Buffalo Criterion, 1984-12-26

              wny's necessary minority newspaper - featuring paid legitimate circulation the buffalo criterion niagara region rochester iri ll i i'ii"iwljaa-la¥l i laayiaii vol 59 — no 52 -——- ■ ' ■ 111 l ir a .:.- f m .... .-..■,,, -, -„ „,..-,.,■, r vvednksday december 26-jam'ary 1 hr 1 *•■•• ■ *„—..*. , outof-'iwn y.j happy new year sovth africa protests expanded in atlanta—sclc president joseph e lowery announces t plans.to escalate the protests against south african apartheid by demonstrating against atlanta-based corporations that have business interests in south africa and who sell the hrugerrand a gold coin exported by south africa lowery is joined by members of the concerned black clergy andse vera other religious and community organizations who ha vowed to support the protests the group will protest the sale of the hrugerrand i l tor rev cornelius henderson sclc board and concerned black clergy rev timothy mcdonald sclc operation ! breadbasket unidentified pastor dr lowery rev cameron alexander sclc board & general missionary baptist convention of georgia president rev c.t i ivian sclc board and chairman of the national anti-klan network mcdonald's raises funds for uncf mcdonald's corp has inaugurated a parade of stars poster program to raise money for the united negro college fund posters will be sold at participating mcdonald's restaurants across the country until dec 31 net proceeds from the sale of the posters will be donated to uncf the parade of stars poster program is a series of six 18 x 22 four-color posters featur ing well-known celebrities — mr t janet jackson julius dr j erving air supply jeffrey os borne and jayne ken nedy support of the uncf is part of mcdonald's phil osophy of giving some thing back to the commu nities in which it does business nationally and locally mcdonald's res taurants have supported uncf since 1977 with a variety of fundraising ac tivities including celebrity concerts gospel . - choir competitions walkathons in-store fundraising efforts and celebrity sports out ings making the mc donald's organization one of uncf's largest corpor ate contributors in addition to uncf mcdonald's also supports act-so academic olympics of the mind lorraine hansberry play writing awards get it straight a drug aware ness program and safe kids a creative program . to address the lost and missing children issue i this year's uncf tele thon will air nationally on dec 29th from noon to midnight in more than 100 markets with radio simul cast you can tell tha ideals of a nation by its advertise ments norman douglas appearances are often deceiving aesop statement on toxic catastrophe in bhophal india by dr charles e cobb how can we live in the shadow of death asked a student from bhopal india in the aftermath of the massive leak of highly toxic methyl isocynate gas from a union carbide insecticide plant with over 2000 people dead and 50,000 permanently in jured this now ranks as the worst toxic industrial chemical accident in his tory it is no accident that this disaster took place in one of the most impoverished communities in the world nor is it a coincidence that the only other union - carbide plant producing methyl isocyanate is i<jca j ted in institute west virginia — a community which is over 80 percent black as we have become painfully aware since initiating our special pro ject on action against toxic pollution in poor communities corpora tions involved in the production and disposal of hazardous materials are able to take advantage of the political powerlessness of poor and minority citizens a recent study by the u s government ac counting office found that 3 out of 4 toxic waste landfulls were located in predominantly black and poor communities in a very real way all of us live under the shadow of death from toxic materials union car bide's plant in west virginia was immediately shut down after the incident needless to say . workers and residents there are apprehensive how true are union carbide's claim of safety if it was recently fined 50,000 by the state for illegally burning hazard ous wastes a congressional sub committee last week be the christmas seal campaign — a tradition on tuesday december lth president reagan welcomed entertainer pearl bailey and officials of the american lung association to the oval office at the white house for the presentation of the 1984 christmas seal miss bailey is the 1984 christmas seal chairman for the american lung association miss bailey presented president reagan with the first fanily's 1984 christmas seals continuing a tradition dating back more than 20 years the american lung association is the oldest voluntary public health organization in the united states the christmas seal campaign which began in 1907 is the oldest and largest direct mail fund raising campaign in the world those accompanying miss bailey to the oval office presentation were as follows from left richard jachetti ala publicity consultant mrs lisa marie jahetti dolores williams companion to miss bailey ms joanne colo ala public relations associate ms kathlene m davis ala communica tions director dale dirks ala government relations consultant mrs eugene weymueller and roberi weymuetler ala government relations director elected worshipful master lorenzo skinner was elected worshipful master of lester lodge no 4 affiliated with the most worshipful omega grand lodge of the state of new york henry kelly was elected senior warden david col lins junior warden and a hunt treasurer all were installed in office by vernon wooten state organizing deputy grand master omega grand lodge is a member of the interna tional conference of grand lodges known as c.l.i.p.s.a.s lorenzo skinner state may have your money every year millions of dollars worth of abandoned bank accounts uncollected stock dividends and forgotten checks bonds and security deposits are turned over to my office by financial institutions banks insurance com panies and corporations are required by law to forward dormant"..accounts ac counts in which there has been no activity for two to five years to the state my office holds these monies in safekeeping until the rightful owners step for ward to claim them last year we were suc cessful in returning 20.3 million in unclaimed funds to citizens throughout the state this year i expect our rate of return to be considerably higher because my staff has implemented a number of outreach programs to contact prospective owners of lost assets yet despite the fact that the state of new york is now more effective than ever in return ing abandoned monies more money is being turned over to the state's custody conse quently the balance in the bureau of unclaimed funds swells from day to day it cur rently stands at 118 million you may be entitled to some of this money — without even realizing it for example an elderly relative might have opened a savings account for a child as a gift yet the account is forgotten as the child grows older that account would be considered abandoned if no one made a deposit a withdrawal or had interest posted for five years or you may have moved abruptly and neglected to notify your insurance com pany corporations in which you own stock or your former landlord of your new address if so you could have missed receiving dividend checks utility refunds and security deposits those assets too eventually would be turned over to the state it's reassuring to know that the bureau of unclaimed funds doesn't abscond with anyone's money it simply holds the assets in safekeep ing you can always act to retrieve them by writing the staff of the bureau in albany you cannot however cut through any of the necessary red tape or reclaim your funds any faster by purchas ing the services of a so-called finders firm the most direct and efficient route to take is to contact the bureau directly and the only cost you will have to bear is the pur chase of a 20-cent stamp ccntrary to the mj-elea^n a r.-i r si c livwva.*rir t ehng distributed by finders firms ordinary citizens do not stand much of a chance of becoming instant millionaires by filing a claim with the bureau most individual accounts are small in fact our most recent surveys indicate that 70 per cent of all accounts on file amount to 36 or less however as your state comptroller i have a respon sibility to see that all claims no matter how modest — are forwarded promptly to their rightful owners in light of that fact i have increased the staffing of the bureau who concentrate on locating owners of unclaimed funds and on processing refunds persons who think they may have money in the custody of the state should initially check their financial records and query family members they should then write the bureau of unclaimed funds box 7003 albany n.y 12225 their let ter should give as much infor mation as possible about the type of unclaimed property to which they believe they may be entitled in addition to listing former addresses the staff of the bureau responds to every inquiry - usually within several weeks if you do have assets on file you will be directed by letter how to establish proof of ownership most claims can be resolved within two months if they are fairly routine and if documentation is provided promptly by edward v regan new york state comptroller blacks should examine tax simplification the president and con gress will soon be taking on some complex and arcane issues which will have far-reaching conse quences for everyone how to cut the deficit and how to simplify the tax system both republicans and democrats have put forth proposals to simplify taxes proposals meant to have little or no effect on net revenues yet the two issues are necessarily in terwined because the sense of urgency that by norman hill almost everyone is now attaching to the deficit brings a need for revenue-enhancing to any plan for tax reform in theory the idea of tax simplification is very pop ular a harris poll shows overwhelming support for the treasury depart ment's sweeping tax pro posal the poll shows says business week magazine that most people think the tax system is unfair that it favors the rich discour ages people from wanting to earn more money and is so complicated that many taxpayers...are not even taking advantage of the tax breaks legally available to them it is also subject to widespread abuse even upper-income tax payers agreed with other income groups that the better off often ' get out of paying much of their taxes through loopholes and shelters and that the basic thing wrong with the current system is that the rich pay too little and the average person gets stuck paying too much nevertheless most peo ple balked at getting rid of some of the biggest tax deductions such as medi cal expenses and home mortgage interest in ex change for lower tax rates the consequences of overhauling the tax sys tern are bound to be far-reaching in the interest of check catastrophe continued on page 7 tax - see page 2 j working lead ia | wny ' inner cities 1 isinee 1923 j price only ** 21 c per copy