The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 1

a I tivesday I Ole Miss next for VU's fervor Woody: We're better than Rebels 76 61 KJ as a TV dad Complete weather forecast on 6B In i. if V. Show part of new fall lineup F3! NASHVELLE, TENNESSEE A GANNETT NEWSPAPER: VOLUME 93, NO. 266 5 SECTIONS Copyright, 1997 PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID IN NASHVILLE, TN Er iENNESSEAIh Fnst Investor quay ton; on CMA show launch pad for Twain By TOM ROLAND Staff Writer Shania Twain's appearance on tomorrow night's Country Music Association awards may be one of the most crucial performance es of her career. Twain is pegged to sing Love Gets Me" Every Time, the first single from her new! album, Come On Over, which hits retail, stores Nov.

4. The CMA slot provides a tease to an album that Mercury Records president Luke Lewis predicts could topple Garth Brooks' No Fences as the best-selling coun 1 It. Zj iff Vr Columbia CEO: No severance for wrongdoers By JULIE BELL Staff Writer SAN FRANCISCO Dr. Thomas Frist Jr. told some of the country's biggest pension and other investment funds he would seek to void severance packages for former ColumbiaHCA Healthcare Corp.

executives convicted of wrongdoing. His get-tough message delivered before the Council of Institutional Investors did not single out any individuals, but came only days after press reports indicated that Frist's predecessor at ColumbiaHCA, Richard Scott, might be getting as much as $10 million in severance pay. "A special committee did that," Frist told a questioner of Scott's golden parachute. "That was done while I was being selected as CEO." While that response left the questioner and others shaking their heads, Frist got points for both "guts" and folksy, personal style as he faced what his introducer referred to as a "lion's den a room packed with managers of some of the largest pension funds. The appearance was part of a coast-to-coast strategy to appear virtually everywhere ColumbiaHCA gets an invitation, said Senior Vice President Vic Campbell, who accompanied Frist Since taking the reins of ColumbiaHCA July 25, Frist has done interviews with virtually every major news organization, hosted a media conference call, and made a bevy of appearances including at an investors conference in New York two weeks ago.

His comments there that earnings would be lower sent stock shares tumbling about $3 by the end of the day. Yesterday, there were no similar earthquakes. But the hundreds of pension and other try album of all time. "Without sounding cocky about it my expectations have gone beyond outselling Garth. I'd like to outsell Michael Jacksoa I'm not so sure the album doesnt afford that opportunity." Twain's last album, The Woman In Me, came out of nowhere to become the best-selling TWAM CMA I ASCAP win- country album ever by a female artist "Anytime you sell a lot of records and make I Should Horizon that kind of impact ex AP awards be divided? On 1D.

pectations go up," said Twain's co-manager, Jon Dr. Thomm Frist Jrn right, chairman and CEO of Colum- managers that he'll try to prevent huge severance packages biaHCA, attempts to reassure pension and other Investment for former executives found guilty of wrongdoing. INVESTIGATION Prosecutor says documents seized so far exceed the case against 3 Indicted officers, on 1E. Louisiana in shareholders suits against the $20 billion health-care giant The fund's 13-member board is scheduled to consider the issue at its meeting next month. New York state Comptroller Carl McCall I Turn to PAGE 2A, Column 4 fund managers appeared to want more from Frist in the way of substance than the Nashville executive offered.

Charles Valdes, chairman of the investment committee for the $127 billion California public employees pension fund, left the speech, for example, convinced his fund should join similar state funds in New York, Florida and Otters remain committed to Memphis Landau, who also man- ages Bruce Springsteen and Natalie Merchant Still, skeptics abound. Some critics said Twain's first album was "manufactured" by her husbandproducer Robert John (Mutt) Lange. Others suggested that her refusal to tour until the release of a follow-up album reflected an inability to perform live. The new album and tomorrow night's sneak peek will receive careful scrutiny. 'There are people expecting me to prove something spectacular in three minutes," she said last night after her CMA rehearsal "TV is not my environment so that's not what I focus on.

I'm doing the show for the fans at home, so that they can hear pome of the new stuff." Music history is full of stories of albums that sold millions of copies, only to be met by disappointing sales of a highly anticipated follow-up. Ask Hootie The Blowfish, Peter Frampton and Billy Ray Cyrus. Lewis, however, predicts The Woman In Me has served as the setup for a bigger return, again using Michael Jackson as the precedent Jackson's 1979 Off The Wall al- bum, which sold 7 million copies, was followed in 1982 by Thriller, which is certified for 24 million in sales. mi THE GAME Fisher stays focused on team amid attendance controversy, on 1C. Despite woeful attendance, team cites Liberty Bowl lease By JEFF LEGWOLD Sports Writer The Oilers know they've made some mistakes, they know there were just 17,737 fans were in the Liberty Bowl Sunday for their loss to the Baltimore Ravens, and they know why they are planning to ride it out "We have a contract for two full seasons," said Don MacLachlan, the Oilers in Memphis and regularly make the trip to Bluff City.

Even National Football League officials have been somewhat taken aback by the lack of crowds in Memphis in the Oilers' first two home games. "It certainly has to be bittersweet for the Oilers," NFL spokesman Joe Browne said. "I think the delay in getting out of the situation in Houston made it difficult for the team to commit to the situation in Memphis as early as they wanted to. But I think we all understand it is a temporary Turn to PAGE 2A, Column 1 But it is safe to say, by all accounts, the Oilers' Memphis experiment has not worked thus far and that the team now plans to continue it until a new stadium opens on the East Bank of the Cumberland River in 1999. The Oilers have averaged an NFL-low 23,964 for their two home dates and have met a vast array of hostility andor apathy thus far.

Privately, team officials will admit they "greatly overestimated" the number of permanent seat license holders in the new stadium who would then purchase tickets executive vice president of marketing, broadcasting and ticketing. "And it's in the best interest of everybody involved from the Oilers, to the Memphis Parks Commission, to the sports authority on down that we work hard to do better." Mystery TB strain found in state Clinton County When Arafat dies, will the peace live on? ARAFAT Barry Rubin, a longtime Arafat Valway presented the first public report on the new TB strain on Sept 14 at a meeting of the Infectious Disease Society of America, In San Francisco. She did not disclose the location of the outbreak because, she said, the area is so small that naming it could jeopardize patients' confidentiality. But other health officials said the general vicinity was the Upper Cumberland region of northern Middle Tennessee and south-central Kentucky, especially Pickett County, and Clinton County, Ky. The spreading disease came to light almost by accident when a child registered positive on a routine skin test for tuberculosis in spring 1995.

She was not ill, but the test meant that she was infected with TB bacteria. Most healthy people who become Growth rate amazing, but standard medicines work well to fight bug New York Times News Service A highly contagious, rapidly growing strain of the bacteria that cause tuberculosis has mysteriously emerged in the Upper Cumberland, on the Tennessee-Kentucky border. The new strain multiplies in the lab 1,000 times faster than a typical TB bacterium, and it swept through the community with astonishing ease, spread by even fleeting contact like that between two people standing near each other outdoors at a fast-food stand. Fortunately, standard medications work well against the organisms, which have not become drug- Byrdstown StajjjY Pickett I County r-j Detail area Nashville UM Knoxvflle- Memphis Memphis resistant "The lab people have no record of any TB bug growing like this one," said Dr. Sarah Valway, epidemiology chief in the tuberculosis division of the U.S.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. The bacteria caused an outbreak in the region in 1994-1996, during which 21 cases of active TB were diagnosed and 337 people had positive skin tests, indicating they were infected with the bacteria. More recently, new cases have dwindled, a decrease that health officials attributed to reactive prevention and treatment programs. "I hope and pray it's past its peak," said Dr. Christine Weyman, medical director of the Lake Cumberland District Health Department in Somerset Ky.

JERUSALEM (AP) Yasser Arafat has survived guerrilla warfare, assassination attempts and a desert plane crash. His aides say there is nothing wrong with him "healthy as a horse" is the favored phrase. But a flurry of media speculation on Arafat's health, combined with his age and workaholic ways, have raised concerns about the Middle East peace process should anything happen to the 68-year-old Palestinian leader. "There has been no preparation; there's no clear successor," said watcher. "The Palestinians have to start thinking about their political future, and they and everyone else have to start thinking about the implications." If Arafat died or were incapacitated, selecting a new leader could be a bitterly divisive struggle for the Palestinians, taking months or years.

Under such circumstances, meaningful peace negotiations I Turn to PAGE 3A, Column 3 DREW WHITE STAFF infected do not go on to develop active TB, and the infection at that stage is not contagious. Their immune systems fight off the bacteria, and the infection becomes dormant Sections: Local News. Sports Living EEroy will be here to sign best-seHers James Ellroy says he became or Business sessed "with all things crimrnaT when If 'Sf kf. Brad About You II Eagle junction Federal officials searched a Native American encampment in the Burwood community yesterday for a golden eagles' nest if found, State Route 840 could be rerouted by a mile or more. On 1B.

Dam land wanted More than 100 Maury Countians whose property was seized for the now-abandoned Columbia Dam project 25 years ago have filed a federal lawsuit demanding it back. On1B. Mets help Braves clinch NL East Not that the Braves needed ft, but Atlanta got a little help from their division rivals, theNew York Mets, last night and can now sit back and relax before the playoffs. When the Mets beat the Florida Marlins last night, the Braves clinched the National Leauge East pennant The Braves were playing the Montreal Expos and were tied 2-2 in extra innings at press time. On 1B.

Crook Chase now unsyndScated Crook Chase, starring Lorianne Crook and Charlie Chase, right, is coming home in more ways than one. The show hasn't just relocated production from Los Angeles back to Nashville. It also has left syndication to return to regular nationwide exposure on TNN, where it was launched Hyears ago. New shows begirj airing Monday on the cable' network. On 1E I- he was told at 10 years old that his mother had been killed.

Ellroy, who wrote LA Confidential and The Black Dahlia, will be in Nashville this ,....58 .....20 Ztc 80 7 OearAbby Deaths EcStorials Entertahmeot Horoscope Movies National Scoreboard Shortcuts vision 1 World Nevw. s. ELthC weekend to sigr copies of his novels at Tower Books. On 1D. 34A IT j.

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