Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 25

A- Ex-I Tupper sizes up prospects, past and future Athletic Council honors top high schoolers Investors finding instructor to make music at White House Among Friends A7 more green in farmland Business A1 2 All-stars ready for tourney Sports B1 Sports B1 Sports D1 PREPS 1 1 Ann Landers B7 Business A12 Classified B8-12 Comics B5 Movies B7 Obituaries All Puzzles BIO, 12 Television B6 TODAY: Thunder shower, with a high of 86. TONIGHT: Clouds and showers. Low 65. TOMORROW: Thunderstorms. 8463.

I SI Our 122nd Year Issue 158- To sections 50 cents Home delivery: 35 cents Tuesday, June 7, 1994 Decatur, Illinois vJ Mag Mfis psf -V Iff1 ffi If 340 employees to lose jobs Associated Press A IX KEHORY: D-Day veterans pay their respects at the American Military Cemetery above Omaha Beach. By JIM GETZ Taytorville Bureau Chief Amid fanfare and speeches, soldiers honor fallen friends KINCAID Miners at Pea body Mine No. 10 were told about their own D-Day on Monday. It'll be Aug. 5 the day the mine will cease production after 43 years, throwing 340 of them out of work.

About 65 others will remain on the job into 1995 to recover equipment from underground, seal openings and do other tasks to close the mine for good. In Mine No. 10's case the enemy wasn't Nazis. It was sulfur. The high sulfur content in the mine's coal, when burned, created emissions that didn't meet standards in the 1990 federal Clean Air Act.

"It's a very high-sulfur coal, even in relation to other coals in Illinois," Peabody spokesman Ron Greenfield said Monday. "It's just unable to compete, and that's unfortunate. There's so much high-sulfur coal chasing a shrinking market because the clean air law that it's even more competitive than it was two years ago." But for Bill Brumfield, the representative from District 12 on the United Mine Workers International Executive Board, the mine's D-Day is just another symbol of a war on America's workers. "It's a sad statement that the political forces in this country allow for the loss of jobs we're seeing in the Midwest, especially in Illinois," Brumfield said Monday night. "It's also sad to see utilities like Commonwealth Edison continue to import coal from Western states." Commonwealth Edison's Kincaid Power Station has been Mine No.

10's sole customer since the mid-1960s. The mine produced 150 million tons of coal since opening in June 1951. "The closure of that mine just devastates that part PEABODY OMAHA BEACH, France (AP) From as far as California and New Zealand, the gray-haired men who risked their lives and lost their pals while making history 50 years ago came back Monday for one more look at the once-bloody beaches of D-Day. They were praised by presidents and monar-chs and entertained by marching bands. But many came for a last private pilgrimage, not the fanfare.

"I came back to deliver thanks and a small prayer from many, many people back home," said Bill Pepe, 73, a retired engineer from Hampstead, N.C., who landed at the Reunited A World War and 50 years couldn't keep childhood sweethearts from rediscovering their friendship. Story83 peak of the fighting at Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. "I thought I owed it not only to the people I fought with, but to everybody lying in those 1 ii jyt Continued on A4 mifu IB still comes if sM 1 in 7 agency replies flawed small graves up there," Pepe said, gesturing to the American Cemetery on a bluff above the beach. Bill Clinton, the first U.S. president born after World War II, invoked the invaders' heroism in a speech at the cemetery, where 9,386 graves are marked with simple, white crosses and Stars of David.

"They secured a foothold for freedom," he said. "Today many of them are here among us. They may walk with a little less spring in their step, and their ranks are growing thinner. But let us never forget when they were young, these men saved the world." About 100,000 people attended ceremonies to remember the day that 156,000 Allied soldiers crossed the English Channel aboard the largest armada in history and breached Adolf Hitler's Atlantic Wall. The landing's first day ended with an estimated 10,000 Allied dead and wounded, but it gained a foothold that allowed millions of soldiers to pour into France and, with Soviet armies advancing in the east, defeat Nazi Germany 11 months later.

On a damp, windy day much like that of the momentous day a half-century ago, Clinton, Queen Elizabeth II and other leaders of the Allied nations presided solemnly at a series of ceremonies along the Normandy coast. The climax was a multinational commemoration at Omaha Beach, scene of D-Day's blood- D-DAY Continued on A5 v. 1 ('1 rfS. 1 fv' Letter problems Here are some examples "problem correspondence:" After receiving an IRS notice of taxes due, a taxpayer wrote back asking for an installment agreement. The IRS responded that the taxpayer should fill out the enclosed forms and have them ready when the IRS called.

However, no forms were enclosed. The IRS sent a notice asking a taxpayer for information to determine whether he was required to file a return. The taxpayer replied that he would file his return in about a month. The IRS then incorrectly told the taxpayer it already had received his return. WASHINGTON (AP) Despite years of effort by the Internal Revenue Service to improve its letters, taxpayers still have a better than one in seven chance of receiving incorrect, unclear or incomplete IRS correspondence, or no answer at all, a congressional report says.

A check of 1,894 letters in December 1992 from two of the IRS' 11 service centers Cincinnati and Atlanta found problems with 15 percent of the correspondence, the General Accounting Office said in a recent report. That's a lot better than 1987, the last Herald ReviewHerb Slodounik A D-DAY SALUTE: Decatur marked the 50th anniversary of the D-Day invasion with its own ceremonies Monday. The Decatur Municipal Band performed patriotic music. During the concert, the Decatur Chapter of the uAR presented Mayor Erik Brechnitz a flag from the Department of Defense in official recognition of Decatur as a World War II commemorative city. DAR, members also passed out 400 flags to the audience.

Doris Miller applaudes as various former members of the armed forces stand to be recognized in a musical tribute to their branch of service. Decision in Georgia case could affect appeal in suit over 'World Needs God sign. By RON INGRAM Staff Writer Marcher trumpets love for fiancee PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) Scott Henderson wore his heart on his sousa phone. Henderson, marching in a Saturday night parade, used the opportunity to toot his own horn.

He covered the instrument with a white sign that read: "Susan, will you marry me?" "I had probably two dozen Susans say yes," Henderson said. Finally, Henderson saw the right Susan Susan Bodman. "She got a great big grin on her face and her eyes welled up." he said. "It was a pretty wholehearted yes." much like those in the Georgia case. Doe and Roe have to use the courthouse." The Montgomery County Circuit Court moved to a new facility this spring, but that has no bearing on the ACLU's case, Whicher said.

"It's still a public building, and people who have business with the county or those wishing to attend a county board meeting must go there," she said. If the case is reinstated, Whicher said the Georgia ruling "is very strong" in regard to the merits of the ACLU's case. The 11th U.S. Court of Appeals decision in the Georgia case was cited by the ACLU in its argument before Mills. But Mills dismissed the case anyway, prompting the ACLU's appeal.

Montgomery County State's Attorney Kathryn Dobrinic said Monday she has not seen the Supreme Court decision. She declined to comment on it until she has read the decision. "The World Needs God" that has been posted on the exterior of the courthouse since 1936. U.S. District Judge Richard Mills in Springfield dismissed the ACLU's suit April 8, ruling that the plaintiffs Jane Doe and Richard Roe of Hillsboro and attorney Edward T.

Stein of Chicago did not have standing to file the lawsuit. Mills said the trio failed to show they had been forced to take extraordinary measures to avoid the sign. The ACLU, which is handling the lawsuit for the trio, appealed Mills' decision to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Jane Whicher, an ACLU attorney in Chicago, said Monday that the Georgia case helps the ACLU appeals case for two reasons.

"The issue in the appeal is a very narrow one: Do Doe, Roe and Stein have the legal standing to file a suit," Whicher said. "The allegations here are very time the watchdog agency examined the IRS' letter-writing, when flaws were found in 48 percent of the correspondence. "Nevertheless further improvements are still needed," the GAO said, noting that IRS service centers received 31 million letters from taxpayers in 1992. Eleven percent of the correspondence checked resulted from taxpayers trying to resolve something left unresolved from a previous contact with the agency, the GAO said. In response, the IRS said it was continuing to improve its procedures and noted that it had just finished sending 54 computers to upgrade the letter-writing capacity of nine of its service centers.

"Problems such as these increase IRS' costs, frustrate taxpayers and ultimately hinder taxpayers compliance with tax laws," the GAO said. The accounting office also criticized the IRS for leaving some taxpayers in limbo. HILLSBORO A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling helps the American Civil Liberties Union's case to have a religious sign removed from the Montgomery County Courthouse, an ACLU attorney said Monday. The high court let stand U.S.

district and appellate court rulings that forced officials of Cobb County in Atlanta, to remove from their courthouse a 3-by-5-foot panel depicting the Ten Commandments and the teachings of Jesus. Montgomery County officials are battling to retain a 10-f oot-long sign reading.