The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 1

SUNDAY A day in SSie fast lane it sill. coverage TODAVS I JhSf I TONIGHTS HIGH: JT LOW: 83 IS 63 Complete weather forecast on 8B guide Indy 500, CccaCcLa COO today In Sports In Showcase NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE A GANNETT NEWSPAPER I Volume 90, No. 149 I sections Copyright 1994 Second Class postage paid in Nashville, TN JLL 2 1 1 Nl JL. NJ rS lrill No turning back Rressmre builds for waste site 4 Jim, i i But decisions can take years fTODAY' '-v' rffr complicated DOE proposals as they have bombarded Tennessee. The latest one hit May 16.

It concerns how the DOE ultimately will dispose of its uranium and Plutonium. That could include recycling part of it Smith said the intentions appear good, but the agency has failed to explain what this means for an older proposal. Most of the TENNESSEE: NATION'S NUCLEAR STOREHOUSE? I 4 By ANNE PAINE Staff Writer When the U.S. government created a secret city in East Tennessee about 50 years ago, the die was cast for what the state faces today. One U.S.

Department of Energy plan after another names Oak Ridge as a potential host to the dregs of the nation's nuclear weapons program: radioactive wastes so hot they won't decay for 10,000 years, on average. The wastes, plus uranium, would move on the state's well-traveled interstates or rail lines. Much could go through Nashville on its way to Oak Ridge. "We got another one we weren't expecting the other day," said Ben Smith, executive administrative assistant in the governor's planning office. "They wanted an immediate response." These aren't proposals that one can easily respond to.

The state has spent, for instance, two years studying the first one. Smith has labored quietly over the past few years as the lead person here analyzing the older proposals involve taking care of materials on a temporary basis. "It appears they're breaking off another piece of the issue," Smith said. "It again has worsened us in that we have so many things to track." Already the state was analyzing four proposals involving Oak Ridge, the city where the uranium and plutonium were processed for the first atom bomb. DOE considers Oak Ridge a possible site for each of these: Spent fuel, or nuclear waste, from DOE, naval and research reactors.

About 2,700 metric tons need to be stored. That's enough to Turn to PAGE ISA, Column 1 v. I .1 Steeples' past reveals evidence of troubled life AP A little girl on her father's shoulders looks back at a Rwandan government soldier on the road to Gitarama, the interim seat of government. The refugees were being evacuated from the capital of Kigali yesterday. Sporadic fighting continued on the eve of U.N.-sponsored peace talks.

Story on 3A. Five in AIDS study develop virus By BRAD SCHMITT and SUSAN THOMAS Staff Writers He has been accused of sleeping with prostitutes, passing venereal diseases to his wife, raping a woman. And murder. On Friday, police again called Thomas E. Steeples a rapist and a killer.

Rob Phillips, a 24-year-old construction worker and part-time lounge singer at Leo's Little Bit of Country bar in San Marcos, outside San Diego, came here to pursue his dream of making it big as a country music singer. Kelli, 28, who met Rob at the bar where he sang, hoped to break into the catering business. They had driven across the country, leaving California with $900 in their pockets. They arrived in Nashville, where they knew no one, March 7. Police believe Steeples went to the motel room after meeting the couple to try to rape Kelli Phillips.

Now held in Metro Jail without bond, Steeples has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of felony murder and one count of aggravated rape. People who knew Rob and Kelli Phillips were shocked by their violent deaths. For Authorities said Steeples beat to death California newlyweds Rob and Kelli Phillips at a local Econo Lodge, after first raping Kelli Phillips, late March 7 or early March 8. It was a violent act, the result of a chance meeting in a bar, said Metro police, Tennessean News Services and Staff Reports At least five volunteers in the government's principal AIDS immunization study have become infected with the virus, after having been vaccinated, a Vanderbilt University researcher confirmed yesterday. The matter raises concerns about how well the vaccine works and whether it may actually increase the likelihood of people getting infected.

The vaccines given to the volunteers could not have caused the infections, said Dr. Barney S. Graham, an AIDS specialist at Vanderbilt, one of five universities conducting the vaccine trials on 1,400 volunteers. "None of the vaccines could possibly give an infection," Graham said. "All these people were infected because of high-risk behavior they participated in." The vaccines contain only a piece of the AIDS virus.

In theory, such vaccines generate antibodies that attack and neutralize the entire AIDS virus should it later appear. The five volunteers caught Hrv, the AIDS virus, by engaging in "high-risk sexual encounters" with infected partners, said Graham, who is director of the Vanderbilt AIDS Vaccine Evaluation Unit Considering the number of people participating in the trials, it is not surprising that some of them contracted the AIDS virus, Graham said. "We anticipated this right from the beginning of the studies." Graham also said the infections do not mean the vaccine project is a failure. The government is actually testing more than 10 products in its search for a vaccine. "In a couple of the cases, the people probably got infected really before the vaccine had a chance to work." Each of the five vaccinated subjects who later became infected previously had developed normal levels of HIV antibodies.

"There was nothing unusual about the responses of these individuals. Nothing I Turn to PAGE 2A, Column 5 on the floor, ceiling and aiurua door of the Murfreesboro Road motel room. The couple, strangers to Music City, had just arrived in Nashville. Turn to PAGE 14A, Column 4 Street may be second to none, but won't be park avenue in June Climactic battle of WWII touched those at home 1 1 'i tT D-Day not only determined the course of history, but also the future of individual lives. Of the 176,475 fighting men who crossed the stormy English Channel it-H Ml i.

i I II til 1 1 I HI Ml June 6, 1944, none would emerge from the experience unaffected. Thousands of American, British and Canadian D-DAY Hande's story, Nashville's war and 1944 pop culture, on 4A. their landing craft were sunk, or blown out of the sky as their parachutes or gliders descended. Those who survived the Normandy invasion would carry the image of total warfare for the rest of their days. Their memories of terror and carnage would be juxtaposed, perhaps uneasily, with pride in the role they played in the greatest amphibious assault the world has ever known.

Today, Dr. Kenneth Hande, son of Master Sgt Edwin Hande, remembers his own life after Normandy and how his father's injury played a part By GAIL KERR Staff Writer We've traditionally approached downtown Nashville parking like the air we breathe: It's supposed to be free, easy and everywhere. Time to wise up. With the bombardment of June events starting this week, both natives and newcomers need a little schooling on how to get in and out of downtown without losing their tempers. "We all have established driving patterns and it is awfully hard to break those," said Mac McDonald, who works on Second Avenue.

"People are going to have to get used to not being able to park at a meter on Second Avenue and walk right in a restaurant" said Sarah Thacker, a resident and manager of the Quarters apartment building. Over the next few weeks, hundreds of thousands of people will pour in and out of downtown. They'll be tapping their toes at Summer Lights and stomping their feet at the Wildhorse Saloon. From Garrison Keillor at the reopened Ryman Auditorium to Fan Fair patrons seeking SUMMER'S COMING Guide to downtown parking, on 2A. Preview of Summer Lights, in Showcase.

Hard Rock T-shirts, downtown will be bustling. So take a deep breath. Here's a guide to quick, cheap and safe downtown access: What we do wrong Every night hundreds of parking spaces sit empty in the Commerce Street garage, just off Second Avenue. And every night hundreds of people get frustrated driving around and around and around the blocks of Second Avenue, looking for a parking space. "In actuality, there is quite a bit of parking downtown," said Emanuel Eads, senior vice president of Central Parking.

"But it is not always at the front door of the establishment you want to go to." Eads said the biggest problem downtown Turn to PAGE 2 Column 1 In their own words Recalling the longest day EaTi! twt- troops would give their lives that blustery morning cut down by machine-gun fire from German fortifications, drowned when Freeman Ramsey Staff Already congested, traffic on Second Avenue will worsen with this summer's special events. CONTENTS BASKETBALL PERSPECTIVE When Paula Jones' sexual ha WDAMEAK one WORKPLACE Got a bad bOSS? It could win you a trip for two to Hawaii. Author Jim Miller is sponsoring his annual bad boss contest to draw attention to his book, The Corporate Coach: How To Build a Team of Loyal Customers and Happy Employees. Last year's winner described his boss as someone who calls the office at five minutes before 5 p.m. to check up on him, consults a telephone psychic for business decisions, and delays pay raises while asking employees to steal magazines from customers for the office lounge.

On 1F. rassment case against President Clinton comes to court, she will at least have a fair arena and a more enlightened atmosphere, writes Anita Hill. The professor who accused Clarence Thomas in 1991 of sexual harassment writes about the House of 4G Living 1-8F Local News. 1-8B Showcase Nat'l 15-19A 1-6D Real Estate 5Q Scoreboard 13C Sports 1-14C Stocks 6-7E Travel 1-6J Wish 3B World News 3-8A Arts Showcase Baseball 2-5C Books Showcase Business 1-8E Classified 1-32H Crossword 2F Dear Abby 2F Deaths 6-7B Editorials 4D Fashion 5F Basketball 1.14C Home 1-4Q Horoscope 2F 'v I I point and the Indiana Pacers routed the New York Knicks 88-68 in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals yesterday. "There are going to be days like this," the Knicks center said.

New York still leads the best-of-seven series, 2-1. Game 4 is tomorrow. On 1.14C. -Jr PLACES TO GO Doing Atlanta in a weekend can be done if you pick tourist-friendly places. Among our suggestions: Fox Theatre, Underground Atlanta, The World of Coca-Cola museum, the High Museum of Art, Zoo Atlanta and CNN Center.

On 1J. issue. On 1D. HILL EWING.