The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 2

2A Wednesday, March 7, 2001 THE TENNESSEAN www.tennes8ean.com FROM PAGE ONE Judge: Twins' adoption was illegal in Arkansas Neither mother, British couple meet residency rule i 0 Mile .5 -QnnRdir Existing roads II Planned roads 1 4 Hi Hi 840J i Speedway 1- -ff vfwiLSON ess Ar-K ill! I DREW WHITE STAFF Track: Speedway nears opening with no neighbors in sight dren up for adoption there. "An adoption order is fatally defective where neither the prospective adoptive parents nor the minors sought to be adopted were residents of the county," Pierce wrote. "If Tranda Wecker engaged in any fraud or deception regarding her residency, this court will not reward this bad conduct" Kelli Cashion, the Kilshaws' attorney, said they would appeal this week. Cashion said Tranda Wecker lied to the Kilshaws by telling them she lived in Arkansas and that they were not to blame. Pierce asked that the British High Court of Justice return the twins to the United States and suggested that a St.

Louis court would be the "proper forum for further proceedings." A St. Louis judge last week also asked that the case be resolved in that city because the girls were born there. The Aliens' attorneys in Arkansas asked a judge for permission to drop them as clients last week when Richard Allen was charged with molesting two of his family's baby sitters. Allen, 49, pleaded innocent Friday. Wecker, the twins' birth mother.

Alan and Judith Kilshaw of Wales say they paid $12,000 for the same children and adopted them from Wecker in Little Rock. Both the Aliens and Kilshaws, as well as the girls' now-separated biological parents, Tranda and Aaron Wecker, are seeking custody of the girls. The twins are now in foster care in Britaia "We think it is important that the British court be notified of this decisioa I do think this certainly paves the way for the British court to return the twins to the U.S.," said Tranda Wecker's lawyer Gloria Allred, who said her client would not speak publicly about the case. The judge was ruling on a motion from the Aliens, who had sought to nullify the Kilshaws' adoption. The judge said the Aliens did not have standing to ask that the adoption be voided; but he said that, based on his own review of the case, he had decided to nullify the adoption.

Pierce's order said Tranda Wecker had the right to take the children from the Aliens but was required to live in Arkansas for 30 days before putting the chil LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) An Arkansas judge yesterday nullified the adoption of twin 8-month-old girls caught up in an international custody battle. The girls were adopted in Arkansas on Dec. 22 by a British couple, setting off a dispute with an American couple who had also tried to adopt the children through the same Internet broker. Pulaski County Probate Judge Mackie Pierce said yesterday that neither the British couple nor the American birth mother, who put them up for adoption, met Arkansas' 30-day residency requirement.

As a result, the Arkansas courts had no right to grant the adoption, Pierce said. Pierce also recommended to British courts that the children be returned to the United States for further proceedings on who should get custody. Richard and Vickie Allen of Highland, say they paid a $6,000 fee to a San Diego-based Internet adoption broker. They say they had custody of the girls for almost two months and were in the process of legally adopting them when the children were taken to Arkansas by Tranda Aimster gives alternative to Napster Hmtsmm Sen Sm it es At least 20 music exchange programs are available on the Internet by some estimates, and they are being downloaded at dizzying rates. One, Aimster, is attracting thousands of downloads a day and is taking a wholly different approach to file-swapping and looks to be circling the wagons against potential legal threats.

First, Aimster is encrypted, so users can't be spied oa something the recording industry did to Napster to collect evidence of copyright infringement. Aimster (www.aimster.com) also asks users not to trade in pirated files. A federal judge yesterday told Napster that it has 72 hours to remove songs from its service, once a recording industry group devises a list of copyright songs it wants to protect. The order effectively gives the industry control over the immediate fate of Napster, which lets computer users download popular songs for free. Aimster piggybacks on instant-messaging services including America Online's AIM, allowing users on the same "buddy list" to share files.

A new version of Aimster posted late last month attracted 200,000 downloads in its first 10 days bringing the number of registered users to more than 3 millioa Aimster spokesman Johnny Deep said yesterday. The free software has attracted attention amid Napster's legal problems as one of a number of alternatives for online file-swapping. Files of any type not just MP3 music files as in Napster case can be swapped on Aimster, although its design allows sharing only among groups of "buddies" and not across the entire World Wide Web like Napster. Beyond that, the new version of Aimster includes a terms-of-serv-ice agreement that requires users to agree not to use files that don't belong to them. Deep said Aimster users should feel free to do what they want with their own files but "if you're going to do file-swapping, that's an area that we just can't advise you oa because it may be illegal, for all we know." While that might seem to negate much of Aimster's attractioa analyst Idil Cakim of Cyber Dialogue, says it might be hard to stop users from file-swapping.

She said Aimster was "covering their base." Aimster's new version is also encrypted with the intent of preventing the monitoring of file transfers and other communications. Deep said groups that attempt to monitor the network would be breaking the law. Deep said the point of encryption is to protect consumers a rationale he offers to explain another download offered on the Aimster site: the "Aimster Pig Encoder." The encoder can be used by Napster users. It takes file names in Napster directories and encodes them so that the names cannot be monitored easily. Russians gained crucial secrets of US.

espionage, experts fear Busch Series, and other races slated for this season are part of its Craftsman Truck and All-Pro series. All three are lower rungs of NASCAR's ladder, beneath the Winston Cup division. The Nashville track could eventually be expanded to hold 150,000 seats. The Bristol track can accommodate 140,000 people. Sears said it would be much more likely for hotels and restaurants to locate at the Interstate 40-Highway 109 exit in Lebanon or at a proposed Beckwith Road interchange in Mt.

Juliet. Both cities offer liquor by the drink. Unless sewers are available, commercially developing the area near Gladeville would be difficult, if not impossible. Without sewers, buildings must be equipped with septic tanks, a fact that limits development Lebanon, in a join venture with the county, Ls installing a sewer line to the track. Access to the line would be limited to only commercial and retail development.

But the line will not be in service until late summer, Lebanon officials said. Davis said in Rutherford County, either Murfreesboro or Smyrna would be responsible for extending sewer service in the direction of the track, which is just across the county line. Both Murfreesboro Waterworks Superintendent Joe Kirchner and Smyrna Utilities Director Enoch Jarrell said neither of their cities has short-term plans to extend sewer lines to the racetrack area The cities would extend the lines if developers agreed to pay for sewer line extensions, the pair agreed. Warren Duzak covers Wilson County (or The Tennessean. He can be reached at 726-5939 or wduzaktennessean.com.R 1 and hope to survive on racing business on a few weekends each year.

"The rest of the year they won't see much business." Both Davis and Sears expect to see smaller businesses develop, such as convenience stores and racing-souvenir shops. Rutherford County Executive Nancy Allen could not be reached for comment, but Wilson County Executive Robert Dedman said he sees development happening in two or three years. The track's economic impact was most touted in Wilson County. Dedman said there are only a few races planned this year on the 13-mile, single oval track. But when a dirt track and drag strip are added, the number events will increase and so will attendance and development.

The $125 million, racetrack is being built by the firm Dover Downs Entertainment. So far, the superspeedway has not landed an event that is part of NASCAR's Winston Cup circuit, which could someday bring the huge crowds seen at places like Bristol, Talladega, and Daytona, I'la. Sears said she looked closely at the Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C., for some indication of what might happen here. If the Charlotte experience holds true, it will be a few years before the racetrack will be surrounded by more than fields and woods. "It tcx)k several years for the (Charlotte) speedway to have an impact.

I think we will see development, but it won't be immediate." The April 14 race at the super-speedway is part of NASCAR's Hanssen had access to detection systems Knight Ridder Sews Serviee WASHINGTON Robert Hanssen, the veteran FBI agent accused of spying, may have sold Russia some of America's most precious intelligence secrets, including information on how the United States tracks foreign submarines and sniffs out nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, intelligence experts said yesterday. The loss of such technical secrets could dwarf the damage from Hanssen's alleged disclosure of a secret tunnel under the Russian Embassy in Washington, demolishing a number of the nation's most important intelligence programs and wiping out more than $1 billion in research and investment, the officials said. Hanssen was one of a handful of FBI counterintelligence experts whom the Defense Department and other agencies called upon to protect a wide range of exotic hightech intelligence programs collectively called "Measurement and Signature Intelligence," or LASINT, a senior intelligence official told Knight Ridder News Service Hanssen also accessed CIA and Defense Department computer Kelly Powell, head of the on Page LA of yesterday's Tenn-Columbia Water System, was essoin The newspaper regrets misidentified in a photo caption the error. 'They only work as long as the other side doesn't know what we can do." Officials are still trying to assess how much damage Hanssen allegedly did, but his arrest affidavit charges that he passed on details of at least one "Top Secret SCI" (Seasitive Compartmented Information) MASINT program. SCI is a level of security clearance higher than Top Secret that restricts information to a small number of people who are cleared for a specific code word.

The MASINT document Hanssen is accused of giving the Russians detailed recommendations for the director of the CIA on how MASINT information would be collected and utilized into the 2Lst century, according to the affidavit. The document was "highly specific and technical" and disclosed the Intelligence Community's consensus on specific MASINT objectives and studies leading to needed capabilities," the affidavit said. FBI spokesman Bill Carter wouldn't comment on what MASINT documents were passed or what threat they represent Hanssea 56, was arrested last month and charged with espionage and coaspiracy to commit espionage for allegedly passing 6,000 pages of secret documents to the Russians. 1985 to put up $12 million for the project The development of students in smaller class sizes was compared to the progress of those in regular classes or regular classes with a teacher's aide. "I taught for 45 years, and people-said, 'You can't prove class size makes a said Pate-Baia who now lives in Gulf Shores, Ala "I got so tired of hearing that, I went d(H)r to door in the Tennessee legislature, and they were gixxl enough to pump in $12 million.

The thing we did not expect was that databases to collect highly classified information on MASINT programs, according to counterintelligence experts. MASINT programs detect, find and track submarines, missiles and other weapons by analyzing the sounds they make, the heat they generate, the radiation they emit, the chemical traces they leave or other physical evidence. Such programs have become increasingly important to the united Mates as other nations have learned how to combat more conventional forms of intelligence Ai- YvltW' ering.suchassatel-I ta lite photography HANSSEN and communications intercepts, said the senior intelligence official. They also have become crucial to America's ability to monitor the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and to keep track of mobile Russian nuclear missiles. "If Hanssen sold the Russians everything he knew about these programs, the damage would be devastating, among the worst we've ever seea" the official told Knight Ridder.

"These things can be compromised in an instant. smaller classes, conviction rates were ziro oeiow tnat oi counterparts in regular classes. The new findings from Princeton researchers Alan Krueger and Diane Whitmore were gleaned from a long-term experiment, Pro-jectSTAR (StudentTeacher Achievement Ratio), tracking the progress of 11,600 students and teachers randomly assigned at 79 schools in the state. Former Nashville educator Helen Pate-Bain persuaded the Tennessee General Assembly in mm LADIES' Classes: Small size shows academic, JUNIOR DRESS classes went up 3 to 4 points. The likelih(Hxi of black students taking the SAT or ACT college entrance exams grew to 413 of the class from 31.8.

For whites, it rose to 46.4 from 44.7. In addition to the academic benefits, the study found societal value in smaller class sizes. Teen birth rates were one-third less for whites who had been in smaller classes, and black teen fatherhood dropped 40. Among black males in km FRANCE SAVE social gains the kids who were poor and the most deprived made the most gains." For that reason, Murray and Clinton said the class-size initiative should be targeted to areas where it is most needed. They hope to persuade their colleagues to approve $2.4 billion to continue the money to recruit and hire 100,000 new teachers.

"I really applaud Tennessee because it Ls one of the states that really decided to put up the money and invest in research," Murray said. the House. "We are confident that the House will give this matter a full and fair hearing and not bury it in some subcommittee at a time when nobody Is watching," he said. Because of the Tennessee Supreme Court's ruling, he said, Tennessee has become a "safe haven" for women from other states who are seeking an abortioa "Just as TennCare has attracted the sickest of us, our Supreme Court has created a process where we will attract those who do not want to abide by their state's (more restrictive) regulations," he said. Duron Cheek covets state government tor rervwssean.

He can be reached at 726 4889 or email Durencheek0aol com Abortion: Amendment could restore some restrictions 66 1 legislature should be the body to make that decision or whether it should be the (state) Supreme Court." Ruling on a lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood and other organizations, the Tennessee Supreme Court held last September that some parts of Tennessee's abortion law were unconstitu-tionaL The state high court struck down provisions for a two-day waiting period and mandatory counseling. It also held as unconstitutional requirements that all second-trimester abortions take place in a hospital and a provision If the amendment resolution is approved by the voters, the legislature could iastitute several restric-tioas, said Fowler, a Chattanooga attorney. "We could require a doctor to inform the patient of the risk of this surgical procedure," he said. "We could require that there be a waiting period between the providing of that information and the procedure itself. We could require that abortions in the later stages be performed in a hospital, where we know there are safeguards in place in the event of difficulties with that procedure." Fowler said he is confident the amendment resolution will pass the Senate and hopes it will pass that established medical-emergency exceptions to the waiting period and counseling rule.

Hedy Weinberg, spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union in Tennessee, said the purpose of the resolution is to erode individual privacy rights. The Tennessee Constitution affords greater privacy protection than the U.S. Coastitutioa which is wonderful," Weinberg said. Rep. Jamie Hagood, R-Knoxville, lead sponsor of the proposal in the House, said 37 of the 99 House members and 16 of the 33 Senate members had signed on to the built would need 50 votes in the House and 17 in the Senate to pass this year or next I lite "rlV.