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

MIAMI TOPS PATRIOTS j. i SUNNY South Florida will be sunny and warmer with highs in the mid-70s, and lows in the upper 40s to 50s. WEATHER, 2A STREET SMART BIG BIRD AND PALS BEGIN 23rd SEASON ACCENT, ID K1ALEAH HIGH 30,000 TURN OUT FOR OPENING DAY SPORTS, 1C REDSKINS 56 BUCCANEERS 30 FALCONS 17 LIONS 2j. OILERS 26" COLTS 28 COWBOYS (OT) 23 JETS 27 FULL NFL COVERAGE IN SPOHTS i i The Palm Beach Post MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1991 82 PAGES 35 CENTS FINAL EDITION Women Of The Wind WWII pilot says her efforts remain secret if I tern 1 1 I I Veterans Day Today JEWISH WAR VETERANS, brought together by faith and the scars of war, gather to remember. 2B WHAT'S OPEN, what's not 2B ing Squadron, or WAFS.

With male pilots in short supply, the Army Air Force called on experienced female pilots to get combat planes from manufacturing plants to the bases where they would be shipped overseas. For James, the call to duty came in a Sept. 9, 1942, telegram telling her to report to the New Castle Army Air Base in Wilmington, Del. At the time, she was a Pittsburgh flight instructor who had captured a stunt pilot title at an air show by performing 26 half spins and 10 Please see VETERAN1 OA By GILLIAN HAGGERTY Palm Beach Post Staff Writer LAKE WORTH She sits in a sea of memorabilia, thumbing through yellowed news- paper clippings and glancing at musty photo albums filled with images of a tough woman pilot who ferried planes during World War II. Her uniform has been preserved and dis-; played at the Smithsonian Air and Space Muse-; um.

But Teresa James who flew in the first experimental pilot program for women during WWII remains amazed that a hush still surrounds women's efforts during the war. i "Our efforts are still a damn big secret," she said. James, a 77-year-old retiree, was one of 25 women to fly in the Women's Auxiliary Ferry Photo by RICHARD GRAULICH Teresa James, one of the first women to fly a plane in WWII, shows war photographs at her Lake Worth home. Record Cold Strikes West Palm I 1 Jj fillip' 'A Storm pounds East Coast 8 i i a Pa. vote spotlights health care Democrat's victory forces Bush to enact plan early By LARRY LIPMAN Palm Beach Post Washington Bureau WASHINGTON Harris Wof-ford's stunning victory in Pennsylvania was only hours old when Paul Tsongas told an overflow crowd in New Hampshire that the Nov.

5 election "will eventually be seen as the first day in the coming of national health care." That same morning, President Bush, reeling from Wofford's 10-point victory over Richard Thorn-burgh, his former attorney general, said: "We are working on the health-care issue stay tuned." Later in Rome, the president pledged to offer a health-reform package "before the election next year." It was the first time Bush had indicated he would act on the issue before the '92 election and contradicted the sentiments expressed before the Pennsylvania election by Bush's chief of staff John Sununu. "I'd like to have a comprehensive health-care plan that I can take to the American people," Bush said. "It's a matter of concern." The Bush administration has been working on developing a comprehensive health plan for nearly two years, ever since his 1990 State of the Union address in which he instructed Health and Human Ser- Please see HEALTH 12A 0 The Associated Press An ocean-roiling storm buff eted the Atlantic Coast from Virginia to New Jersey on Sunday with powerful wind gusts and towering waves that flooded some beachfront homes. It soaked parched mountains in Appalachia, helping foresters gain the upper hand on wildfires there. It was the second storm to hit the coast in two weeks but was shaping up to be milder than its predecessor, which forced thousands to flee coastal areas and damaged property from Florida to Maine.

Officials worried that beaches and sand dunes eroded by the Halloween storm would not hold up to pounding surf, but no serious dam- age had been reported. A home damaged by previous storms was toppled in North Carolina, and beachfront homes were flooded in Virginia Beach, Va. Please see STORMS 11 A 1 I BOB SHANLEYStaff Photographer Fred Hill of North Palm Beach cycles along South County Road in Palm Beach Sunday morning. The clock was an hour fast. Mercury slips below '56 mark m.

Inside Won't mow mm HSUO? Mm A 1 I A AGENCY. 1 HAVE A Ar By GILLIAN HAGGERTY Palm Beach Post Staff Writer WEST PALM BEACH An arctic air mass swept through South Florida this weekend, sending the thermometer mercury plummeting to record lows. At 7 a.m. Sunday the temperature hit 46 degrees, breaking a record low for that day of 50 degrees, which was set in 1956. And Saturday night, just before midnight, the National Weather Service recorded a West Palm Beach temperature of 50 degrees, breaking a record low of 52 degrees, which also was set in 1956.

Several other cities, including Hollywood (46 degrees), Melbourne (42 degrees) and Pensacola (33 degrees) set record lows Sunday. Many homeless sought refuge in shelters. "We took more people in on account of cold weather," said Emos Peterson, a security guard at the Salvation Army. The arctic air mass swept through the Plains states late last week, traveling south and east to Florida. The front reached Florida on Friday, according to the National Weather Service.

And a low pressure area developed offshore along the front, pulling down more cold air, meteorologist John McMichael said. On Sunday, calmer and clearer skies allowed more of the heat of the day to escape into the atmosphere. National Weather forecasters say another record low may be set today. The mercury is expected to return to normal Tuesday, with highs around 80 degrees and lows near 64 degrees, McMichael said. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS High weekend surf toppled a Nags Head, N.C., home that was condemned after suffering damage in an earlier storm.

Duke's Christian rebirth doubted Merger plan for Glades hospitals headed for court! Duke has made religion an issue in the Louisiana governor's race by insisting that his past should not be held against him because of his newfound Christian attitudes, even as religious leaders across the state were questioning his beliefs and urging their congregations not to endorse his racist views. Appearing with his opponent in the Louisiana governor's race, former Gov. Edwin Edwards, on the Meet the Press program on Sunday, Duke was Please see DUKE11 A Palm Beach Post Wire Services NEW ORLEANS New doubts were cast Sunday on the assertion by Louisiana gubernatorial candidate David Duke that he shed his racist and anti-Semitic beliefs as a result of a Christian conversion. Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan leader who says he has changed because he is a "born again" Christian, conceded on Sunday that he could not pinpoint a specific conversion in recent years. Several days ago, Duke admitted that he did not belong to a church he had claimed to attend.

4 1 A 1 1 1 NO DOONESBURY Garry Trudeau's comic strip Doonesbury will not appear on the daily comics pages of The Palm Beach Post for the next vtwo weeks. The Post and sev-' eral other newspapers have pulled the strip because it peats discredited allegations about a Drug Enforcement Administration file on Vice Presi-. dent Dan Quayle. Above: part of today's canceled Doones-bury. STORY IN ACCENT, ID ANN ABBY 20 LOTTERY 2A BLACKBURN 14A McEVOY 15A CLASSIFIEDS 4B DANM0FFETT 1C -COMICS 8D OBITUARIES 38 EDITORIALS 14A PEOPLE 2A HOROSCOPE 7D TH0M SMITH ID LETTERS 13A TV SPORTS 2C MOVIES, TV LISTINGS ACCENT Vol.

83 No. 194 1991 The Palm Beach Post 5 Sections Duke denies calling Hitler a genius. Redisricting may give clout to black voters By VAL ELLICOTT Palm Beach Post Staff Writer PAHOKEE June Haulcomb doesn't wear her! "Hell No, We Won't Close" T-shirt to work anymore. 1 Her bosses at Everglades Memorial Hospital decided the shirt's message was a little too strident. But they sympathize with Haulcomb's point oil view.

Everglades Memorial staffers are fuming over a recent 5-2 vote by the Palm Beach County Health Care District board to effectively close the hospital by 1993. J- The board's plan: merge Everglades Memorial in Pahokee and Glades General Hospital in Belle Glade into a regional medical center located at Glades! General. District officials say the move will save between $5 million and $10 million a year. But directors of Everglades Memorial Hospital'; the private, non-profit corporation that runs Everglades Memorial, are not giving up without a fight. They promise to block the district board's; decision with a long, expensive legal battle.

"We're going to beat the pulpiut of these people," Please see HOSPITALS6A DADE SEATS CHANGE Nine white incumbents may be competing for two state House seats if Hispanics and blacks get their district wishes. STORY, 5A FOR HOME DELIVERY SERVICE 8204663 1800 654 1231 POSTIINES: quired not only to do everything in their power to keep from reducing black voting power, they must strengthen it wherever possible, the courts have held. That means that in Palm Beach County, the creation of a black majority district may take precedence over the political parity of the rest of the county. "The law seems to state clearly that if you can do a (black) majority district, you almost have to," said Rep. Jim Burke, chairman of a House Please see REDISTRICTING5A By MARY ELLEN KLAS Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau TALLAHASSEE Black leaders may have the tools this year to ensure that Palm Beach County will no longer be the largest county without a black in the Legislature, and that Florida will no longer be the largest state without a black in Congress.

Armed with a handful of federal court decisions and amendments to the federal Voting Rigls Act, minority groups have a better chance than ever to reshape the political map through the once-a-decade WE RECYCLE For Information, call 1-800-432 7595 ext. 4638. reapportionment process. Court decisions since 1982 the year of jhe last redistricting battle have redefined the standard for protecting minority voting rights. Lawmakers are re.