Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 4, 1995 TAG: 9507070002
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
MIAMI - The government gained a valuable ally in its prosecution of lawyers for the Cali cocaine cartel when a former federal prosecutor pleaded guilty Monday to reduced charges and agreed to cooperate.
Donald Ferguson, an assistant U.S. attorney in Miami in the mid-1970s, pleaded guilty to conspiring to obstruct justice and money laundering.
The soft-spoken defense lawyer from Boca Raton, Fla., could prove a formidable witness against the two other lawyers still facing trial.
One defendant, former Justice Department extradition expert Michael Abbell of Washington, represented Colombian cartel leaders on legal matters since 1985 and recruited Ferguson in 1990 to help him represent them in Florida.
The prosecution contends they crossed the line and committed crimes in helping their clients.
- Associated Press
Teachers urged to seek support
MINNEAPOLIS - Teachers facing a newly hostile Congress and a disenchanted public must reach out to parents and other Americans or see support for public schools plummet, the head of the nation's largest teachers union warned Monday.
If they fail, communities will turn to ``some outside agent who promises to make everything right with one magic bullet,'' such as a corporation running a school district, said Keith Geiger, president of the National Education Association.
``More and more parents will withdraw into their own ethnic, religious or elite islands, if the corporate takeover or voucher proponents have their way,'' Geiger told delegates to the NEA's annual convention, representing 2.2 million teachers. ``Public schools will become the schools of last resort.''
That would hurt poor children's ability to get a good education, and leave all children less engaged in their communities, Geiger said.
On the first day of its annual meeting, t
The union, in what appeared to be a close show of hands, authorized its leaders to renew merger talks with its longtime rival, the 875,000-member American Federation of Teachers.
- Associated Press
Overdose suspected in model's death
PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. - Asthma or an overdose of bronchial medicine may have killed Kristen Taylor, the 17-year-old sister of supermodel Niki Taylor and a cover girl herself, the medical examiner said Monday.
Niki Taylor found her sister collapsed on the living room floor of the family's home early Sunday, said Capt. Richard Rossman, a Florida Highway Patrol district commander and a family friend.
``It just doesn't make sense,'' said family spokesman George Dassinger. ``The family is really upset. Krissy was the baby. Her career was just coming into her own.''
An autopsy performed Monday showed no foul play, said Dr. Joshua Perper, the chief medical examiner for Broward County. There was no history of drug or alcohol abuse, Rossman said.
Taylor had used an asthma inhaler at least two hours before she died because she had trouble breathing, Perper said. She was not a diagnosed asthmatic, however.
``Some people have traced the use of inhalers to deaths because the gas may cause irregularities of the rhythm of the heart,'' Perper said.
- Associated Press
Businessman enters presidential race
WASHINGTON - Just when you thought everybody was in the race, here comes another contender for the Republican presidential nomination.
Maurice M. ``Morry'' Taylor, 50, of Quincy, Ill., and Des Moines is not a household name and has never held public office. But he is the CEO and principal owner of Titan Wheel International, a fast-growing New York Stock Exchange company that claims to be the leading manufacturer of wheels and tires for farm and construction equipment. And he wants to be president.
A registered Republican and 1992 supporter of Ross Perot, Taylor said at a Washington news conference that he is not in Perot's class of billionaires, but said that he would spend enough, out of his own money, ``to make a very credible campaign.'' He is refusing federal matching funds.
Taylor promises to balance the budget in 18 months, mainly by lopping 1 million people off the federal payroll. After that, he has a plan for a tax cut and a drive to ``reindustrialize'' America by increasing the supply of good jobs.
- The Washington Post
Keywords:
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