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

5 What makes a great Jw'tip SMIRK 10 IN AilOW IT'S FRANCHISE'S BEST WIN STREAK SPORTS, 1C School district missos deadline to appeal $215,000 refund ib Albright wants NATO, Russia in joint peacekeeping brigade3A WEATHER: Partly cloudy. High 78, low 70. 2A PENGUINS 4, PANTHERS 2SPORTS, 1C 1 1 mi NEAT ACCENT, ID The Palm Beach Post FINAL EDITION WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1997 48 PAGES 50 CENTS WXEL-Barry merger needs Cabinet's OK Commissioners aren't giving up despite House Speaker Daniel Webster's opposition to a tax hike that would help pay for a convention center. The attorney general complains that the deal was made without any input from the public. By ELIOT KLEINBERG Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Public broadcasting station WXEL's merger with Barry University will need the blessing of Florida's Cabinet, the state attorney general has ruled.

The Cabinet, sitting as the state Board of Education, will have to approve the transfer of the state's lease a considerable asset into this shell. That may be OK, but the people who own the asset haven't spoken on it." WPBT-Channel 2, WXEL's Miami-based competitor, and the Florida Board of Regents had been interested in buying the financially strapped WXEL. But WXEL had already negotiated a $500,000 mortgage with Barry last year. The attorney general's office may still have something to say about the secrecy that surrounded the merger talks, Antonacci said. Please see WXEL 1 OA The lease agreement requires that any transfer of the equipment be to "an educational or non-commercial broadcasting entity authorized by the state of Florida." The attorney general has ruled that Barry Telecommunications, the newly formed Barry University subsidiary that would take over the stations from South Florida Telecommunications, is not such an entity, the letter says.

"Barry Telecommunications is an empty shell," Deputy Attorney General Pete Antonacci said Tuesday from Tallahassee. "And we're transferring with WXEL, lawyers for the attorney general and the Board of Education advised the station's lawyer in a letter dated Monday. The Cabinet is to hear the case Tuesday. Because this was a last-minute agenda request and it's too late for proper advance notice, the Cabinet will only discuss it, then vote later. WXEL-Channel 42 and WXEL-FM 90.7 broadcast from Boynton Beach studios built by the state for $5 million and leased for $1 a year.

They also use some state-owned equipment and receive an average of $650,000 a year in state money. Iron Lady Attracts Fans In Palm Beach Convention center tax faces fight The GOP's 'no new taxes' pledge may hurt Palm Beach County's plans! for a $48 million complex. By JOEL ENGELHARDT Palm Beach Post Staff Writer WEST PALM BEACH Last November, when voters gave Republicans control of the state House for the first time in 122 years, backers of a Palm Beach County convention center wouldn't have expected the backlash to kill their pet project. Now they know better. Their plan for a hotel bed-tax increase initiated, by hoteliers whose customers would pay has run smack into the mantra of the Republican House: No A new taxes.

And without the tax, county commissioners have said, they will not build the $48 million convention center. Commissioners aren't giving up. They agreed to make the issue their top priority with the legislature this spring and will write letters to two leading local Republicans, Reps. Sharon Merchant of North Palm Beach and Tom Warner of Stuart. On Tuesday, they learned they face a stiff fight." County Commissioner Ken Foster got the word directly from Merchant and House Speaker Daniel Webster, R-Orlando.

The legislators met with Foster and hoteliers Thursday at a private home. "We got an absolute no. They see it as a tax, and Please see TAX6A Better treatment, not better living, cuts heart deaths mil JL By BRENDA C. COLEMAN The Associated Press CHICAGO Deaths from heart disease in the United States are declining mostly because of better drugs and other treatment not because people are warding off trouble by leading healthier lives, a study suggests. MARK MIRKOStaff Photographer PALM BEACH Lynne Bosch van Drakesteyn gets Margaret Thatcher Britain's former prime minister was to speak before a crowd of 900.

to sign books Tuesday outside the Society of the Four Arts, where Thatcher, 7 1 spoke on her three-term tenure. STORY, 2B Even late use of estrogen helps women's bones. FDA warns 'date rape' drug is deadly. STORIES, 8A Only 25 percent ot the decline in heart disease deaths between 1980 and 1990 can be attributed to people who have never had heart problems taking such steps as quitting smoking and staying slim, research Clinton eats flak while dining for dollars 'A (V I Y- ers estimate. The rest of the improvement came from averting further problems in people who have heart disease and from improved treatment, researchers reported in today's issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

About 400,000 people die each year from heart disease in the United States, accounting for one-third of all deaths. Heart-disease deaths decreased 3.4 percent each year during the 1980s, according to the government. The researchers' conclusions were based on a computer model they created to forecast trends in heart disease. They used a variety of sources medical literature, government statistics, health sur- imposed the same voluntary limits enacted by the Democratic National Committee in the wake of the controversy over its 1996 money-raising. Mike McCurry, the White House press secretary, however, defended Clinton's appearance and said that under any overhaul of the campaign finance laws, political parties would still be raising money.

"Campaign finance reform does not require taxpayers to pick up the bill for campaigns," he said, "and the Please see MONEY-RAISING 1 OA groups fighting to reduce the influence of money in politics and left the White House working hard to explain how the president's nonstop money-raising squared with his calls for reform. With Tuesday night's 100 guests making donations of $10,000 or $25,000, the dinner raised some of the same kind of unregulated "soft money" contributions that Clinton has asked Republicans to join with him in forswearing. In addition, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee the recipient of the money has not By ALISON MITCHELL The New York Times NEW YORK Just two weeks after he called on Congress to overhaul the campaign finance laws by summer, President Clinton flew Tuesday to New York City, one of the political money-raising capitals of the nation, to raise more than $1 million for Democratic candidates for the Senate. Clinton's long-scheduled appearance at a small dinner at the Upper East Side townhouse of J. Shelby Bryan, a telecommunications executive, drew criticism from GINGRICH AT THE BREAKERS House Speaker Newt Gingrich will be in Palm Beach today to meet major GOP contributors.

STORY, 10A Clinton's New York trip is part of 'campaign reform hypocrisy a critic says. Please see HEART8A Inside Crazy Horse brew a tasteless bid for money, Indians say v. i 1 LOTTERY OBITUARIES SCORES STOCKS THEATERS TV LISTINGS TV SPORTS I 1 2A 4B 9C 6B 4D SO 2C ANN ABBY 2D BUSINESS SB CLASSIFIEDS 10C COMICS 6D EDITORIALS 12A FLA. NEWS 7A HOROSCOPE 20 CROSSWORDS i i SECTIONS i i f- -f was more than Big Crow could bear. "To the people who put this out, it's nothing but a way to make money.

For them, everything is there to make money off of," said Big Crow, a descendant of Crazy Horse, who is best known among non-Indians for defeating Gen. George Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana. "But there are many things that we honor and cherish and we are going to defend them." WITNESSES LINK MCVEIGH TO TRUCK Two witnesses in the Oklahoma City bombing trial swear that Timothy McVeigh rented the Ryder truck the government says carried the bomb. STORY, 3A NETANYAHU QUESTIONED Investigators question Israel's prime minister in connection with an influence-trading scandal. STORY, 4A FOR HOME DELIVERY SERVICE 8204663 1-800-654-1231 By MICHAEL A.

FLETCHER The Washington Post ST. PAUL, Minn. For better or worse, Seth H. Big Crow Sr. had grown accustomed to the almost daily insults American Indians face in a nation where sports fans celebrate the Atlanta Braves or the Washington Redskins by performing "war chants" and "tomahawk chops." But when a New York company started selling 40-ounce bottles of a high-powered malt liquor under the Crazy Horse i he venerated Sioux leader, tht cultural disrespect Copyright 1997 Palm Beach Post Vol.

89 No. 4 sections 7 True to his word, Big Crow has joined forces with other Indian activists The Washington Post Lawyer Phyllis Tousey Frederick and Vernon Bellecourt, a founder of the National American Indian Movement, hope to 7 Please see CRAZY HORSE 1 OA stop the sale of Crazy Horse maltJquor under that name..