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Show Hmong man accused in hunters' deaths says he fired in defense said he heard all-terrain vehicles in the distance, and moved faster because he thought they were coming after him. One soon pulled in front of him and another behind him, he said. Vang said Robert Crotteau and his son got off one ATV, and Crotteau sweared at him, used racial slurs and asked whether he knew he was trespassing. "I thought they were going to beat me or something," Vang said. Vang said he kept trying to walk away, then looked back and saw Willers take the rifle off his shoulder and point it at him. He said he dropped to his right and heard a shot. He saw dirt kick up from the ground about 40 feet in front of him. "In my mind, he shot at me and missed," Vang said. Vang said he quickly removed the scope from his rifle and shot Willers twice. Vang said everyone else began to scatter, and he thought they were going for what looked like a gun case on the back of one of the ATVs. "I started charging," he said. Under cross-examination by Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, Vang was asked if each victim deserved to die. She held up a photo of each person as she asked the question. Vang answered "no" in some cases and "yes" in others, including when he was asked about Crotteau and his son. BY ROBERT IMRIE Associated Press Writer HAYWARD, Wis. (AP) - A Hmong man accused of killing six hunters and wounding two others said Thursday he feared for his life as he was confronted for trespassing. Chai Soua Vang, who came to the United States , from Laos more than 20 years ago, said he began shooting after he thought one of the hunters shot at him and the others were going for more guns. As he stood in the witness stand, Vang pretended he had a rifle in his arms and detailed the order in which he shot them. He said he reloaded the gun twice. Two survivors of the shootings testified earlier that no shots were fired at Vang before he started shooting. The 36-year-old truck driver from St. Paul, Minn., is charged with six counts of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder. He faces mandatory life in prison if convicted. On Thursday, Vang said he was lost in the isolated Sawyer County woods Nov. 21, found a tree stand he thought was on public property and climbed into it to get the lay of the land. He said Terry Willers approached him and told him he was on private property and should climb down. As he walked away, Vang Western Wats Western Wats has increased our wages, and we are still willing to work around your schedule. We still offer weekly pay, a fun work environment, and we'll give you time off for school events, tests, and holidays. Call (435) 753-1303 or stop by 22 East Center in Logan. 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Reopening could bring back more than 18,000 residents and may speed up the revival of the economy BY BRETT MARTEL Associated Press Writer NEW ORLEANS (AP) - In a big step toward restoring the pulse and soul of New Orleans, the mayor announced plans Thursday to reopen over the next week and a half some of the Big Easy's most vibrant neighborhoods, including the once-rollicking French Quarter. The move could bring back more than 180,000 of the city's original half-million residents and speed the revival of its economy, which relies heavily on the bawdy, Napoleonicera enclave that is home to Bourbon Street, Mardi Gras, jazz and jambalaya. "The city of New Orleans ... will start to breathe again," a beaming Mayor Ray Nagin said. "We will have life. We will have commerce. We will have people getting into their normal modes of operations and the normal rhythm of the city." The announcement came as President Bush prepared to propose a sweeping plan for the federal government to pick up most of the costs of rebuilding New Orleans and the rest of the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast - estimated at S200 billion or beyond. "There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again," the president said in remarks to be delivered to the nation from the French Quarter's Jackson Square. Nagin said the "re-population" of the city would proceed ZIP code by ZIP code, starting Monday in the Algiers section, a Creoleinfluenced neighborhood across the Mississippi River from the French Quarter. The city's Uptown section, which includes the Garden District's leafy streets and antebellum mansions, will open in stages next Wednesday and Friday. The French Quarter will follow on Sept. 26. "The French Quarter is high and dry, and we feel as though it has good electricity capabilities," the mayor said. "But since it's so historic, we want to double- and triplecheck before we fire up all electricity in there to make sure that... if a fire breaks out, we won't lose a significant amount of what we cherish in this city." The plan came a day after government tests showed that New Orleans' putrid air is safe to breathe, even if the receding floodwaters that still cover half the city remain dangerous from sewage and industrial chemicals. While the areas set to be opened were never part of the 80 percent of New Orleans under water, they still suffered from the failure of services that left them prey to the looting that gripped this city after Hurricane Katrina hit on Aug. 29. Now, the designated neigh- borhoods have 70 percent to 90 percent of their electricity restored, and have water that will be good for flushing and firefighting, if not drinking. The sewer system works, trash removal is running, and at least two hospitals will be able to provide emergency care, authorities said. And Nagin said the city's convention center, which became a symbol of the city's despair when thousands of weary refugees gathered amid filth and corpses, will now become a hub of the rebuilding effort. Three major retailers will set up there to sell lumber, food and other supplies. Security will be tight in the reopened neighborhoods. Nagin said a dusk-to-dawn curfew will be enforced, and residents and business owners will be required to show ID to get back in. If the initial resettlement goes smoothly, Nagin said other areas will slowly be brought back to join in what he called perhaps the biggest urban reconstruction project in U.S. history. "My gut feeling right now is that we'll settle in at 250,000 people over the next three to six months, and then we'll start to ramp up over time to the half-million we had before, and maybe exceed" that, he said. "I imagine building a city so original, so unique that everybody's going to want to come." Also Thursday, Nagin asked mayors across the United States to take censuses of displaced New Orleans residents so the city knows where they are and can communicate with them about reconstruction. Nagin said the city has requested $102 million from a $500 million pot being made' available by the federal government to help hurricaneravaged cities and towns pay^ for police, fire and other critical services as they rebuild. [ He said the city's bankers have also pledged to help New Orleans out of a cash crunch' that has left it unable to make its next payroll. * Across five Gulf Coast states, the death toll from \\ Katrina climbed Thursday to- ! 794, led by 558 in Louisiana. - : Despite the good news A\ from the mayor, large sections-*"' of New Orleans remained accessible only by boat, and corpses could still be seen out in the open. 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Box 1073, 1615 East 1000 South, Price, Utah 84501 (435) 637-0500 • (435) 637-8692 fax Delta and Northwest airlines expected to look different after filing bankruptcy BY HARRY R. WEBER A N D JOSHUA FREED AP Business Writers Their bankruptcy filings behind them, Delta and Northwest began a lengthy and costly road to recovery on Thursday that will likely include cutting employee rolls, pensions and routes. In the end, if they survive, the nation's third- and fourth-largest airlines will be smaller and may look more like the discount rivals that helped send them into bankruptcy. That perspective by analysts, bankruptcy experts and academics was underscored Thursday as Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc. and Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest Airlines Corp. sought to reject certain aircraft leases. In Delta's case, it also asked a New York bankruptcy judge to allow it to abandon some properties and prevent utilities from turning off its power. "What are they going to look like? They are going to look like Southwest or JetBlue," said Manchester, N.H., bankruptcy and restructuring expert Dan Sklar, referring to the low-cost carriers. David LeMay, an attorney who worked on Continental's bankruptcy in the early 1990s, saicl that airline raised cash in bankruptcy by selling a valuable trans-Pacific route and a terminal it was building at LaGuardia airport in New York. "I'm sure that both Delta and Northwest will be looking very, very hard at what is absolutely essential to keep and what can be sold," he said. While bankruptcy gives the airlines more leverage, it doesn't address one of the companies' fundamental problems - not enough revenue. "There's no motion you can make in bankruptcy court that says, 'Please put $20 million in the checking account this week,"' LeMay said. "People have this impression that in bankruptcy you can do whatever you please, but that's really not true at all." In Northwest's case, the airline will likely press its pilots to change rules that limit its regional passenger service, said airline analyst Ray Neidl at Calyon Securities in New York. Regional flying is important to both carriers. But Northwest, with its large Midwest presence, already does more flights at small airports than any other carrier. Shifting more of those flights to its regional partners will help Northwest get profitable again, Neidl said. And Delta will change its system even more than Northwest, Neidl said. "They might try to become more international-oriented. Domestically, I'm thinking they will shrink," he said., Delta also will likely look for savings at its in-house discount carrier, Song. Neidl said Delta has claimed that Song is already cheap to operate, but others haven't been so sure. "If it's not cheap now, I believe Delta will make it cheap," he said. To do that, job, pay and benefit cuts are almost a certainty. The chiefs of both companies said after their filings Wednesday that more job cuts are expected. Employee pensions also are in danger. Delta said it does not plan to make the next scheduled contribution to its pension fund. Northwest had a $65 million pension payment due Thursday, but said in a regulatory filing Tuesday that j> a claim against its assets for % nonpayment could be avoided •:; if it filed for bankruptcy first ';•; Some analysts expect both it airlines to terminate their pen-^i sions and dump the responsi- »j bility on the federal govern- ?J ment like UAL Corp.'s United Jj Airlines has done in its bank- 1ruptcy case. Northwest Chief > Executive Doug Steenland has "' said he wants to avoid that. * Delta and Northwest have ;' been seeking pension-law •;» changes that would let them '• spread out payments to their li pensions, but the relief they ^ may ultimately get may not be -ij enough to save the plans. 3 The head of the Pension ^ Benefit Guaranty Corp. said "t Thursday that Delta and Northwest have a responsibil- X ity to meet their pension fund-£ ing requirements. The federal]; agency said that Delta's pen- • > sion is underfunded by $10.6 ' X billion and Northwest's by $5.7£ billion. £ At a bankruptcy court hear-;] ing Thursday, Northwest asked-; for permission to pay $55 miU % lion to vendors for services ' § during its mechanics strike, -ii |