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Show A 0 RLD V B 11(1 r A4 THE DAILY HERALD DOM BRIEFING Clinton: Act on Puerto Rico - The Clinton (AP) administration urged quick action on a bill to let Puerto Rico vote on statehood, independence or maintaining its current commonwealth status. a Jeffrey Fallow, who White House task force on Puerto Rico, told a Senate hearing Wednesday that President Clinton was ready to sign whatever legislation emerges from Congress on a plebiscite, the first step in a process to determine the Caribbean island's future. "The administration strongly urges the committee (on energy and national resources) to favorably report a bill as soon as possible, given the number of session days left," Fallow said. "We are ready and anxious to do this." rs Task force tackles violence After DURANGO, Colo. AP) taking over as head of the National Association of Attorneys General, Mississippi's Mike Moore on Wednesday appointed a task force to prevent violence in schools. In the aftermath of a double-killin- g in Pearl, Miss., and several other shootings during the school year, law enforcement officials and educators must work together to make schools safer, Moore said. "This is a great opportunity for us to work with the school community in our states," Moore said at the NAAG's annual conference. "I'm sure there are fire drills at all the schools, but I'm not sure every school knows what to do when a kid comes to school with a gun or somebody else comes to school with a gun." ( Oklahoma and The Associated Press Louisiana since Health department phone lines were jammed Wednesday with calls from people worried about surviving the searing heat as Texas had its 10th temperastraight day of tures. The heat wave has been blamed for nearly 50 deaths and for withering crops throughout the South. Callers to the Dallas County health department wanted to know how to avoid becoming a statistic. "People need to take this heat seriously," said Betty Culbreath, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services. "We just don't want to lose any more lives." The heat wave has stretched from Arizona into Colorado and east to Florida, but has been particularly deadly across the South. It is blamed for at least 25 deaths in Texas, six in at least 20 in mid-Ma- y. California can't escape Temperatures soared into triple digits in parts of Northern California on Wednesday, breaking at least one record and marking the onset of the first major heat spell of the year. The wave of weather brought temperatures of more than 100 degrees to parts of the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys and a reading of 102 degrees to Santa Rosa. Oakland residents watched the mercury rise to 88 by record of 85 breaking the for the day. degrees "It did get toasty out there today," said National Weather Service meteo-rolgiDan Weygand. "It really marks the beginning of a heat wave." More records were likely to fall in 100-degr- hotter-than-norm- al n, st the next few days, when temperatures were expected to rise a couple most in areas. In degrees Sacramento, where the thermometers read in the low 100s on Wednesday, today's forecast called for 108 degrees. The heat was a result of a large swath of built-u- p high pressure, and I marked the first real summer weather for parts of the state that endured a wet El Nino winter and spring and a mild first few weeks of summer. San Franciscans, for example, were slogging through thick fog and brisk winds as recently as a few days ago. But Wednesday yielded only sunny skies and temperatures around 80. The heat posed no immediate threat of forest fires in California since many are still drying out from the wet winter, and some remain still under blankets of snow. Pl. -- "' at' BRYAN """" - " ' I , 111 m . But measure's future uncertain 3Zr j.',"."' """ " ' there the last By JIM ABRAMS " - KELSEN The Associated Press pd Hi dDini(Q)ys -- few years because of the Associated Press Writer a WASHINGTON Gila River lacks harmony tainted waters. In a 221-20- S - -- j, r jrf jr Striptease shocks church Tourists OSLO, Norway (AP) didn't think it unusual to see a woman in a nun's habit in the Oslo Cathedral. They changed their minds when she started stripping. Photos of the striptease, done by a model in an organized session, were published this month in the Aktuell Report magazine. "This has to be seen as a gross abuse of the church," Andreas Aarflot, Oslo bishop of the state Evangelical Lutheran Church, was quoted as saying in Wednesday's Dagbladet newspaper. The photos were taken early one morning last year. Some Japanese tourists visiting the cathedral took their own pictures and applauded, Dagbladet said. sex-orient- cease-fir- e Sudanese NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) rebels declared a ceasefire Wednesday to allow food shipments to reach hundreds of thousands of hungry people. The governtruce. ment agreed to a The Sudan People's Liberation applies to Army said its cease-firsouthwestern Bahr province. The rebels have been fighting the Khartoum government since 1983 for autonomy for the Christian and animist south from the Arab and Muslim north. I.AINK McC Al l. three-mont- h one-mont- the House on Wednesday approved the legislation he long sought to restore the environmentally stricken Salton Sea in Southern California. But the bill, passed faced an uncertain future in the Senate and opposition from the administration, which said it was premature to authorize $350 million for a project before feasibility studies were completed. worked Bono, hard for Salton Sea restoration before he was killed in a skiing accident last January, and his widow and successor, Rep. Mary Bono, has carried on efforts to win passage of the legislation. There was wide agreement that California's largest lake was in danger of dying if quick action is not taken. Created by an irrigation canal break in 1905, the body of water has no outlet to the ocean, and its water has become 25 percent saltier than the Pacific, making life nearly unsustainable. "The Salton Sea," Mary Bono said, "quite simply is on a death watch." She said it will be dead in 10 to 15 years without steps to reduce its salinity. A natural stopover for migratory birds, Bono said that 100,000 birds have died It "is Bono, PHOENIX (AP) Casino gambling has brought an estimated $126 million a year in profits to the Gila River Indian Community since 1994, enough to make major improvements in health care, schools and police protection for its residents. But what the riches haven't reaped is political harmony on the 372,000-acr- e reservation in Sacaton, some 40 miles south of Phoenix. 'I he AsMK-uie- mm- passes 1 rU--r"- " Mitotan Water weather: Charles Chavez, 11, flies out the bottom of a waterslide in Pueblo, Colo. Wednesday. InldDiiflse .. t ' tribute to the late Rep. Sonny Rebels declare JULY 16. 1998 no GLOBAL WASHINGTON THURSDAY, Press Desert shore: A slick of dead tilapia are crowded into a manmade inlet by the tide and winds at the Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge near Desert Shores, Calif., in this file photo. Restoration of the Salton Sea was a deathbed promise by colleagues of Rep. Sonny Bono. 0, per- the haps worst envi-ronment- al disaster in our country" said Rep. Duncan Hunter, whose district also includes the sea. The measure requires a feasibility study completed and sent to Congress within 18 months and authorizes $350 million for a reclamation project pending congressional approval of that project. But opponents said that authorizing money before the shape of the project was determined would only drain needed funds from other conservation programs. Spending "a third of a billion dollars for something which this House really doesn't understand fully ... is a step in the wrong direction," said Rep. Earl Blumenauer, Supporters accepted an amendment proposed by Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, stipulating that the money would not come from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, but the House defeated, by a measure California by Democrats George Miller and George Brown that would have postponed funding authorization until after the feasibility study is completed. Sonny Bono e. 218-20- 2, h e Indians celebrate vote Frank Harrison didn't stop fighting when he returned to Arizona after serving in World War II. Harrison and Harry Austin, both members of the Fort McDowell Mohave-Apach- e tribe, went to court a won and ruling giving American Indians the right to vote in Arizona. Denny was on hand Wednesday as tribal leaders marked the 50th anniversary of the Arizona Supreme PHOENLX (AP) Court ruling guaranteeing the right and other of Harrison and Austin to vote. Arizona Indians 17 Agents: Keeping tabs, keeping close, keeping quiet By SANDRA SOBIERAJ Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON When President Clinton heads to the South Lawn to walk his dog Buddy, his "time out" and "time in" are noted in Secret Service logs near the door. Swimming laps in the White House pool? Agents are there just in case. And when he leans into a crowd to shake hands, an agent is anchoring him around the hips. The agents are always close by; no wonder indepen- dent prosecutor Kenneth Starr wants them on the witness stand. Agent Larry Cockell, one of those subpoenaed in Starr's of whether investigation Clinton obstructed justice in the Paula Jones case, was r inside the conference room all six hours that Clinton was deposed by Mrs. Jones' lawyers. As is standard practice, the agent rode in the front passenger seat of Clinton's limousine to and from the law offices, in full earshot of whatever Clinton and his attorney Bob Bennett discussed. "My experience riding in the car is it's hard not to overhear," White House press secretary Mike McCurry allowed llth-floo- Wednesday. t Only when Clinton and his lawyers called a "time out" in the deposition and retreated privately to a separate room did Cockell leave them alone and wait outside the door, according to people present that day. "That deposition was going to be a heated environment," former Secret explained Service deputy director Larry Sheafe. "Whenever the president is in a meeting where there are several people and there's not a great deal known about those other people, the agent will be there inside." Even in the Oval Office, an agent will be inside unless Clinton is meeting with close so far advisers and, even then, an agent is posted on the patio. personal moments. President Nixon made his Before the. Clinton admintelevised resignation speech s istration's from the Oval Office with to his only the camera operator and fight keep agents from testifying to the a Secret Service agent preWhitewater grand jury, there sent. An agent for President was little public discussion of Bush plunged into the White how closely the plainclothes House pool fully clothed to the pull out one of his grandpresidential detail most elite corps in the Secret daughters when a family dog Service got too playful. ring the president. At 1:20 a.m. on the March Except for in the upstairs family quarters of the White 1997 day that Clinton stumHouse "the one place bled in the dark on Greg where the first family has Norman's perfectly secure total privacy," said Sheafe estate, agents were there is though not close enough to Service the Secret omnipresent and often wit- break the fall that tore ness to the president's most Clinton's knee. high-profil- e, high-stake- POOR |