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Show !MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1999 UNIVERSITY JOURNAL FOCUS: THE WEEK THAT WAS STATE requires that laws and administrative rules be applied equally to all people. CEDAR CITY OKS $35M DOWNTOWN PROJECT: The City Council , acting as the municipal building authority, has approved a $35 million downtown redevelopment project. ·The financing will include a new $8.9 million bond. The project's only opponent on the council, Dave Bentley, said Wednesday that he wants more specific figures about what the city's money will go toward. The $8.9 million revenue bond , which includes $800,000 in required reserves, covers the remaining half of $17 million in public funds. Board Chairman Dixie Leavitt has said the revenue bond will not cost taxpayers any additional money. He also said the sales tax revenue generated by downtown business w ill offset the property tax burden. The city hopes to begin construction in May 2000; the project is set to be finished in summe, 2001 . NATION UTAH DEALERSHIP INVESTIGATED FOR SELLING STOLEN CARS: Investigators have shut down an automobile dealership after reportedly discovering vehicles for sale that that were stolen and had their odometers rolled back. Capt. Kent Jorgensen of the Motor Vehicles Enforcement Division doesn't know at this point how many stolen cars were sold in Utah, but the number could be in the hundreds or even thousands. The division was tipped off about the alleged odometer and Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) fraud when a car that had a Diamond Auto Specialties dealer plate was stopped in Wyoming earlier in the year with an altered VIN plate, said Jorgensen. After an extensive investigation that began in February, the division served a search warrant on Diamond A uto Specialties on Oct. 6 and found at least two stolen cars on the lot. Jorgensen said. The division shut down the dealership and temporarily shut down secvice at Diamond Auto Body and Paint. James· Sandm1re, who owned the businesses, said the body shop has since been sold and is operating under new ownership. He still owns the dealership. GROUP CHALLENGES STATE ADOPTION POLICIES: A child advocacy group has filed suit challenging the state policy prohibiting adoptions by gay and other unmarried couples.· "It denies the opportunity for some children to be considered for placement in a.loving, nurturing home," said Ros McGee, president of Utah Children. The suit was fil ed Thursday in 3rd District Court. McGee said her group also may challenge a proposed policy that would ban gay and other unmarried couples from becoming foster parents. The adoption rule was passed in January by the state Board of Child and Family Services. It does not bar singles from adopting and it does not affect private adoptions. However, it also states "adults present in the home (must be) legally relate'd to the parents by blood or adoption or legal marriage." The suit contends that the wording violates the Utah Constitution, which FUNERAL HELD FOR RHODE ISLAND S EN. JOHN CHAFEE: Sen. John Chafee was remembered Saturday in a funeral attended by President Clinton. about half the U.S. Senator Chafee's Senate and several funeral service other dignitaries. The turnout of national figures was among the largest ever for the funeral of a U.S. senator a refl ection of the admiration the moderate Republican earned during his four decades .of public service , including 23 years in the Senate. Chafee died Sunday of heart failure at age 77. Before being elected to the U.S. Senate, Chafee served as governor of Rhode Island and in the state H9use of Representatives. He also had been Secretary of the U.S. Navy. SUPREME COURT STOPS EXECUTIONS: A Supreme Court known for its impatience with death row appeals surprisingly halted two executions this week and is on track to issue four significant rulings on capital punishment by summer. One case asks the justices to ban the electric chair. Two focus on a federal law aimed at speeding up exeeutions. The fourth asks whether a person can be sentenced to die by a jury admittedly confused about a judge's instructions. The four death-penalty cases represent an unusually high percentage of the court's still-growing decision docket, which now totals 54. · 1 don't expect the court to scale back the states' use of capital punishment across the board , but this may be a year when important guidelines are offered ," said Steven Hawkins, executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. NEW CONCERNS IN TWA 800 PRO BE: Federal 1 - - - -...i~.....;=;:;.:;;-1 safety investigators say they're --- - - - - - - - - - ' dismayed the Boeing Co. would study fuel tank problems on its jumbo jets but then fail for years to disclose their findings. In a written statement Friday, the NTSB expressed "displeasure" and "dismay" about Boeing's delay. The Washingtqn Post, in Saturday's editions, quotes National Safety Transportation Board officials as saying the Boeing report could have helped t,tiem focus on the problem - fuel tank overheating - that was an apparent factor in the explosion· of TWA Flight 800 over Long Island Sound in 1996. According to the Post, Boeing produced the report in 1980 but didn't give it to the NTSB until this June. The four-volume report focused on a key issue that preoccupied TWA Fl!ght 800 investigators - excess heat from the air conditioning bay of its E-4B jet. the military version of its 747, possibly creating highly flammable fuel vapors in the plane's central fuel tank. WORLD FIRE IN SOUTH KOREA KILLS AT LEAST 50: A fire raged through a fourstory building crowded with weekend shoppers and diners Saturday in northwestern South Korea, killing at least 50.people, police said. Another 50 people were injured, some of them seriously. Police said the death toll may rise further because some of the injured people were in critical condition. The fire broke out around 7 p.m. in the . port city of Inchon, 30 miles west of Seoul, gutting the building packed with stores, restaurants and bars. Fire engines rushed to the scene· and extinguished the fire in 40 minutes, police said. The cause of the fire was still unknown, they said. Most of the dead were found in a second-floor beet bar, police said. "The fire spread so quickly that by the time we got into the beer bar, we found many people already dead. They appeared to have suffocated from the smoke,· said police chief Park Myonghwan. COLOMBIAN SAYS HE KILLED 140 KIDS: Colombia was in shock on Saturday after a self-confessed serial killer admitted to raping, torturing and beheading 140 children in a seven-year orgy of bloodshed. Authorities have so far unearthed the remains of 114 of the young victims. Chief Government Investigator Pablo Elias Gonzalez on Saturday described Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos, 42, as an "assassin w ithout brakes·. who traveled across the country preying on children from poor and peasant families. Authorities have so far unearthed the remains of 11 4 of the young victims of Garavito, a wandering handyman who was known by the nicknames "Goofy", "The Priest" and "The Madman". In what they dubbed Colombia's worst serial murder case, authorities said Friday that Garavito posed as a monk or a street trader to lure his mostly male victims, aged between eight and 16, to their grisly deaths. BIN LADEN OFFERS TO LEAVE AFGHANISTAN: Saudi-born terrorism suspect Osama bin Laden has offered to leave Afghanistan and go to another unknown country, a Pakistan-based Afghan news service said Friday. The Afghan Islamic Press quoted a spokesman for Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement.as saying that bin Laden expressed his wish in a letter to Taliban leader Mullah Omar and asked the Taliban to help him reach a new destination. The agency said bin Laden, who is wanted by the United States on terrorism charges, had given two conditions for his departure: that the Afghan government help him reach his destination. and tnat only Omar and another person in his Islamic movement should know his destination. It said Omar had told bin Laden that he would respond to his request in two to three days after consulting his aides. PAGE7 The United Nations Securi ty Council voted on Oct. 15 to give Afghanistan one month to turn over bin Laden or face sanctions. The offer fell far short of American demands that the Taliban expel or extradite bin Laden for trial over the August 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in which more than 200 people were killed. SPORTS YANKEES ENJOY THEIR THIRD TITLE PARADE IN FOUR YEARS: George Steinbrenner hoisted a broom from a parade float. Darryl Strawberry broke down in tears. And millions of .fans staged another Broadway revival with a blizzard of confetti. "This stuff never gets old," New York Yankees manager Joe Torre said at a City Hall rally after the parade Friday. "This one seemed even better. I think you appreciate it more each time you do it.· This was the Yankees' third title - and third parade - in the last four years. A half-dozen floats carried the players, eliciting·wild screams and chants of "Let's go Yankees'" Strawberry. -.yho overcame colon cancer and legal problems earlier this season, was overcome with emotion as he acknowledged his manager. Torre embraced him until the outfielder composed himself and said, "Thank you for caring for me, and I love you guys." LEISURE WORLD SERIES CARRIES NBC TO NIELSENS VICTORY: NBC crushed its competition in the television ratings last week, helped along by postseason baseball and ER. NBC did even better than its previous week, when the network registered its best Nielsen Media Research ratings since June 1998. On average, NBC had more than 4 million more prime-time viewers last week than second-place CBS. Meanwhile, bad news continued for FOX and the networks began bailing out in earnest from the failed shows of the fall . Three NBC baseball games finished among the week's 1O most popular programs. The final game of the New York Mets-Atlanta Braves playoff series actually outrated the first two games of the World Series, although slightly more people watched the series opening games. Overall, World Series ratings are up fron::1 last year. ER, with Alan Alda guest starring, was the week's most popular show. NBC"s strength on Thursdays has lain waste to competitors. ABC has temporarily yanked the drama Wasteland from its schedule. FOX's critically praised Action 1s a thorough disaster, losing in the ratings·last week to UPN's WWF Smackdown! FOX has canceled its entire Friday night lineup, Harsh Realm and Ryan Caulfield: Year One, after they finished nearly last. \ • |