The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 1

GLADES CENTRAL WINS 13-AAA HOOPS OVER CARDINAL NEWMAN 66-63 SPORTS, 1C SUNNY) COOL Cool is the word for today. Highs will reach the upper 60s. Breezy and sunny with lows in the tow 50s. WEATHER, 2A GRAHAM SOLID, NOT SPLASHY SENATOR GETS RESPECT OPINION, IE SAYING 'YESV TO SCHOOL DROPPING IN, NOT OUT ACCENT, IF he Palni Beach A SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1990 FINAL EDITION 556 PAGES ONE DOLLAR Private war keeps public TV station in limbo Now-ripe Channel 21 gets caught in rivals' squabble i jiwayi 'C-l fili fcrf Ki iW; "It's like hearing that your priest ran off with somebody," said Jay Oliver, the station manager for commercial station WTVX-TV, Channel 34. "We commercial people are supposed to be cutthroat.

But you just don't expect public television to act that way." First, a little history. Aug. 12, 1955. That's the first day public television aired in South Florida. The Miami station, WTHS-TV, was an outgrowth of the school system, a way to bring classes to students via television.

But what started out as amateurishly broadcast By FRANK CERABINO Palm Beach Post Staff Writer For years, Channel 21 in Fort Pierce had been a television frequency nobody wanted. The channel, designated for non-profit educational TV, was available to anyone who could make a proposal to the Federal Communications Commission. During the early '80s, the two public television stations to the south WXEL-TV in Boynton Beach and WPBT-TV in Miami passed up the chance. Now they're both paying for it. The orphan that once was Channel 21 has blossomed into a coveted frequency, the object of a bidding 'It's like hearing that your priest ran off with war that has reached seven figures.

This is a story of how the beast became a beauty. It's wrapped in broken promises, the entrepreneurial president of a money-flushed Christian college and the nasty things that can happen in the supposedly genteel world of non-profit public television. Enough to make the hardened commercial broadcaster marvel. Claude Rhea of Palm Beach Atlantic College George Dooley, general manager WPBT-TV Lewis 'Dusty' Sang, WXEL chairman Dancing To That Swamp Music Malcolm Forbes dies at 70 Heart attack kills billionaire publisher The Associated Press NEW YORK Malcolm Forbes, colorful publisher of the business magazine that bears his name and an unabashed proponent of capitalism in all its forms, died of a heart attack in his sleep Saturday at his home, a spokesman for the magazine MA i fwAv- zvTte nEjv-i- Please see PUBLIC TV10A Smoking banned on 99 of flights By TIM O'MEILIA Palm Beach Post Staff Writer WEST PALM BEACH From now on, the only way salesman Joe Loveland can light up one of his Winstons on a domestic airline is to join the flight crew in the cockpit. "I know, I know.

This is my last chance," said Loveland as he patted the pack of cigarettes in his pocket. He was seated in the Palm Beach International Airport terminal Friday, preparing to board Friday's 1 p.m. American flight to Dallas-Fort Worth. "This was my favorite flight," he said. That's because it was one of the few he took that was more than two hours, allowing him to smoke on board.

"Oh, well. I learned to live without it on the other flights." Under a federal law that becomes effective today, smoking is: banned on all domestic U.S. airline flights, as well as flights to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The only exceptions, are flights of six hours or longer to and from Hawaii or Alaska. That means more than 99 per-; cent of U.S.

flights will be smokeless. The previous ban on smoking on flights of two hours or shorter covered about 80 percent of domestic flights. "The Marlboro Man has just lost all of the sky for his territory," anti-smoking lobbyist Ahron Leichtman said. "It's a big victory." The "no smoking" sign will be lighted permanently on all 68 daily flights by the five largest air carriers at Palm Beach International Airport. Previously, smoking was allowed on 38 of those flights, including Loveland's flight to Dallas-Fort Worth.

Smokers who fly have fewer and fewer places of refuge. Already, the Florida Clean Indoor Air Act restricts smokers to specified areas of the PBIA terminal. The ban was approved by Congress in November with surprisingly little debate. Only the cockpit, which is on a separate ventilation system, is exempt. "We fought very hard against the six-hour-or-less ban on smok- Please see SM0KING6A Forbes said.

He was 70. Mr. Forbes was pronounced dead at 4:30 p.m. at Timberfield, his home in Far Hills, N.J., said William Donald Garson, director of corporate communications for Forbes Inc. Mr.

Forbes, known for his motorcycles, megabuck parties and balloon flights, had returned Saturday morning from a trip to London, Garson said. Often seen in the company of longtime friend Elizabeth Taylor, Mr. Forbes appeared in newspaper celebrity columns as often as on business pages. "Forbes was the Babe Ruth of business publishing," said George Steinbrenner, principal owner of the New York Yankees. "He made Please see FORBES 12A SHERMAN ZENTStaff Photographer Katrina Letcher, 9, and the rest of the Sidekick Cloggers dance of boiled swamp cabbage and swamp cabbage fritters for an for the crowd Saturday at LaBelle's annual Swamp Cabbage expected crowd of 40,000, the largest in five years for the food Festival.

More than 2,000 palm trees were used to make cups and music celebration. STORY, 2B Changes aside, S. Africa is 6like Beirut' Mandela's test: End rampant black-against-black bloodshed aFRICa- BOTSWANA Area 1 Natal province aldetail I 1 rr Johannesburg NAMIBIA LESOTHO s' A Durban Mpumulangaj SOUTH AFRICA CapeTowi As he said this, youngsters could be heard on the other side of town chanting encomiums to Mandela in Zulu. They were dancing through the streets making joyous preparation to attend Mandela's speech at a mass rally today in Durban, a half-hour's drive away. Mandela faces the biggest test of his leadership since release from life imprisonment when he tries today to end the bloody inter-black feud in Natal province.

Mandela, a leader of the African National Congress, also will attempt to forge unity among anti-apartheid groups ahead of negotia- By JOSEPH ALBRIGHT and MARCIA KUNSTEL Palm Beach Post Washington Bureau MPUMULANGA, South Africa On the day Nelson Mandela walked free, Jerome Ngubo, a 22-year-old black police officer, found out his family had been decimated by fellow Zulus who lived just 500 yards away. "I am very ashamed," Ngubo said, as he helped defend the no man's land that divides what may be the bloodiest of all South African black townships in what used to be called Zululand. "I have lost my two brothers and my father, and I can't revenge them. I am a policeman, and my job is to keep law and order." In this one black township of 200,000 people, at least 236 people have died within three years in factional warfare that shows no sign of ending. Ngubo's relatives were killed when their white BMW was firebombed as they drove through the enemy side of "This violence is not good lor us," Ngubo said.

"We are all blacks. We do not like such a thing. But the problem is that a non-violent person and a violent person cannot come together easily." Indian Ocean 400 miles tions with the white minority government on a post-apartheid South Africa. Please see NATAL6A big Nelson Mandela faces a test of his leadership. Inside 'Willie Horton' remark dulls Nelson campaign for governor Both sides promising change as Nicaraguans vote today NATION'S GOVERNORS meet today in Washington, D.C., to adopt ambitious education goals.

STORY, 3A TURNOUT HIGH as Lithuanians make 'history voting in first Soviet multiparty election. I STORY, 16A Ei La ANN ABBY 2F BOOKS 4L BRIDGE COMICS Inside SANDINISTA victory could send thousands of Nicaraguans fleeing to South Florida. STORY, 12A ORTEGA woos the poor with freebies. STORY, PHOTOS, IE EDITORIAL, 2E LETTERS 4E LOTTERIES 2.5A BILLMcGOUN 3E DAN MOFFETT 1C NEWS SHOW 17A OBITUARIES 14B STOCKS 100 SUSMAN IB TV SPORTS 2C RON WIGGINS IF By NANCY NUSSER and ANNE-MARIE O'CONNOR Palm Beach Post Staff Writers MANAGUA, Nicaragua In the 10th year of a civil conflict that cost tens of thousands of lives, Nicaraguans are choosing today between two starkly different presidential candidates, both promising to lead the country out of ruin. Politicians and voters on both sides see the election as a plebiscite on the 10 years of government by leftist revolutionary leaders.

"We're tired of the problems here," said Carolina Benavides, 27, who works for the government but is voting for the opposition coalition. "We need change." Nicaraguans are clamoring for economic revival, an end to a still-divisive civil dispute and normalization of relations with the Unit- By MARY ELLEN KLAS Palm Beach Post Tallahassee Bureau Although Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Nelson's fund-raising machine has steamrolled over his rivals, his campaign hasn't run as smoothly. Upstaged at the state Democratic convention by opponent George Stuart, forced to return $33,000 in contributions from Cen-Trust Bank and labeled by opponents as a flip-flop on abortion, the Melbourne congressman's campaign has stumbled on one problem after another over the past four months. Then came last week's public rebuke from a Miami judge, who lambasted Nelson for calling accused cop killer Charles Street Gov. Bob Martinez's Willie Horton.

The comment prompted Nelson to apologi for ra- BUSINESS CLASSIFIED DOUGLAS EDITORIALS FLA. NEWS HATHAWAY IN CANADA ID 1J 10 2E 21A 2E 9A Dollar signs are what George Stuart needs to be noticed 14A cial references implied by his remarks. And it forced him to stop production of two television commercials intended to be a cornerstone of his campaign. But Friday, Nelson switched to citing another inmate: an Australian aborigine who raped and murder a white Melbourne wom- Please ee NELSON 1 4A ed States. Pledges to work toward those aims have been delivered repeatedly by both presidential hopefuls Sandinista incumbent Daniel Ortega and Violeta Chamorro, the challenger from the Nicaraguan Opposition Union, or UNO.

Please see NICARAGUAJ 2A Vol. 57 No. 8 1990 The Palm Beach Post FOR HOME DELIVERY SERVICE: CALL 837-4663 1-800-654-1231.