matter of principle VVe had a right to bring a child into the world, and no one should have the right to tell us what's best.” The Bellingham# said they are ready to file suit against the hospital as soon aa It orders more surgenc Hospital officials refuse to discuss the case, citing the infant's right to privacy, but spokeswoman Nancy Collin* said Tuesday that, m general, doctors make every effort to preserve life, even when hope Is sparse “We do not make decisions to preserve or terminate life based on social, economic or lifestyle reasons.” Collins said "II I* hard to know when to stop treating a patient because In some cases, especially in pediatrics, things change fai the better ’* Hand grenade remains examined BOSTON (API - Remnants of a live hand grenade found at the Boston Garden lust before Soviet hockey players arrived for a game were sent to an FBI laboratory for evaluation Tues day, a spokesman for the agency •aid. The fragments remaining after police blew up the grenade on an uninhabited island -in UO Bookstore OPEN TONIGHT UNTIL 8:00 P.M Your store since 1920 uo BOOKSTORE 13th & Kincaid M-F 7:30-5:30 SAT 10:00-3:00 Supplies 686-4331 Boston Harbor Monday night ■ were i shipped to the lab.; in . Washington. ,'Q.G:. * said : FBI Special-Agent lack Clbherty. - He’ said . no; one claimed responsibility for placing the grenade in a-trash can.at.the Sports.arena 20 minutes before the Moscow Dynamo squad ar rived to play the Boston Bruins in a National Hockey. League sponsored ’ exhibition game Monday night. The explosive-, described by Police Joseph Ferrullo as ,;,a live-grenade taped to an alarm clock,’* was removed and-no one was injured/. Both Boston police and FBI agents refused to say whether an alarm clock hooker! to the grenade Was set to go off. They declined to release details of the investigation. “We don't want tu tip off the perpetrator about what we know,’’ said police spokeswoman Nancy Sterling Gteaaon. Bruins' spokesman Nate Greenberg said neither the ex plosive nor the protest by more than 100 demonstrators Mon day would deter players from meeting Soviet teams again. Nearly every year since 1972. the NHL has participated in tournaments with Soviet teams, and U.S. players have learned much from these games, said Dan Leary, director of NHL publicity at New York headquarters.