The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 9

RANDY EVAN'S, Ioua Nkws Ki-itok, Leisure Suit Convention tivw ixilycshr, platform shoes, iihkmI rings and the VUlafie I'eople at the Val Air liullroom Saturday. Iowa Journal, Page2B MKt H2S, I Sm.tHin it it it Hawkeye Science Fair Donnellson.Stuart-Menlo students take top honors at the 35th annual event. Page 6B Iowa Boy Ik itar-pfe knot Now that work is under way, lawmakers seek compromise Dcs Jllolncs Sunbaij Jtcgistcr mm mms Dfllg By DAVID YEPSEN Kkoistfk Staff W'hitik Chuck Offenburger ting federal and hospital traffic onto the network has been proposed just to generate more money to pay for the system, which is costing more than originally planned. Local telephone interests have resisted federal and hospital hookups, arguing that it could lead to the network or some other firm plucking away their best customers. To compromise, some supporters have suggested giving hxal telephone companies except I'S West exclusive rights to hook up the last legs of the network in return for an agreement to allow federal and hospital traffic on the network.

But the idea of exclusive hookups is meeting resistance from cable TV, utilities and FIBER OPTICS PU'ase turn to Page 6B lowed to move their telecommunications traffic onto the system. Whether hospitals should be allowed to use the system. State officials and network supporters say letting hospitals use the system will help ease rural health-care costs and will help provide sophisticated health-care services to rural Iowans. Letting federal agencies onto the system would bring in federal money, including grants for pilot projects designed to see how the technology can be used by other states. Competing With Business Opponents of these ideas say they are more examples of how the network is competing with private business.

They say let ing advocate of the system, said it would be acceptable to him because current law allows work to continue on the network in spite of the opposition. Backbone Due for October The 101 million backbone of the network that extends into each county will be completed in October. The third phase of the project, hooking it up to various users in each county, is beginning. As a result, several issues have emerged in the 1993 legislative session: Whether small, local phone companies should be given the right to make the local hookups to the system, or whether that process should be put up for competitive bids. Whether federal agencies should be al Iowa lawmakers are moving to unsnarl political knots in the state's controversial fiber-optic network and hope to fashion a compromise this week designed to save taxpayers money and give local phone companies a piece of the action.

But it's not clear whether anyone likes the compromise, and one legislative expert on the network said last week that his colleagues are so confused by the various pressures and complex technology that they may do nothing. While that's not the best option, Sen. Richard Varn, the Solon Democrat who is a lead A Day of Heroes A warm thanks for an icy rescue By JEFF EW0LDT RfcistkkStaffWkitfk Ronald Thompson says he'll always be grateful to the heroes who saved him and his young stepson from the icy Des Moines River Friday after an escaped psychiatric patient threw the boy into the water. A peaceful visit to Des Moines' Prospect Park turned violent Walker Saved boy about 3:30 p.m. Friday for Thompson and his stepson, Scott Hamrick, 3.

A patient at Broad-lawns Medical Center, identified by police as Daniel William Ellis, 34, of 2620 Beaver bolted from the hospital's psychiatric ward, ran down a nearby hill to the park and grabbed Scott from the playground. Ellis then threw the boy into the river, jumped on top of him and tried to drown him, a police report stated. "This jerk came running down the hill there," Thompson, 23, of 1420 Eighth St. said Saturday. "I went to grab Scott to put him on the slide, and the next thing I knew, he was gone.

"I told him (Ellis) to stop and give my son back, but he just turned around and looked at me. Then he jumped into the water," Thompson said. That's when David Walker, 25, HERO Please turn to Page 7B Fish Could Be Answer Ronald son, Des rescued a A I I I. "vff 1 if -v s.jif;.. i' 5) 1 -A A salute to Bill Riley tffi ill Riley hobbled home to Iowa from Arizona on bad knees fi two weeks ago, spent 100 hours in front of the cameras raising money for Iowa Public Television, fell off a riser on the stage and then really hobbled on his way back to Arizona.

"My old knees are giving me fits," the 72-year-old Riley said by phone Friday from his winter home in Scotts-dale. "I've got arthritis anyway, and I seem to keep giving the knees a pull in the wrong direction. The wages of ace. I guess. "Then I had to have my last wisdom tooth pulled Monday, right before I went to the airport in Des Moines.

And at the airport, I twisted a knee again. I'll tell you, it was a crappy day." But still all worth it, he said, because IPTV's fund-raising "Festival" was the most successful ever $900,000 pledged from 17,529 callers. 50 Years Riley is celebrating his 50th anniversary in broadcasting, and for at least 15 years he has been host of the Festival for IPTV never taking a dime for doing so. He said he does it because IPTV supports his State Fair Talent Search every summer. Before the Festival signed off last Sunday night, the IPTV crew and volunteers brought in a big cake and plaque honoring Riley's long career.

But Riley said his biggest thrill during the Festival "was the response from little Hardin County," which includes his hometown of Iowa Falls. "When we first opened the switchboards for pledges, right off the bat there were 50 calls from Hardin County," Riley said. "The mayor up at Iowa rails, Don Clark, orchestrated that. And on the second night, they went up over 130 calls from Hardin County, which made it the first county to top its performance from the year before. It makes a guy feel good when your ol' home folks remember you." They'll remember and honor him again come summer.

He'll be guest of honor for Iowa Falls' big "Riverbend Rally" Fourth of July celebration. Ride for Riley We bicyclists will join in that salute to thank Riley for his early work in promoting bicycling and recreation trails in the state. On Saturday and Sunday, July 3 and 4, we'll have a Bill Riley Bike Ride from Des Moines to Iowa Falls and back. It's about 80 miles each way, but we'll have a staging area in Nevada for those who'd prefer 40-mile days. We'll launch the ride at 7 a.m.

that Saturday from IPTV headquarters in Johnston, just northwest of Des Moines. We'll ride through Bondurant, Maxwell, Iowa Center, Nevada, Fernald, McCallsburg, Garden City, Radcliffe, Buckeye, Alden and into Iowa Falls in time to watch a big 5 p.m. parade. After the parade, there will be "Brats with Bill," with Riley himself buying a bratwurst and cold drink for all the bike riders. There will be a dance in a local park.

Dorm rooms, towels and showers will be available at Ellsworth Community College for the riders for $7 per person or $14 per family, with the Iowa Falls Chamber of Commerce handling the reservations at (515) 648-3432. Camping will be allowed at the college, motel rooms are still available or riders can call the chamber to arrange rooms with local families. There will be a Chris Cakes pancake breakfast available Sunday morning in Julia O'Neill Park, named for Riley's aunt, who was an educator in Iowa Falls for more than 50 years. No Charge There is no charge for the bike ride. Spoken Wheel yclery of Iowa Falls will provide mechanical backup on the road, and the Greenbelt Bicycle Club of Iowa Falls is helping with all arrangements.

RAGBRAI will provide baggage-hauling and a "sag wagon." Some of Kiley's proteges hen he as with Heritage Cablevision are going together to give riders T-shirts commemorating the ride. They are Kevin Rice, who now has the Dallas County Old Depot Brewery in Adel; David Oman and Terry Rich, now owners with Riley of KBBM radio in the IV-s Moines area, and Man Mocker, who now owns Broken Arrow T-shirts in Polk City. Bike dubs and other groups planning to join the ride should contact me at The Register. P.O. Box Pes Moines oU'34.

so we can tx-gin to get a MHint of how many cy lists to expect. Justice still waits in 1986 murder i 5 i The suspect, a former town police chief, was recently captured after spending years on the run. By DAVE BROWN Rkoistkr Staff Wkitik Lyons, Neb. On Dec. 27, 1986, a farmer driving down a country road on the Omaha Indian reservation near Walt- hill, dis- covered the naked body of a woman.

She was An- na Marie Anton, 34, of Lyons, who had spent most of her life in the Iowa Great Lakes Webb area. Suspect She had been shot twice with a Smith Wesson revolver. One bullet tore through her heart and aorta. That day, authorities searched her apartment in the house she shared with Lyons Police Chief Gregory Webb, who also grew up in Iowa. Known locally as the Fink House, the residence is an old, weather-beaten place with fading pink paint.

Webb rented the up stairs; Anton lived downstairs. On Jan. 6, 1987, after searches turned up blood in Webb's rooms, the stairway and a city police car, Webb was charged with first-degree murder, punishable by death in Nebraska. But he had vanished. Captured Last month, after a rerun of NBC's "Unsolved Mysteries" pro gram on the case, the Nebraska State Patrol received a phone call from a man in the Daytona Beach, area who said a co-worker, Gregory Webber, looked like Webb.

He was. Webb as arrested on Feb. 23 and is being held without bond in the 1986 slaying. A preliminary hearing is sched uled for Thursday at the Burt County Courthouse in Tekamah, Neb. But what seems like a cut-and-dried murder case isn't.

In Lyons, a typical small, Mid western Main Street kind of town, population about 1,200, theories abound about what really happened to Anna Anton and whv Webb left. Some folks think he didn't kill her. Other Suspects, Theories There seem to have been other potential suspects: unknown Iowa drug dealers whom Anton said she feared, a friend who later committed suicide. Plus, police never found the murder weapon, Anton's clothes or the cane she had to use as a result of a crippling car accident in 1978. At least three theories have bevn proposed to explain why Webb would flee if he as innKvnt Smie say Webb knew who shot Anna Anton and left to prote the killer Burt County.

Neb Sheriff Leonard Canarskv thinks Webb SLAYING turn to Pngr 3B JEFFREY Z. CARNEYTllt REGISTER Thompson, 23, gets a hug from his step- Center grabbed him and threw him into the Scott Hamrick, 3, on the porch of their water. Thompson jumped in to try to save Moines home Saturday. The boy was Scott, but soon needed a rescue also. David from the Des Moines River Friday Walker, 25, a student at University of Osteo-after man fleeing Broadlawns Medical pathic Medicine, saved the boy.

Polar paradox: Blubber does a bear body good A of I researcher finds that bear cholesterol drops on a high-fat diet. By CHARLES BULLARD )i Tut Rki iistfk's iw Cm Hi ut Iowa City, la. If you want to lower your cholesterol level, maybe a seal blubber diet is the answer. Research on polar bears by a I'niversity of Iowa scientist indicates a strict low-fat diet may not be the only way to reduce cholesterol readings. G.

Edgar Folk Jr. found cholesterol levels in polar bears dropped when they dined on seal blubber, the ultimate high-fat meal, but shot up when they were forced to fast and ate no fat. "When humans have high cholesterol, they're told to stop eating fat." said Folk "But the bears we studied on the Hudson Bay ice pack had the lowest cholesterol levels when they ate the greatest amount of fat Folk theorizes the polar bears' high fat diet of al MuMier keej them healthy because it is rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids are found in over-the-counter fish oil capsules that some researchers have touted as a heart-healthy potion. But Folk said he is not ready to endorse fish oil capsules because they cause side effects in some people.

Instead, Folk recommends eating fish three or four times a week. "I think that is more natural." Mammals cannot produce omega-3, but polar bears ingest the fatty acids when they gorge on seal blubber, their favorite meal. Seal blubber is high in omega-3 because seals eat fish exclusively. Fish absorb the fatty acids by coasuming one-celled marine plants called diatoms. Folk, who has studied polar bears for more than two decades, said they apparently know what's good for them.

They are so fond of seal blubber, he reports, that they leave the rest of the carcass for other animals after eating their fill of blubber. As a result, their diet is almost BEARS It-iv turn to Page 6B 1 G. Edgar Folk a I nivcrsit of Iowa professor emeritus of environmental physiology, disatssos his research..