| OCR Text |
Show STARZZ FALL BODY-MIND MELD SKIING UPGRADES Houston wins 107-85 B-1 Yoga drawsa diverse coon C-i Utah resorts spending millions D-5 Che SaltLakeTribune ittp://www.sitrib.com Utah’s Independent Voice Since 1871 Volume260 Number60 ©2000, The Salt Lake Tribune GRADUATION GIFT Donor Rewards Deserving Teen With First Car BY KATE BEEM KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE KANSASCITY, Mo. — The car gleamed in the early morning sun, the dew clingingtoits silversides. Martin Griffin walked slowlytowardit, his fingers clutching the car'stitle. This was a moment he had never dreamed of. But his mother had,andher son deserved this occasion, Denese Gor- TUESDAY,JUNE13, 2000’ 143South MainStreet, Salt LakeCity. Utah84111 Telephone numberslisted on A-2 Nuclear Secrets Missing From Vault Officials look to forest fire, not espionage,for the disappearanceof hard drives at Los Alamoslab BY H. JOSEF HEBERT drives containing an array of nuclear secrets have disappeared from a highly se- have not ruled out the possibility that the disappearanceis related to the forest fire that threatened the lab andforced its evacuation last month. Seniorofficials expressed doubt thatit involved espionage. cured vault at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, prompting a top-level investigation, laboratory and Energy Department officials disclosed Monday. Energy Department officials first learned June1 thatthe nuclear secrets and other sensitive material were missing and and wearetakingswift actions to deal with it,” said John Browne,directorofthe federal nuclear-weaponsresearchlab. The facility was embroiled in an espionage controversy involving a formerlab scientist for muchoflast year. The two hard drives, each slightly THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — Two computer hard “This is an extremely serious matter, larger than a deck ofcards, contained material used by the Nuclear Emergency Search Team,or NEST, whichis trained to at the Los Alamoslab. respond to nuclear accidents or threat of drives. terrorism. They contain detailed nuclear weapons data needed to render weapons safe in an emergencyoraspart of a threat byterrorists. “It’s very sensitive . . . technical data,” said retired Air Force Gen. Eugene Habiger, the Energy Department’s top security official. He briefed Energy Secretary Bill Habigersaid that it is too early to determine -what happened to the two hard But he hasnotruled out the possibility that the materials might have been misplaced or destroyed during the confusion last month caused by the threat from a wildfire that destroyed much of the communityof .os Alamos. Evenif the computer drives are found, it is an embarrassmentfor the Los Alamos Richardsonon the disappearance Monday See MISSING,Page A-8 - after a weeklong investigation and search ing said. “Obviously, God’s handis in this,” she said. “Thepiecesare just U. Hospital CHANGING OLYMPIC GUARD falling in place like clockwork.” Twoweeksago,Griffin, 19, graduated from Shawnee Mission North, endinga high school career filled not with parties and football gamesbut with studying and work as he struggled to help Goring make ends meet. Griffin never complained about his situation, neverrebelled against the circumstancesthatleft his In the Red, Tightens Belt single-parentfamily striving just to keeptheelectricity on in their apartment. “Hejusttookitlike it came,” said John Stone, Griffin’s counselor at North. Manytimes,Griffin walked the six miles between his north Overland Park, Kan., apartmentto his restaurantjob at MetcalfAvenue and College Boulevard, and he usually walked back,refusing offers of rides and his mother’s pleas to ask someonefor help. This time, though, Griffin » couldn’t say no. An Overland Park, Kan., man whoread Griffin's story in The Kansas City Star called Stone with anofferof a free 1989 Ford Probe. The man,whowishes to remain anonymous,told Stone his children had used thecar in college. So the mancleaned the car, put onfour newtires and sent Stone a checkto pay for the Probe’slicense. Stone, meanwhile, helped Goring andGriffin find affordable insur- ance. Stone presented Griffin with the title and the keys. Griffin gingerly unlocked the driver’s-side door and caressed the closest headrest, then gently placed his ever-presentblack backpack into the car’s backseat. Stonetold him to hopin for a lesson in driving with a standard transmission. As the twopracticed starting from first gear, another North counselor, Nancy Silverforb, said the events of the past two weeks had renewed herfaith in humanity. Checks worth about$750 had comeinto the schooloffice, marked for a scholarshipset up for Martin. More are on the way, Stonesaid. The managementat Tippin’s RestaurantandPie Pantry in southern Overland Parkhas fielded calls from customers wanting to know whenGriffin is scheduled to work. “This is so heartwarming, the waythis story has generated an outpouring ofemotion from people,” Silverforb said. Goring agreed. The past four years have been full of heartache Griffin started high school. She regrets she couldn't have been more involved in Griffin’s high school years. She worked two jobs to feed and clothe Griffin and his 15-year-old brother, Vincent. Nowit’s time for Griffin to have some happiness, Goring said as she watched her son tool around the North parking lot with Stone. In the fall, Griffin hopes to head to Southwestern College in Winfield, Kan., to play basketball and study sports management. And someday — soon, Goring hopes — mother and son wantto return some ofthe kindnesses others have shown them over the past four, long years. ‘Thatis what the anonymous car donor hopes, too. And helping Griffin has influenced the Overland Park man to set up an ongoing scholarship at Shawnee Mission North, Stone said. Watching Griffin's good fortune eine Stone some good, too, he said, “When you start kind of thinking the world’s not a very good place sometimes, come out of the woodwork ono nice things for people,” he A Morepatients, job and pay cuts amongthe cost-saving plans BY KIRSTEN STEWART ‘THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Steve Griffin/The Salt Lake Tribune LaneBeattie listens to SLOC boss Mitt Romneyat the govemor'soffice after being named state Olympic coordinator. Senator to Become Olympic Coordinator President of Utah Senate will replace John Fowlerin directing efforts for Utah’s Games BY MIKE GORRELL @ Olympic help from Steve Young B-3 ‘THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Lane Beattie’s departure from the Utah Senate will be more abrupt than expected, but only because heis going to become even more involved in state government. Gov. Mike Leavitt announced Monday that Beattie, Senate president for the past six years, will succeed John Fowler as the state Olympicofficer. The appointment is effective at midnight Wednesday, meaning Beattie will have to resign his seat about six months earlier than planned after representing Davis County for 12 years on Capitol Hill. State leaders understand, said Leavitt,that the 2002 Winter Games will be “the most defining eventin Utah history ... clearly among the most importantevents of the 21st century. And we wantit to be done well.” -So he turned to Beattie to coordinate the activities of state agencies that will be working with the Salt Lake Organizing Committee on every intricacy of the Olympics. Hewill also be in charge of reviewing the status of SLOC’s$1.32 billion budget and reporting onit to the governorandlegislative leadership. Beattie's first report is due June 30. “We are going to be proud when the Olympics are over,” Beattie said. Hisrole will be different from that of Fowler, who resigned in mid-April to become chief financial officer of a Florida-based ai company. Fowler a had held the position through SLOC’s most tumultuous years. He came on board just as Frank Joklik replaced Tom Welch as SLOC president, tracked Joklik’s formulationofa $1.45 billion budget, obseryed Joklik’s downfall as part of the Ofympic bribery scandal and monitored: new SLOC President Mitt Romney’s budget whittling and rededicated fund-raising efforts. Along the way, Fowler also helped negotiate the transfer of Fort Douglas lands to the University of Utah for student housing that will double as the. Olympic Village during the Winter Games,assisted in securing SLOC’s$130 million line of credit with Bank of America, helped develop terms of the agreement that made Wasatch Mountain State Park the Olympic crosscountry skiing and biathlon venue, and worked with venue communities on developing realistic estimates of the costs they will bear from hosting the Olympics. Leavitt said the job has evolved naturally from Fowler’s expertise — dealing with budgets — to Beattie’s role as squatterbaktp execute the entire response ofthestate.” Romneysaid he is comfortable with the selectionofthe 48-year-old Beattie, a West Bountiful real-estate developer and broker who has been a SLOC trustee for about a year since a postscandal reorganization. Not only is Beattie familiar with the Olympic budget, See BEATTIE,Page A-8 University Hospital is in the red, prompting administrators to introduce a slew ofcost-saving measuresatthe state’s only teaching hospital in hopesof balancingits bottom line. The hospital hasa $1.2 million deficit. At best, projectionsfor this fiscal year, which ends June 30, range from a break-evenscenariotoa shortfall ~f $1.5 million — a sizable swing from the $10.4 millionin profits it expected to earn. Rick Fullmer, the hospital’s new executive director, blamedthedeficit on rising costs of drugs and medical supplies, reduced federalgovernmenthealth-care spending and lower reimbursementrates from insurers. To stem thelosses, Fullmerplans to increase the numberofpatients handled at the University of Utah facility and its clinics, eliminate some jobs, scrap or reorganize unprofitable programs and squeeze salary and retirementbenefits. University Hospital, which has 2,800 employees and 400 patient beds, is the state’s largest hospital-based provider of ambulatory care services. It operates 80 general and specialty clinics aroundthestate. Fullmerreviewed the measures Monday with the U.’s board of trustees, which voted to accept the proposals. If the measures succeed, Fullmer said, the hospital could be back in the black next year with an$8.4 million profit. Atthe"heart of the hospital's problems are Meditare and Medicaid spending cuts, Fullmer said. Healso said insurers are paying less for hospital services, a problem that “health care is still reeling from.” The U.hospitalisn’t alonein feeling the pinch, he added. By someestimates, about 80 percent of teaching hospitals nationwide will lose money this year. The hospital has already slashed jobs by eliminating 50 full-time positions through attrition. Noneofthe jobs wasdirectlytied to patientcare. In addition, the hospital let a Nevada agency take over its Wendover, Nev., clinic, reorganized its Home Care program andconsolidated Birthcare Healthcare Clinics. Fullmersaid none of the.changes will negatively affect patient care or coverage. The hospital will continue to consider cutting other programs. See U. HOSPITAL,Page A-9 MU. of U., ParkCity physicians renewtalks AD Assad’s Brother to Challenge Nephew for Presidency BY MARJORIE MILLER and JOHN DANISZEWSKI LOS ANGELES TIMES DAMASCUS,Syria — As foreign dignitaries and the world's media poured into insular Damascus on Monday, the eve of President Hafez Assad’sstate funeral, the first public challenge emerged to the well-oiled plan for passing the mantle of leadership to his son, Bashar, The late president’s ambitious younger brother Rifaat Assad, who held the title of vice president until two years ago, gave a series of interviews from exile in Spain tosay that he hada right to run the country, could do it better than 34-year-old * Bashar Assad, and would transform Syria into a democracy, “There will be a new ‘corrective movement’for a new path that will includeall political, social and economic sectors,” said Rifaat Assad, 63. “There will be freedom in Syria —and thecitizen will take up his role in building the country,” he said on his family-owned Arab NewsNetwork, which can be received in Syria. “Corrective movement” was the name used for the bloodless coupthatbroughtHafezAssadto powerin 1970. Rifaat Assad also pledged to return home “at the appropriate tingato vie for power, despite warnings that he would be arrested if he set foot in the country. Once Hafez Assad’s ‘ @ Funeralpreparations— ~A-10 closest political ally, Rifaat Assad hada falling-out with the late president after trying to usurp his power in 1984 when na Assad was recovering heart ailment: He has not lived in Syria since 1996, Nevertheless, ‘rumors circulated that he would try to attend the burial in their family’s nativevillage of Qardaha. One dip—_lomatic ean that it might be rel forbidden, or“haram,” to keep Rifaat Assad from his brother’s funeral. It is unclear if the exiled Assad commands meaningful support among Syria's Byzantine See RIFAAT ASSAD, Page A-10 y y WEATHER: Partly cloudy skies with highs of 75 to 80 north; mostly sunny, 70s to mid-90s south. Detalls:A-18 |
