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Newsmakers : Heavenly Cash Stirs Devil of Fuss

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--In 1984, Margaret Burke said she was destitute and needed money to keep her rented home. So she decided to pray to St. Jude, the saint of desperate causes. On her ninth day of prayer, Burke said she found an envelope containing 100 $100 bills at the foot of a statue of the saint in a Gates, N.Y., church that bears his name. She took the money. Burke, 37, said she spent the $10,000 for bills, furniture, a deposit on an apartment, car repairs and beauty school tuition for her daughter. But police said the money had been given to the church by a parishioner who left it at the base of the statue as an anonymous tribute for past prayers answered and Burke was charged July 14 with grand larceny, after another parishioner told the parish priest that Burke had truly had her prayers answered. The Rev. John Steger, pastor of St. Jude’s, said the charges had been dropped, in part so the church would not suffer from continued criticism for taking the case to court. Burke said: “It’s over. I’m glad it’s over. Thank God.”

--Actor Ed Asner, one of the many celebrities trying to help the starving millions in Africa, told a congressional hearing in Washington that development projects must be tailored to village life. Asner, a member of a group called Africa Tomorrow, said small-scale, low-technology programs should be stressed to enable Africans to become self-sufficient. The actor, best known for his role as “Lou Grant,” a city editor in the television show of the same name, appeared before a House subcommittee on water and power resources. That panel is looking into what the federal Bureau of Reclamation can do to help build small irrigation projects in drought-stricken Africa, where an estimated 150 million people need emergency food. Asner noted that Africa Tomorrow is committed to assisting Africans in achieving self-sufficiency. If a project is to succeed, he said, it should be “low-technology, on the village level, tailored to the capabilities of the population.” Among the members of Asner’s group are Jane Fonda, Morgan Fairchild and Norman Lear.

--Harold Womack’s sports car was stuck in a cinder pit at Sunset Crater National Monument near Flagstaff, Ariz., but he spotted a huge machine called a 20-ton front-end loader at a construction site nearby. So he drove the loader over to his Porsche and got off the machine to attach a chain to the car. However, the loader kept on rolling, right over his 7-year-old Porsche 924. “It ran right over it, from the tail end to the engine,” Sheriff’s Deputy Gil Moreno said. “The car is flat, just like a pancake. It was a gorgeous thing,” said the deputy in remembrance of the pre-flattened sports car.

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