The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 17

0 7 Richard Reeves Murfreesboromavorsavs News roundup Deaths 7B Weather 8B I watch not taxpayer gift SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2001 LOCAL NEWS nrr C5 Gaming critics assail legalized state lottery If VP ,0 Vote to change constitution slated next year By RAY WADDLE Religion Editor An anti-gambling campaign to defeat, a lottery in Tennessee got into gear yesterday by hosting a national gathering of speakers who lined up their reasons to be against Lady Luck. About 200 people lobbyists, religious leaders, politicians, laypeople assembled for the first day of the convention, which ends tomorrow. "There's something about the gambling industry that just doesn't smell right," said Tim Kelly, who directed the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, a national study ordered by Congress. Tennesseans face a referendum in November 2002 that, if passed, will create a constitutional amendment to allow a lottery. A statewide anti-gambling movement business peo ple, lawyers, ministers and laypeople will be announced publicly in the coming weeks.

One organizer estimates they need to raise $2 million to defeat the lottery referendum next year. "It's an information battle," said Tom Grey of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling, based in Rockford, 11L "Because people think it's painless, gambling is a seductive Yes' vote if people don't dig deeper and educate themselves. The other side wants to minimize debate." Speakers yesterday assailed legalized gambling, including a lottery, for being a vice that hurts families and fails to deliver promises as a revenue savior for states. References were made to the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, which offered various recommendations when it came out in 1999. One was a moratorium on gambling expansion.

Kelly gave four reasons why: Gambling causes addictions that push people to bankruptcy and family breakup and put new burdens on the state, he said Gambling shifts consumer spending away from goods and services. It preys on the Please see LOTTERY, 6B PHOTOS BY JOHN PARTIPILO STAFF Lyle Thomas Van Ulzen gives a little wave to a crowd gathered near the Eastview Church of Christ, 608 Shelby as he is led to a police car to be transported to jail. Two escapsas caumgSiifi Men don officers' uniforms, apparently hop a Metro bus "This flag has got to mean more to me than all the rest." David Nixon, principal of Defeated Elementary School Principal anxious to learn flag story Heirloom offered after banner stolen By EMILY HEFFTER Staff Writer Of the five American flags elementary school principal David Nixon was offered yesterday, the crumpled one offered to him by a Smith County man was the one that moved him almost to tears. The American flag flying at half-staff outside Defeated Elementary School in Smith County was stolen less than a week after the Sept 11 terrorist attack, and school officials were having trouble finding a replacement to buy. A slim, middle-aged Smith" County man whose name Nixon did not get visited the school to offer a flag that belonged to his war-veteran father yesterday afternooa "He walks in with this wadded up flag and he says, 'I want you to have this flag.

It was my Nixon recalled yesterday. The man helped Nixon fold it properly before leaving it at the school Nixon said he plans to make an indoor display of the flag, which is cotton and can't be hung outside. After a story about the stolen flag ran in yesterday's Tennessean, the American Legion and representatives from the offices of US. Sen. Bill Frist, state Sen.

Marsha Blackburn and US. Rep. Bart Gordon each called to offer to give the school a replacement flag. The American Legion will present a new flag for the school's outdoor flagpole at a 2 pm ceremony Monday. Nixon said he is relieved he has the weekend to consider how to tell his 170 students about the flags.

To him, it's a story about the American people reaching out to help each other, and he wants his students to remember it for a long time. The man who donated his father's flag plans to attend Monday's ceremony. Nixon said he was so touched when the man brought the flag, he didn't ask him for more information about his father, but he hopes to ask more questions Monday. "This flag has got to mean more to me than all the rest," he said. Some suspicious neighbor reports picky, police say Sgt Alan Groves, who caught two escapees behind the Eastview Church of Christ, gets congratulations by phone from Assistant Chief Judy Bawcum.

mum Security Institution, using homemade knives to overpower guards while the inmates were supposed to be delivering meals to other inmates observing Ramadan, a month of daytime fasting observed by Muslims. Four other inmates escaped along with Van Ulzen and Coffelt, and all were caught within two days. Yesterday, Van Ulzen and Coffelt were in Nashville for a court hearing in the 1998 escape, said Jim Thrasher, a spokesman for the Tennessee Department of Correction Here's what happened yesterday morning, based Escape attempt Metro police caught two convicted felons who fled from guards while they were being taken from the Criminal Justice Center to the Davidson County Courthouse for a hearing yesterday morning on an unsuccessful 1998 escape. By ANITA WADHWANI Staff Writer Since Sept. 1L Metro police have received three to four calls per day from residents reporting neighbors who appear to be Middle Eastern and doing suspicious things, said Capt Richard Briggance.

The reports range from the "ridiculous" to others police have passed along to the FBI to investigate further. Police and the FBI declined to comment about how many reports they have followed upon. "We're getting a lot of calls," Briggance said. "If there's any type of foreigner living in a neighborhood or close to people, the neighbors are calling and saying things like, they went to their trunk a couple of "Really, it's ridiculous in some cases. But we don't want to stop those calls because something may come of them." Police first try to determine whether there's actually a criminal act that's being reported and then visit the caller for more information AUTHORmES GIVE CHRONOLOGY: V-'mA'i -MDS: xrJ-''''' Areaof MiJW area Correctional officers escort Lyle Thomas van Ulzen, 35, and Billy Coffelt, 47, from the Criminal Justice Center through a tunnel to the courthouse.

At one point, van Ulzen pulls a homemade knife on at least one guard and demands his and Coffelt's restraints be removed. The two force the officers to disrobe, change into the officers' uniforms and handcuff the officers to a railing in the tunnel, then flee. The pair possibly catch a city bus heading to east Nashville, where they are later captured in an alley near S. 6th Street. the Criminal Justice Center.

The group arrived 20 to 30 minutes later. After five inmates had been placed in a holding cell, three corrections officers Cpls. Karen Wev, Charles Abbot and William Please see ESCAPE, 6B KENTTRAVIS STAFF Ourselves in reassuming our role as the government Local Republicans agreed that sky marshals should be on planes, as the president proposed. More agents are needed to deport people who overstay temporary visas. They may be needed to take an aggressive approach toward all illegal immigrants.

This means more government It also means supporting our president who has shined so marvelously in this troubled time. He'll face renewed opposition once the shock of Sept 11 wears off. He'll need new support from us Americans who con on information from TDOC Commissioner Donal Campbell, Thrasher and Metro police: Van Ulzen and Coffelt, inmates at Brushy Mountain Maximum Security Prison, were among seven inmates taken from River-bend at about 8 am to go to fails sight" The Globe reported. After his commission initially proposed tough new rules, Gore backed off in a letter to an airline lobbyist Then, in the closing weeks of the 19 presidential campaign, the airlines gave the Democratic Party $585,000 in donations, The Globe said No one knows if new requirements mandated with a time line for implementation would have stopped Sept 1L Republicans are part of the same, infected political process. The airlines acted just like other profit-obsessed industries.

So to whom do we turn? SET Criminal lis ST JCourthouse before approaching the person being reported, Briggance said. Hedy Weinberg of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee cautioned that such calls could be a result of unfair stereotyping. "I think everyone is walking around on pins and needles and we are still stunned by the devastating tragedy," Weinberg said of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "But I think we need to remind people that we live in a community with people working hard and trying to be good neighbors," Weinberg said.

"We need to make sure stereotyping and profiling do not become the way of the world. That message has to be said clearly by the governor, the mayor, other elected officials, by business people and activists." Anita Wadhwani covers general assignments and Nashville communities. Contact her at 259-8821 or awadhwanitennessean.com. tleman stand up in our prayer meeting on Wednesday night to inform us that he was being activated in a few days, and charged the congregation with reaching out to his wife and kids giving them someone to lean on during his absence. "Several of our men are being activated by the military reserves.

We along with many others share a burden to reach out and minister to those families. That will be an ongoing endeavor one we will try to do our best" rra Tim Chavez can be reached I at 259-8304 or e-mailed at tchaveztennessean.com By KATHY CARLSON and WARREN DUZAK Staff Writers A helicopter looping in a cloudless morning sky grabbed T.J. Payne's attention as he and four other men worked atop an 11-story downtown parking garage. As sirens blared, he counted 18 police cars lining Deaderick Street and more on the Charlotte Avenue side of the Public Square Garage. Co-worker Brian Ment-low wondered whether a been robbed, but the workers soon learned police were seeking two COFFELT escaped prison inmates, one convicted of arson and second-degree murder, the other of an assortment of violent assaults and robbery.

It wasn't the first time that inmates Lyle Thomas Van Ulzen, 35, and Billy Coffelt 47, had tried unsuccessfully to escape. Yesterday, after about three hours, they were captured about a mile away by Metro police. In 1998, the two engineered a brazen breakout from the Riverbend Maxi I Opinion Tim 1UU Chavez day's gathering. "Our nation is flipping out right now." We're supposed to be the government That civic truth somehow got lost amid all the money and special interests infecting the political process. Our leaders did not sustain a sense of urgency about airline security before Sept 11 after hundreds of lives were Photo Editor: -Tom Stanford, 726-5901 DesignGraphics Editor VinceTroia, 726-5950 NightWeekend Editors: Dwight Lewis, 726-5928 George Zepp, 259-8091 To reach our newsroom: Phone: 259-8095 E-mafc newstipstennessean.com President needs help of Americans who consider selves part of government sider ourselves part of government his government, our government and a war that ultimately proves those lost Sept 11 did not die in vain.

Rally to families: The last time for such dread was in the Civil War. Our men and women now called to service are not only concerned for their own lives at risk to terrorists but also worry for family at home. American soil is also on the front lines. That factor calls us to a new role. All families must be our family.

Mark Rose, who attends the First Baptist Church of Mt Juliet tells us why and how: "We had a gen lost on Pan Am Flight 103 and TWA Flight 800. Our economic system fought for the bottom line, not passengers. Only terrorists thought ahead, on how planes could become cruise missiles. The Dallas Morning News and The Boston Globe reported how commissions on security during the first Bush and Clinton presidencies failed. The last in 1996 was headed by Vice President Al Gore.

"By some accounts, the Gore Commission represents the clearest recent public example of the success that airlines have long had in defeating calls for more over Before our discussion, George Rand revved the traditional conservative rant about welfare in America. The underlying principle is more government is bad. After debating how to make America more secure, most members of the Davidson County Republican Party agreed that more government must do for now. If Americans really believe we're at war, then we must sacrifice some principles held dear for the time being. Tm not for big government, but it's their responsibility to protect this country," said Cynthia Ryan at Thurs- City Editor: Thomas Goldsmith, 259-8095 i Regional Editors: Frank Gibson, 726-5907 LaW MacGregor, 259-8095 Ellen Matnties, 726-5977 Jennifer Peebles, 259-8074 i1: Fernando Rzarto, 664-2194 Ftobert Sherborne, 259-8080 Mike Sherman, 259-8899 YMCA hosts blood drive The Sumner County Family YMCA is hosting a community blood drive from 10 am to 3 p.m.

today. Interested donors must be at least 17 years old and in good health and must not have donated within the past 56 days. The YMCA is at 102 Bluegrass Commons Hendersonville. Call (615) 826-9622 for more information. Parks and Rec seeks help The Springfield Parks and Recreation Lrjartrnent is looking for qualified instructors to teach classes in exercise, various hobbies, crafts, arts, drama and -dance.

Contracted instructors will receive a percentage of participant fees. Call Sherry Glenn at The Center for more information, (615) 382-1655. Public eye on school site There will be a public meeting at 5:30 p.m. Monday at the Metro Courthouse to discuss a piece of Nolensville Pike land being considered for the new W.H. Oliver Middle School site.

Metro Council officials say they are set on the land and plan to vote on it Tuesday at their regular meeting..