KPTV (Portland) 10 p.m. news - 1992-12-08 (partial)

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] This is the first time Pacwood has

[0:01] denied any of the allegations against

[0:03] him since the Washington Post first

[0:04] reported two weeks ago that 10 women

[0:06] accused the senator of sexual

[0:07] harassment. Former Congressman Les Ain

[0:10] will join the staff of Pacific

[0:12] University this spring. A coin, who

[0:14] narrowly lost to Bob Pacwood in the

[0:16] November race for the US Senate, is a

[0:18] 1969 alumni of Pacific. He will be a

[0:21] part-time visiting professor, lecturing

[0:23] in courses on the presidency,

[0:25] congressional politics, and other

[0:27] political science subjects. a coin

[0:29] served in Congress for 17 years.

[0:32] >> Well, a snowball fight apparently set

[0:34] the stage for a murder last night in

[0:35] Salem. That's just ahead this Tuesday

[0:37] night.

[0:37] >> And why are all the kids you're about to

[0:39] see shaving their heads? Well, it's the

[0:41] latest fad at a junior high in Illinois.

[0:43] A fat that started with one classmate

[0:45] struggle to live.

[0:49] Tonight, charged with the fatal shooting

[0:51] of another man. As Jim Mar reports,

[0:53] friends of the dead man are still trying

[0:55] to come to grips with the tragedy.

[0:58] Man, he was he was 25 and he had two

[1:00] little girls, man. And there was no

[1:01] reason for the boy to die like that cuz

[1:03] I've known him for a long time. And you

[1:05] know, there was no reason for that to

[1:06] even happen.

[1:07] >> Friends of 25-year-old Frank Balcom

[1:09] gathered across the street from the

[1:10] Southeast Salem home where his accused

[1:13] murderer lives. Jason Bergstad, was

[1:15] enjoying a late night snowball fight

[1:17] with Balcom when the murder suspect,

[1:19] Terry Bandandy, confronted them about

[1:21] the noise they were making. About 11:30

[1:23] last night, witnesses say Bandandy waved

[1:25] a handgun out one of the windows of his

[1:28] home. A struggle ensued and a few

[1:30] minutes later, the victim lay dying on

[1:33] the street. There was no confrontation.

[1:34] The guy started screaming out his window

[1:37] and uh Frank said, "You know what's up

[1:40] with that? You know, that ain't cool."

[1:42] And uh the guy starts waving a gun out

[1:44] the window.

[1:46] And uh so the guy says, "Don't make me

[1:48] come down there." So he came down,

[1:50] started pushing Frank around. Frank

[1:51] pushed him back and he shot him.

[1:54] >> No other shots were apparently fired.

[1:56] Balcom was pronounced dead at the scene.

[1:58] An autopsy shows he died of a single

[2:00] small caliber gunshot wound to the

[2:02] chest. Salem police say detectives still

[2:05] don't know what may have led Bandy to

[2:07] fire his gun at close range into

[2:09] Balcom's chest.

[2:10] >> He came down to the police station,

[2:12] contacted us at a later time, and we uh

[2:16] interviewed him and arrested him. Court

[2:18] documents show Bandy has a police record

[2:21] until last night. His most recent

[2:22] contact with authorities came in late

[2:24] 1990 when police investigated him as a

[2:27] suspect in a menacing case. Bandy will

[2:30] be arraigned on murder charges tomorrow

[2:32] morning in Salem. Jim Maher, the 10:00

[2:35] news. A coroner's jury convenes tomorrow

[2:38] to decide whether Vancouver police were

[2:40] justified in killing a car theft

[2:42] suspect. 38-year-old Robert Allen was

[2:45] shot in the head last October. Police

[2:47] say the officers fired when Allen tried

[2:49] to run them down in a stolen car, but

[2:51] witnesses say it appeared the suspect

[2:53] was trying to drive away. The victim was

[2:55] unarmed at the time of the shooting. The

[2:57] jurors must decide whether or not police

[2:59] committed a crime by killing Allen. The

[3:01] deliberations are expected to last the

[3:03] rest of the week. The state of

[3:04] Washington is preparing for his first

[3:06] death row execution in 29 years, the

[3:09] first hanging in the nation since 1965.

[3:12] Wesley Allan Dodd is scheduled to die

[3:14] January 5th for killing three boys in

[3:16] Vancouver in 1989. This week, Dodd will

[3:19] undergo a physical exam to fit him for

[3:21] the hangman hangman's noose and to find

[3:23] veins to be used in case he changes his

[3:26] mind and decides to die by lethal

[3:27] injection. 24 pages of instruction

[3:30] specify how the rope for his noose is to

[3:32] be prepared. Months ago, Dodd asked that

[3:34] all appeals in his case be dropped, that

[3:36] he be executed without delay.

[3:39] In other news tonight, a chemical

[3:40] weapons incinerator planned for the

[3:42] Umatillaa Army Depot is safe. That

[3:44] according to an independent consulting

[3:46] firm. The MITER Corporation issued its

[3:48] findings based on an evaluation of

[3:50] operations at a prototype incinerator on

[3:53] a Pacific island. The US Army plans to

[3:56] build a billion-doll incinerator at the

[3:58] Army Depot near Heriston. The depot

[4:00] stores more than 5,000 tons of chemical

[4:02] weapons, including mustard gas that

[4:04] dates back to World War I. Opponents say

[4:07] the incinerator could vent toxic fumes

[4:09] into Hermiston. The MITER Corporation

[4:12] reports during 500 hours of testing at

[4:14] the prototype incinerator, trace amounts

[4:16] of nerve gas escaped 32 times.

[4:20] >> George Stefen joins us. He's in for

[4:21] David Apple tonight. Hi, George.

[4:23] >> Hello.

[4:24] >> Could this possibly be true?

[4:26] >> British researcher Dr. Alice Stewart

[4:28] contends the health records of 35,000

[4:31] workers at the now closed Hanford

[4:33] Nuclear Reservation show their risk of

[4:35] contracting radiation related cancer is

[4:38] four to five times higher than once

[4:40] believed. The essence of Stuart's

[4:42] research is that low radiation levels

[4:44] damage human cells which continue to

[4:47] mutate as the person ages. Stuart's

[4:49] study predicts that of the 35,000

[4:51] workers, 200 more than usual will

[4:54] contract cancer related to radiation.

[4:57] that conflicts with government funded

[4:59] research which predicts 10 or 15 extra

[5:02] deaths. Dr. Stewart resides in England.

[5:05] Her study on Hanford workers has been

[5:07] accepted for publication by the American

[5:09] Journal of Industrial Medicine. She

[5:11] expects criticism from the medical

[5:13] establishment. a difficult thing to

[5:15] absorb will take 20 years to to get any

[5:19] real big change and I think that in 20

[5:22] years time there will be much more

[5:24] thought will be being given to some of

[5:26] the ideas I'm talking about now.

[5:28] >> The US energy department long at odds

[5:30] with Stuart over access to the plant's

[5:31] medical records said it would comment

[5:33] only after it read her study. The

[5:36] nuclear industry uses as its safety

[5:38] standard a different study by the

[5:40] National Academy of Sciences. That study

[5:42] shows the risk level a mere fraction of

[5:44] what Stuart believes. Scientists on that

[5:46] study told CNN that Stuart's results

[5:49] differ because her mathematical models

[5:51] are not like that used by other

[5:53] scientists. One scientist remarking,

[5:55] "The problem is that radiation doses of

[5:57] workers is so small, we're talking about

[6:00] degrees of infinite decimal. Overall,

[6:03] the risk is small." Now, well into her

[6:06] 80s, Dr. Stewart seems unfazed by the

[6:08] controversy. Now, I know from my medical

[6:11] experience that lay people do exaggerate

[6:13] the dangers of radiation, but um they

[6:16] can sometimes be right when the expert

[6:18] is wrong.

[6:19] >> She worries not about her professional

[6:21] fate, but about the medical fate of the

[6:23] people she studies. Greg Lefave, CNN,

[6:26] reporting.

[6:28] >> Opposition groups to the Trojan nuclear

[6:30] power plant are happy to see the plant

[6:31] shut down for at least the rest of this

[6:33] month. However, if PGE gets its way,

[6:35] opponents and rateayers may not be happy

[6:38] when they see some future electric

[6:40] bills. Trojan has been shut down since

[6:42] November 9th due to a leak in a steam

[6:43] generator tube. PGE is paying an

[6:46] estimated 200 to $250,000 a day for

[6:49] replacement power. And before it's all

[6:51] over, the utility company expects to pay

[6:52] a minimum of $2 million in replacement

[6:55] power costs. Now, PGE has asked the

[6:57] Oregon Public Utility Commission to

[6:58] authorize deferring the power costs. to

[7:01] likely ask for an adjustment to cover

[7:02] the cost in a future rate request. That

[7:04] means PGE customers would pay. PGE says

[7:07] approval would not immediately raise

[7:10] rates.

[7:11] >> A Lake Oasiggo woman in need of a heart

[7:13] and lung transplant is reaching out to

[7:15] others while she waits for organ donors.

[7:17] Ruth Anne Hob suffers from a rare

[7:19] physical condition which threatens her

[7:21] life. The wait for a suitable organ

[7:23] donor is being made easier by the strong

[7:25] support of her friends. Tonight, many of

[7:27] them decorated Hobb's home for the

[7:29] holidays. Hub says she can't imagine

[7:31] facing her medical problems without the

[7:33] help of her group of friends.

[7:35] >> I realized that there were several other

[7:37] people going through what I had gone

[7:39] through. And so we started what was

[7:42] called Lifenet, what is called Lifenet

[7:47] um avoid some of the heartache and the

[7:50] financial um

[7:52] >> we can build those

[7:54] >> hardships.

[7:56] The LifeNet Foundation, Hobbs, and her

[7:58] supporters have formed, is a charitable

[8:00] trust. It seeks to raise a quarter of a

[8:03] million dollars, the amount necessary

[8:05] for Hobbs's operation. The charitable

[8:07] trust will support other transplant

[8:09] patients and their families before,

[8:11] during, and after their operations. If

[8:13] you would like to donate, you can call

[8:14] Lifenet. The number is 639-4748.

[8:20] a Portland