Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 18

2B I HI I FREE PR ESS LOCAL NEWS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1999 DATELINE PARTNERS WHEEL, DEAL Teens studying TV may have lessons for auto execs 'X Ti III 1M Cleanup of gas, oil spill could take years UP pipeline cracked after 46 years in earth KIDS LEARN. vX 'X tr. 3 V. TEACH Sherita Rankins, 16, of Detroit has to laugh rehearsing a commercial scene in which she hugs the car, a Ford Focus. it I I I 0- 1' 1 1 r- 1 iu a 14 fc i J- in driver's seat while her director, X' Lisa Wood, 15, of Grosse Pointe sits By TRACY VAN MOORLEHEM FREE PRESS EDUCATION VVRITER rr Photos by IOM PIDGbONDetroit Free Press over the script for a commercial.

HOLLAND 2 students admit to a conspiracy Two Macatawa Bay Middle School ninth-graders who allegedly talked about killing minority and gay classmates after drawing up a hate list have pleaded guilty to conspiracy. The two 15-year-olds entered their plea (n juvenile court Wednesday on a conspiracy to carry a concealed weapon charge, one day after police arrested them after receiving a telephone tip, the Holland Sentinel and the Grand Rapids Press reported Thursday. No one was harmed and no direct threats were made, said Jack Plakke, Ottawa County Circuit Court administrator, but authorities were concerned that violence was possible because of the teenagers' interest in getting a gun. "The allegations seem to suggest that they were intending to do some harm," Plakke said. "Only those kids themselves know whether or not they were serious." The two are being held in the Ottawa Juvenile Detention Center pending sentencing.

One of the teens also pleaded guilty to possessing marijuana. The father of one of the boys said his son, who has depression, never intended to harm anyone. He said the teens were upset with classmates and intended only to scare them. "This was a joke, a hoax, and it's not being treated that way. The whole thing was just a frustration-anger project that they had no intention of carrying out," he said.

Police were tipped off about the alleged plan on Sunday. According to Plakke, the case grew out of a series of conflicts with fellow students at a school dance on Friday and continued at a birthday party on Saturday. During the course of the weekend, he said, the youths compiled their list of people they disliked and at one point asked another teen whether he could get a gun. By the Associated Press MARQUETTE Ruling bittersweet for slain man's kin Steve Brey says the conviction of one of two men accused of killing his son is a bittersweet victory. "It was a hollow victory for ujs because we don't get our son back," Brey said Thursday.

A Circuit Court jury found Jason Wojciechowski guilty of first-degree murder Wednesday in the death of Robert Brey, 20. Wojciechowski, 23, of Chicago also was convicted of attempted unarmed robbery and conspiracy to commit unarmed robbery. Investigators said Wojciechowski and Chester Walendzinski, 22, lured Brey to their room at the Marquette Holiday Inn in March and beat him to death. Wojciechowski faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison for the murder conviction, up to 15 years on the conspiracy charge, and up to 7'2 years on the attempted robbery charge. He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec.

17. Walendzinski is scheduled for trial Dec. 6 on charges of felony murder, unarmed robbery and conspiracy to oommit unarmed robbery. Steve Brey attended the trial with his wife, daughter sister. By the Associated Press BRIEFLY Detroit: A 15-year-old Denby High School student escaped an attempted abduction as she walked to school Thursday morning.

Police said the girl was walking about 8:40 a.m. in the area of McCrary and Cedargrove on the east side, when a man wearing a brown jogging suit tried to grab her. The girl was able to struggle free and ran home. it- fl i- ''-'Xiw Xt i 4 ASSOCIATED PRESS CRYSTAL FALLS It will take years to clean up a natural gas and crude oil spill from a pipeline that apparently sprang a leak after years of contact with underlying rock, officials said. "It was a real big spill," said Chris Austin, a geologist with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, based in Crystal Falls in the Upper Peninsula.

The leak apparently began the night of Nov. 1 about 2 miles west of town. About 400 people were evacuated, including more than 100 elderly and infirm residents of the Iron County Medical Care Facility. An unknown amount of natural gas leaked into the air from the 3-foot-deep pipe, situated 250 yards north of U.S. -2, Austin said Wednesday.

More than 222,000 gallons of crude oil ran into soil, groundwater and wetlands through the 4-inch hairline crack. Workers for Lakehead Pipeline Co. of Duluth, which owns the pipeline, patched the leak last week, Austin said. The pipeline contained both natural gas and crude oil. High pressure keeps the two separated.

"It's proba "The problem is, there is still more oil out there." CHRIS AUSTIN, geologist with the state Department of Environmental Quality. The leak started Nov. 1. The pipeline was patched last week. bly going to take at least several years to clean it all up," Austin said.

Company engineers believe the crack occurred because the steel pipe rested on a rock formation, said Al Aleknavicius, Lakehead area supervisor who works out of the Escanaba office. The pipeline has been in the ground 46 years. Although the pipe moves very little during ordinary use, there may have been enough to stress to the metal over time, causing the crack. Vacuuming equipment has removed about 115,500 gallons of crude oil, Aleknavicius said. An unknown amount of oil burned up when company personnel flared it off last week.

About 2,100 yards of contaminated soil has been removed and trucked to the and Landfill in Ontonagon. "The company has done a good job responding," Austin said. "The problem is, there is still more oil out there." Oil that seeped into a nearby peat bog and soaked into an underground aquifer may be difficult to remove, he said. Test pits to determine how much free-floating oil is on the aquifer quickly filled with oil. Austin said the DEQ presently does not plan to fine Lakehead, but he declined to rule it out.

The pipeline originates at natural gas and oil fields near Edmonton, Alberta, and snakes south to the Upper Peninsula's border with Wisconsin, crossing near Iron Mountain. It runs roughly parallel to U.S.-2 across the UP and crosses the Straits of Mackinac underwater before heading to Port Huron, where it arrives at a Sarnia, Ontario, processing plant. six sets of teeth during its lifetime, and typically expires soon after losing the last set, sometime around 60. Watching the polar bears, Freedman pointed out their particular interest in a 2-year-old girl among our group, and explained that it stemmed from the bears' instinctive talent for identifying the most vulnerable member of any herd. "I consider myself a spokesman for the animals, the environment, and the need to preserve species and habitats," Freedman told me.

The animals, it turns out, have a lot to say. And with Freedman as my guide, I finally began to hear them. BRIAN DICKERSON can be reached at 248-586-2607 or at dickerfffreepress.com. 1 1 it Fifteen bored teenagers were sprawled on benches in the University Liggett upper school commons Wednesday when senior Dan Ferrin walked up. "Got keys," he said.

His classmates immediately understood. "Slurpee run!" they shouted, charging past Ferrin, a television director and a cameraman out to the cherry red Ford Focus parked in the school's courtyard. "Cut!" said Aleksa Moss, 17, the director. "Now let's shoot the scene in the car." A trip to 7-Eleven might not work as a marketing tool for your typical adult car buyers. But this commercial, written, acted and filmed by Liggett students, isn't for them.

Executives from Ford Motor Co. asked students in the Grosse Pointe Woods private school's directing class to make the TV ads as part of its plan to market the new Focus to teens. Phil Horlock, Ford's executive director of business development, said the experience offered teens and automakers a glimpse into each other's world. "We get something out of it, because we get to listen to their honest opinions about the Focus. At the same time, they have a chance to act in front of a camera and show what they can do," he said.

About 40 teams of Ford executives were asked to see how young adults received the new product, a compact, stylish five-person sedan debuting in the United States in the 2000 model year, Horlock said. His team members devised the student-produced commercials in hopes they'd gain insight into teenagers' advertising tastes while getting feedback about the car. Asked whether he ever thought about building a commercial around a Slurpee, Barry Merrill, Ford's director of Business Development, said "No way! That's the beauty of it." Director Moss said her production team wanted to use a popular teen activity to illustrate what she called the Focus's fun. "No matter what social status in school Director Aleksa Moss, 17, talks about a scene with her crew, Leython Williams, 14, left, Dan Ferrin, 18, and Nicole George, 17. The teens are working on commercials for Ford.

you have the debate team does it, the theater people, the athletes. Everyone can identify with a Slurpee run," said the junior from Grosse Pointe Park. The "got keys" spot featured an authentic high school wardrobe being a big playoff day, this included soccer shirts and vocabulary. "This interior is game time," said one of the actors admiring the car. Liggett students filmed two other commercials for Ford on Wednesday.

In one, a talking Focus shopped for buyers, rejecting those it hoped wouldn't take it home a family, a messy guy, an old woman and selecting, for the perfect buyer, a Liggett junior who, of course, fit the exact demographic Ford is hoping to attract. Freshman La Von Morgan, 14, of Detroit, who wrote and directed the talking Focus piece, said she learned that camera angles are really important and that as a director, have to take charge." are books that tell you what you but they're nothing compared to doing it," she said. supplied three cars, equipment and advisers. Horlock's team visited last week to brief students about marketing plan and show them examples Focus ads. will take the student commercials to other executives.

If their ideas at headquarters, they could inspire commercials or be used in some as is, said. Moss, performing arts department Aleksa's father, said the assignment educational philosophy of connecting academics with the real world. MOORLEHEM can be reached at or vaiwwoigfreepress.com. La Von Morgan, 14, of Detroit goes mine is, and you stroll the zoo grounds oblivious to the romance and political drama all around you. Freedman, a garrulous 60-year-old who resides with his wife in Bingham Farms, spends his days at the zoo in a state of perpetual excitement.

Four days a week, he tends a busy dental practice in Clawson. But for the last eight years, he has spent most of his Wednesdays and weekends as one of the volunteer docents who lead small group tours of the zoo or tend individual exhibits. Freedman hurled himself into volunteer work 12 years ago after his 18-year-old daughter died of leukemia. Noting her employer's devotion to charities benefiting the afflicted and victimized, a sympathetic dental assistant suggested 4 ill z- in A I Ml IIIIIMM IIWIlllMMn.tf "you really "There have to do, actually Ford professional the class Ford's of other The team back find favor similar Horlock Philip head and fit the school's TRACY VAN 313-223-4534 on in zoo animal exhibits than meets the eye BRIAN DICICERSON More goes THE GRIZZLED veteran appraised his rival coolly, his prickling neck hairs the only clue to his mounting fury. A few yards away, the object of his scrutiny made a show of indifference, but a shuffling sidestep betrayed his anxiety.

Suddenly, all was bedlam: Combatants bellowed and charged, scattering panicked spectators. Everyone seemed to be shrieking or running or both except for one dark-haired beauty, who turned her face into the breeze, seemingly oblivious to the jealous rage her mere presence had precipitated. Here was sexual intrigue as raw as any tabloid exclusive and the second-graders around me were enjoying it immensely as our silver-haired guide narrated the action unfolding across the moat. "Chimpanzees do this sort of thing all the time," Larry Freed-man explained. "The contest to be the head guy is ongoing.

The leader of the troop is always being tested." Old zoo, fresh eyes After dozens of visits, I hadn't exactly been salivating over the prospect of yet another day at the Detroit Zoo. I'd agreed to chaperone my son's second-grade class on a field trip, and dutifully arranged to be away from work. But how many times can you gape in wonder at a sleeping tiger, or marvel at a gorilla's upper body strength? Not many, if your ignorance of the animal kingdom is as vast as that Freedman find a more cheerful outlet for his volunteer energies. He enrolled in the Detroit Zoological Society's rigorous 14-week training program for docents soon afterward, and is now recognized as one of the zoo's most knowledgeable guides. After three hours in Freed-man's company this week, I'd learned more than I had in a decade of previous visits.

At the Siberian tiger exhibit, I discovered that Bransk, the resident male, had spent the last several weeks being introduced (teasingly, across a wire mesh) to Chandra, a female Siberian imported from the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, and that his ear-shattering roars were the music of frustrated Tiger lust. Among the pachyderms, I learned that an elephant acquires.