The Anniston Star from Anniston, Alabama • Page 12

(The (JVnntgton $tar Page 4B Thursday. January 1. 1998 Birmingham TV station replaces news shows with a countdown clock NewTexas law to impose fines on teen smokers Associated Press By John W. Gonzalez and Steve Otafson young smoker who Mows off the seminar- and Houston Chforude doesn't complv within 90 group. Other demographic groups showed a similar lack of viewers.

1 The first big response came Dec. II, when Land said the station's entire news team would be fired effective Wednesday. That included news anchor Melonv Johnson and sports personality Doug Bell. "Something big had to happen and it did," said John Zimmerman, president of the Birmingham ad agency 02 ideas. Land said a new newscast and a "somewhat nontraditional" format will greet viewers on Feb.

5. But until then, all that willbe shown during the news' time slot is the clock. "More people will probably watch the clock than watched the news broadcast anyway," he joked. in advertising revenue and what little news audience it had. all in the name of making a break with the past and building a new image.

"It's a financial commitment." said Linda Rountree, media director of the Luckie Co. advertising agency, "it's a gutsy move and I admire them." Land said the risk is worth it. WBMG repeatedly has promised viewers a new and improved news show, he said, but it hasn't delivered. "The only way to clearly differentiate the television station from its checkered history and from the rest of the market is to eliminate the product viewers have repeatedly rejected," Land said. Rejected it was.

In recent ratings books. WBMG's evening news broadcasts didn't even register with the important 25- to 54-year-old age BIRMINGHAM. Ala. Blondes and brunettes didn't help the ratings at WBMG, and neither did in-your-face reporters. So the perennial loser in the local TV news rat-ings war is trying something new: a clock.

Starting Thursday, the Birmingham television station will scrap its 5 and 10 p.m. newscasts and broadcast a countdown clock showing the days, hours and minutes until its new news program goes on the air Feb. 5. "We think it is unprecedented," saidi Eric Land, president and general manager of WBMG. a CBS affiliate.

Undoubtedly. The station will sacrifice thousands of dollars Former officer released from Texas prison By David Mlgoya HOUSTON Somtf teen-age smokers in Texis vay they'll he more discreet when they light up their cicircttej. beginning New Yeii" Dy Bin Atoi ffvpeci them to Cviii urley. een with a ar joflf la that can impose fines of up 10 $250 and possi-b3j suspend licenses of teen drivers. "I dunk the law sucks." said 1 4-year-old Josh Paiz.

a student at Lake Jackson Intermediate School, about 45 miles south of Houston. "We should have a right to do it. We're gonna die someday. We just may die a little younger," said his 13-year-old buddy. Billy Terrill.

He said his parents, both smokers, sometimes buy him cigarettes a practice that is still allowed under the new law. "I told my mom and dad, "When you quit I'll and they said, "Can't help you there," Terrill said. Matt Sharp's plan is simply to go underground. "I think I won't smoke hardly in public," Sharp, 14, said. Some aspects of the tougher anti-smoking law, adopted by the Texas Legislature last spring, took effect Sept.

1. But the law's real bite comes into play Thursday with the-penalty phase for tobacco consumption and possession by people underage 18. Endorsed by cancer-fighting groups and state health officials, the new law makes possession, purchase, consumption or receipt of cigarettes or other tobacco products by a minor a violation of the state health code. The exception to that is when the minor is accompanied by an adult parent, guardian or spouse meaning you can buy, smoke or chew tobacco if your parents let you do it around them. A violation is punishable by a fine of up to $250, but the fine would be suspended if the violator attends a tobacco awareness program.

A court also may require the parent or guardian of the defendant to days will wind up losing his or her driver's license for up to six months. Several other smoking-related regulations arrived in Texas with the New Year, including a requirement that retailers check the identification of all buyers who look younger man age 27. Retailers also must begin training employ ees in the new law and they must safeguard cigarette vending machines to prevent unfettered access by minors. While the state is only now cracking down on minors who possess tobacco, some Texas cities are already doing so. Lubbock, for example, approved an identical measure two years ago.

The anti-smoking law was sponsored by state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, who said it was needed because minors felt no punitive consequences from prior laws, which made it a crime to sell tobacco to a minor but didn't effectively punish young users. The House sponsor. Rep. Hugo Berlanga, D-Corpus Christi, said the measure was needed to offset the pervasive influence of tobacco advertising on children, which he said made Joe Camel and the Marlboro Man better known than Mickey Mouse or Barney.

Some youngsters said they were glad to see a statewide crackdown on an unhealthy habit. Cynthia Rodriguez, 16, a nonsmoking sophomore at Mayde Creek High School near Katy, Texas, said the new law could be "a wake-up call for teen-agers who need to be made aware that smoking is a serious issue. Actions need to be taken so their eyes will be opened to the hazards. This is for the benefit of kids." "Too many kids our age are smoking. They think it makes them look older or they want to be different," said Sean Roden, 14, of Crosby, which is 20 miles northeast of Houston.

One young smoker is using the new law to gather her New Year's resolve to quit along with her dad. waited for her husband's flight with about a dozen friends and relatives. "We have a long haul ahead of us," Nancy Nevers said. "When all is said and done, we are finished with Detroit." Across town, the Green family still was reeling frornv the otiws of Nevers' release. His! sister Trejse Green, 37, said she was so shocked she even thought about going to the airport to await the arrival of the man accused of clubbing her brother to death.

She just wanted to set eyes on him again, she said. "When he went up the first time, the judge said the evidence was so overwhelming he couldn't release him," Green said. "What changed this judge's mind?" She believes the judge's decision will encourage other inmates to team up with their lawyers in seeking creative methods that would absolve them of their crimes. "If I killed somebody, I could not see myself fighting to be free," she added. "I would just expect to take the punishment Mr.

Nevers saw my brother as a nobody. I really truly feels he thinks he doesn't deserve to be locked up because of the kind of person that he killed." Nevers still does not deny he struck Green. But he continues to maintain he was justified in how he attempted to make the arrest. "I didn't know their son before this happened," he said. "If he would have complied, if he would have subjected himself to the arrest, this wouldn't have happened." But the wounds are deep, both for Nevers and for Detroit.

Nevers understands that. But he will not concede to something he says he's not. "I am not a racist, I've never been one and I never. will be," he said. "It was the cocaine that killed him, not me." (Detroit Free Press staff writers Bill McGraw, Lekan Oguntoyinbo and Dan Shine contributed to this report.) Finally, someone answered.

His father-in-law, Gerard Keane, shouted two words: "You're free!" Then Nevers said he heard the exuberant voice of his daughter, Kelly. "She said, "Daddy, you're coming Nevers said, relishing the memory for a second, trying hard to prevent tears from recurring. "I cried. I couldn't help it," he said. "Finally, someone had listened.

I was done wrong. We were done wrong." The highly-publicized case largely split metro Detroiters down racial lines. Nevers and his former partner. Budzyn who both were convicted in the beating are white; Green was black. Zatkoff ruled jurors were prejudiced because they were aware of speculation that the city was bracing for riots if the officers were freed, and because they saw the movie "Malcolm during a break in deliberations.

Separate Recorder's Court juries in 1993 found Nevers and Budzyn guilty of second-degree murder for the beating, which occurred during a traffic stop after Green had refused to show them what he was holding. The Michigan Supreme Court overturned Budzyn's conviction in July, saying outside influences prevented Budzyn from getting a fair trial. That court, however, refused to free Nevers, saying the evidence in his case was too overwhelming. Judge George Crockett III sentenced Nevers to 1 2 years in prison and Budzyn to eight years. The Wayne County (Mffch.) Prosecutor's office will decide if Nevers will be retried.

Doug Baker, an assistant Wayne County prosecutor, said Tuesday that Zatkoff 's ruling on Nevers would be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, which could take up to a year. Budzyn is scheduled to be retried in February by a Wayne County jury. Back in Detroit, Nancy Nevers Nevers said the cab driver asked if he was famous. "I smiled at his reflection in the rear-view, and I could only shake my head.

I told him. "I'm just a free man The rest of the 30-minute ride to the airport was filled with impatient thoughts of Detroit, home, family, friends and, most acutely, of the former partner who became his cell mate, Walt Budzyn. "I wondered if this was how Walt felt, about finally going home," Nevers said, sliding ever so slowly in a long line toward his awaiting present. "I opened the window. I put my face into the sun." Oddly, Nevers said he and Budzyn have not spoken since they were separated five months ago.

"The last time was in July when he went home," Nevers said. "Not a word since. Not a call or a letter," though Nevers received a Christmas card from Budzyn on Dec. 26. "It said: "You'll be home Nevers recalled, His prize finally in hand, Nevers was slowed at the metal detector before entering the boarding area to head toward the gate, toward home.

But he did not seem bothered even as the detector beeped. Nevers paused as the security guards looked him over. All he could show were his open hands and his maroon windbreaker. "The first thing I think I'll get is a Dramamine," he mused, safely past the metal detector and just an hour away from boarding. The thought of his first piece of pizza thrilled him as he saw a food stand near the gate.

"Maybe later," he said. "I'm not sure I could hold it down right now." The reality of freedom hit Nevers about 4 p.m. Tuesday. Frantically calling home, at first all he heard were busy signals. "My hands were sweating, he said." "I could hardly hold onto the Knight-Ridder Newspapers FORT WORTH, Texas Five candy canes, three reindeer, a snowman and a 40-foot wooden Santa Claus.

Those Christmas decorations the prison's front door were the first visions of freedom for former Detroit police officer Larry Nevers Wednesday after he walked out of the Federal Medical Center in the southern part of this city, which is west of Dallas. "I can't tell you how great this feels," Nevers said later as he waited in line at the Northwest Airlines ticket counter at Dallas-Ft Wjith Airport. One of his greatest wishes for Christmas, although not gift-wrapped, was a plane ticket home, and he was moments away from getting it. Nevers was like a child on Christmas morning. Smiling, giggling, shifting from foot to foot, he anxiously awaited the moment when he could claim his present.

He didn't care it was a week late. "It's been one incredible morning," he said, still clad in grey sweat pants, white sneakers, a white T-shirt and the only reminder of prison life he took with him a maroon windbreaker the guards had given him. It was cold in Fort Worth Wednesday morning. They wanted Nevers to stay warm. On Tuesday, U.S.

District Judge Lawrence Zatkoff in Detroit ordered Nevers released from prison, saying the jury that convicted him for beating to death motorist Malice Green with a heavy flashlight wasn't able 4p reach a fair decision in the emotionally-charged atmosphere. On Wednesday, prison guards cleared the area in front of the tiny, tiled-roofed, entrance to the only home NeversNias known for more than four years, lie emerged about 12:30 p.m. Detroit time, stepping into a taxi. Television cameras and newspaper photographers captured his departure through the main gate. Need Cash Till Payday? We Can Help Lottery misunderstanding upsets state woman Cash your personal check today, we deposit it on payday! Mr Mnnpv Dawn ft Cafthinn 1117 Noble Anniston237-1861 1 Associated Press But according to Austin and some of Ms.

Rodgers' co-workers, her fiance gave her what he or she believed to be a lottery ticket over Christmas after a visit to Tampa. Austin said none of Ms. Rodgers' family had played the lottery beforehand didn't know what a ticket looked like. Ms. Rodgers' "ticket" matched the winning numbers drawn in the Florida Lotto when she checked them Sunday while at work at a Mobile nursing home.

Her brother on Monday saw an actual ticket, however, and realized it didn't look like the one his sister held. Austin showed a photocopy of the so-called "ticket" to a reporter for the Mobile Register. It read, "Online Report: The winning numbers in Florida's Lottery Jackpot Ms. Rodgers' fiance could not be found for comment. If she had split the jackpot, Ms.

Rodgers would have received more than SI million a year for 20 years. It was still unclear whether the mixup was due. to a joke or a misunderstanding, but "she's not too mad at him now," Austin said. "You can't miss what you never had." BAY M1NETTE Friends of a south Alabama woman who thought she was one of two winners of Florida Lotto's $60 million jackpot says she made a mistake because she was unfamiliar with lottery tickets. Beverly Rodgers, 29, of Bay Minette, is "just trying to recover now," said her father, Alphonse 'Austin.

"She's just trying to heal from all this." He refused to divulge Ms. Rodgers' telephone number or address. She has refused to speak to the media. Prompt Professional Courteous Care for Women Dr. Jeffrey Edwards 324 Monger Street, Oxford 835-5955 034755 Travelers: Tourism brought about $4.7 billion into Alabama From Page 1 Open January 1st! 9:30 AM PM JWS.

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The program has typically The Talladega, Clay, Randolph, Coosa Child Care Corp. currently operates the center in Talladega, along with day-care facilities in Sylacauga, Roanoke, Goodwater and Childersburg. The Talladega-based agency decided to put in a bid for manag ing the Head Start programs after seeing the need for someone to manage the programs, Ms. Head said. "We saw a need, and we felt that we could continue the good things that are going on in that program and expand on them." grams accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, she said.

That will allow the programs to qualify for higher teacher-to-student 4 tirMitnigjirfiH 69 Mailbox ratios. The accreditation process operated from September to May. Copies fcxpircs 1-31-98 Service $O00 Bailey: Senator says party switch reflects district's views Off lileyV Bailey V. to the GOP in helped convince From Page 1 89 Color Copies rW'SUPS Shipping district's "My support is among Republicans more than Democrats," he said. Bailey will face at least one opponent in the Republican primary in June.

Wicksburg man John Jay recently announced his plans to run. Sen. Steve Windom of Mobile, who switched change parties and is hopetul or getting mopjy "It sends a message to other senators particularly conservative-voting Democratic senators that theRepublican Party is the place to be," said Windom, chairman of the Republican Senate Candidate Recruitment Committee'. mm use that issue against Bailey. "Chip is a target of the business community in Dothan," he said.

Bailey's southeast Alabama district traditionally votes Republican for president, Congress and governor. Baijey said his party switch reflects his 835-8884 M-F P.M. 835-8830 FAX Sat. 8-1 P.M. 1414 Golden Springs Rd.

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