The Anniston Star from Anniston, Alabama • Page 18

ISA AnntBlon tar Sunday, Dec. 1, 176 A i fA) Jl II 4 i iikvsL a They're bullish on birds feathery species that would have stayed indoors on a colder day. The count is a part of the National Audubon Society's annual count of bird species in various areas of the country. According to Dr. Bill Summerour, president of the Jacksonville society, the local group's findings will be Dublished bv the national organization.

These people are not out-of-work enemy aircraft spotters from World War II. And they are not out on a belated, or early as the case may be, Easter egg hunt. These intrepid souls, sloughing through the muck and mire and the cold bare forest around Jacksonville, are participants in the Jacksonville Audubon Society's annual Christmas bird count. The counters, in these pictures taken by Star Photographer Horace McDonald, are bundled against the cold because they began counting Saturday morning at 5 a.m. Luckily the weather warmed to a pleasant 72 degrees by midday and they were able to finish their count in comfort.

And, hopefully, the unusually warm weather brought out some In the uoDer left nhotograoh Dr. Robert Calvert and Duane Miller seem to have spotted an interesting subjectjn the treetops. At lower left a Ruby Crown Kinglet is fanning its wings in a pool of water. Perhaps the counters were not the only ones who found Saturday's warm weathej unseasonable. GBIA useful Blue law in legal tangle or unnecessary? (Continued From Page 1) they hope the county's legislative delegation will have drawn up a local law which can withstand a court test.

Things in Anniston are not wide open, but they could be. And it looks as though things will stay that way at least until the legislative session in February. The members of the county's legislative delegation have expressed a willingness to pass some type of -legislation to give the county a workable blue law. "I would be in favor of passing something along the lines of the Birmingham statute," said State Sen. Donald Stewart of Anniston.

"Basically, I think we are going to have to make a determination that the police, district attorneys and everyone else can live with." State Rep. Donald Holmes of Eastaboga said he would like for the people of the county to express their feelings about the blue law in a referendum. "I think the delegation should come up with a bill and let the people look at it, decide on it and vote on it," he said. district attorney for Tuscaloosa County, said the blue law is very unpopular with the people. "The public hates this law.

I think it is something the legislature should act upon," he said. "Right now we are enforcing it because it is the law, but the legislature is going to have to do something." Other district attorneys agree if is a legislative problem. "We've been plagued by the blue law," said Fred Simpson'Madison County district attorney'It's so archaic and outdated. When a law is on the books a public official can be sued for not enforcing it, but on the other hand, laws such as this are impossible to enforce." Simpson said the legislature needs to give the state a simple law which could be understood by police on the beat. "I've been asking my legislators for the past seven years to rewrite the law," he said.

"It presently outlaws the playing of golf and tennis on Sunday. That's ridiculous." Under Simpson's orders; Huntsville police began enforcing the blue law about two years ago. When the manager of a store which was open on Sunday could not be found, the sales people were arrested. "That was the biggest mistake of my political life," said Simpson. "Here all these little 17-year-old girls were being arrested and there were television cameras there to cover it." By RAAD CAWTHON Star Staff Writer If the Calhoun County legislative delegation steers a new countv blue law through the February session of the legislature, that law will probably pass as a general bill of local application.

These bills, called GBLAs, are passed by the entire legislature, but only apply to certain counties. Most often the law is restricted to a particular county with a clause which slates it only applies to counties falling within certain population brackets: Each of the 67 Alabama counties has a population bracket which applies to it alone. Some legislators say GBLAs save the taxpayers money and the legislators time. Others say the bills are an attempt to circumvent the State Constitution and result, more often than not, in sloppy legislation. "THESE BILLS ARE patently unconstitutional," said State Rep.

Tom Shelton of Jacksonville. "For years the legislature has been getting itself into a compromised situation by using them." Before the legislature can act on a local bill, the bill must be advertised in the newspaper of the locality it will affect. The constitution requires that the bill be advertised four times over a month-long period to allow citizens time to express their feelings about the bill to elected officials. But if a local bill is passed as a GBLA, it does not have to be advertised at all. And, as with any other type of focal legislation, opposition to a bill by any member of the local legislative delegation will usually kill it.

Proponents of GBLAs say because it is unnecessary to advertise them, GBLAs save the taxpayers a lot of money every year. "There were some 1.200 to 1,400 bills introduced in the last legislative session. You can imagine how much it would cost to advertise every one of those bills four times in a newspaper," said State Rep. Donald Holmes of Eastaboga. But Holmes said he is not wholeheartedly in favor of GBLAs.

"I think they are worthwhile to a degree," he said. "They're good and they're bad." BUT THE CITY'S luck ran out. On Dec. 10, James T. McCourry of 4600 Sprague Anniston, filed a suit in Calhoun County Circuit Court to force the city to enforce the law.

A hearing on the suit was set by Circuit Judge Robert Parker for Jan. 10. McCourry said he filed the suit because "it is not up to the law enforcement agencies to decide what laws to enforce." Anniston City Manager Carl Cheatham said the city will issue a response to the suit by Jan. 10, but right now the city is maintaining "the status quo. "Right now it's a draw.

We arejwt enforcing the Jaw and the people tiave filed a suit to make us enforce the law," Cheatham said. "If the city is required to enforce the blue law it will place a hardship on small, family-owned businesses. Wewill deprive most of these places of their primary sources of revenue Sunday sales." Cheatham said people do not understand the problems cities face when they attempt to enforce a law as "archaic" as the blue law. "It places municipal governments in a very weak position to try to enforce a law that is vague to begin with," he said. "The people don't understand that the law is vague.

They just know the law says a place is supposed to be closed on Sunday." Cheatham said the city may face more litigation if it reverses its stand and begins to strictly enforce the Sunday closing law. Cheatham was referring to the court cases currently being fought in other areas of the state. The cases are most often brought by businesses which have been closed for allegedly violating the closing law. MICHAEL MCMAKEN, assistant (PWirtpiwt MRS. NAOMI MAYS KEEPS COINS IN BOWLS cash drawer and $125 taken by thieves HOLMES SAID there is little chance of the delegation going to Montgomery in February and coming back without a blue law for the county.

"I feel that the referendum would be the best answer, but I don't think there's any doubt that each member of the delegation recognizes the need for a new law," he said. However, a referendum would be costly. And if the voters turned down a local blue law the county would be in the same situation it is now under the vague and ambiguous state statute. Whatever is done had best be done soon. Lee County's Ron Myers said public sentiment against the blue law is growing.

Myers spoke for several district attorneys and law enforcement officers around the state when he said, "The best thing the legislature could do is abolish the blue law, altogether." Micaville grocery (Continued From Page 1) continues to open her grocery the counter, ringing up and the adjoining washerteria. purchases and returning change Her son" Dick, who lives in a from four white bowls, trailer behind the store, helps "I thought I would get the some, and so do her two drawer back, but I guess I youngest boys. won't," she said. "I'll have to But mostly she's alone behind buy a new IN DECEMBER, 1975, Huntsville police were placed under an injunction by Madison County Circuit Court Judge David Archer. The injunction prevented any further arrests under the blue law until it could be determined if the law was constitutional.

Since that time, a federal court and the State Supreme Court have ruled that the law is constitutional," said Simpson. "But I'm still under the injunction. As of right now everything in Huntsville is wide open." Bridge, poker, space war Center puppeteers Students play Computer games bring Scrooge to life HOLMES SAID THE burden of protecting the people from poor legislation falls on the county's individual legislators. "Our job is to scrutinize the bills that are before the legislature and make sure that they are all solid, worthwhile pieces of legislation. It doesn't matter if they are GBLAs or not," he said.

Shelton disagrees. "This (a GBLA) is just a way around the constitutional requirement of advertising local bills." he said. "These guys don't want to advertise because it brings up opposition and takes time." Shelton estimated GBLAs make up 50 per cent of the legislation passed by the State Legislature. Holmes said GBLAs make up no more than 20 per cent. "Mainly these bills (GBLAs) are pay raise bills and bills that give some kind of advantage to one group or another," Shelton said.

"Some of the worst legislation that comes down the pike is passed this way. And, naturally, the people don't ever see the bill it passed." Shelton saicKhe tried to get some rules passed against GBLAs. "But the governor's crowd always beats me," he said. ALABAMA'S CONSTITUTION has provisions for the passage of general and local laws. But nowhere in the document is there a provision for a combination of the two.

If there is a controversy over the constitutionality of GBLAs, whv haven't the courts decided the issue? A spokesman in the Alabama Attorney General's office says the premise of GBLAs has never been tested in court. Several laws which" happen to be GBLAs have come before the court. Some of them have been ruled unconstitutional and some of them have been upheld but the ruling has always dealt with the laws themselves and never with the question of GBLAs in general," he said. There are a large number of GBLAs currently on the books in Alabama. Legislators foresee trouble if the premise under which the laws were passed is ever struck down by the "If that ever happens we are going to have to pass a whole lot of remedia4esislaUon real quick," said Shelton.

and lighting activity that preceded the show, according to classroom therapist Don Gilley and day treatment coordinator Rusti Moffic. "They're running the whole play by themselves," Gilley said prior to the performance before parents and mental health center staff. "We've been having annual plays, but this one is the biggest and most complicated ever." "And (with) the seriousness the kids put on, it's just like it's a professional performance," he said. The children operated the lighting, especially the "black light" which cast an eerie aura on a white curtain as the "ghosts" spoke to Scrooge. The youngsters worked the puppets, scenery and background choir singing.

Gilley put together the 8-by-6-foot stage at a cost of $50 for materialsbut the children did most of the rest. The cry of "Bah, again recently at the Calhoun-Cleburne Mental Health Center. And 22 children brought Dickens' old skinflint back through a puppet show performance featuring the immortal Scrooge Thursday afternoon. Complete with ghostly lighting and sound effects, the puppet show demonstrated the transformation of the miserly Scrooge into a generous sort. But the real stars were the children, not the strung-out Scrooge.

The children, like Scrooge, had problems but are overcoming them at the Center Day i School for emotionally disturbed children and children With learning disabilities or behavioral problems. And they learned eye-hand coordination, organization and social skills through the month of practices, stage decorating HANOVER, N.H. (AP) Bridge, anyone? Poker? How about war games, a battle of spaceships in the galaxy? Or maybe just some CB radio talk? Here at Dartmouth College, you don't need any cards or tables, spaceships or radios. You can be miles apart, any age, any profession. The liberal arts college of 4,700 students has opened its doors to computerized fun and games.

College students program the games, code them and call a conference for anyone who wants to play from 350 terminals scattered around the campus. On one recent day, the Kiewit Computation Center, which just celebrated its 10th anniversary, was filled with college and high school students. Robert Marcincin, a 24-yearold medical student from Chicago, was playing poker with a friend sitting two terminals away. ''I just finished running off 100 feet of space war earlier," Marcincin said, displaying a sheaf of printouts. Barbara Long, 15, a sophoore at Hanover High School, was playing a game called "XYZ," the computer version of CB radio.

She was linked up with several other participants around the campus, using the handle of "Straight From Paris," and typing out her messages to a friend called "Don Juan." "I'm just doing it for fun," she said. Officials at Dartmouth feel the computer is part of one's education. The games "get people started. That's what makes them unafraid of the computer," says John McGeachie, director of the computer center. Thomas Kurtz, director of academic computing at Dartmouth, says if one can read a book for enjoyment as well as learning, why not use the computer for fun and games as well as education.

The fun and games is only a small part of Dartmouth's computer program. Most of it is for serious business, reading Xrays, auditing books, detailing ingredients of medicines and how they should be used. And the computer can even compose music. But McGeachie says the computer can do nothing without man. "If there is a mistake," he says, "blame the guy behind the computer.

Man is first, the computer is second." McGeachie says that more than 90 per cent of the students graduating from Dartmouth have used the computer at one time or another, if only for games. During the 1974-75 school year, one quarter of the faculty and three quarters of the undergraduates took part in courses which used computing..