St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 10

i tu 3 NOV 51998 ft St. Louis The cast iron dome of the Old Courthouse on Fourth and Broadway was the first of its kind in the United States, predating that of the U.S. Capitol In Washington D.C. by a year and a half. What's next in the tobacco war? Melba R.

Moore of the American Lung Association of Eastern Missouri and nurse Maryann A. Coletti of the American Cancer Society-Heartland Division say the states will have to take up the tobacco fight now. B7 Suction to Thursday, November 5, 1998 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH I I. PI I IJ im it i Chafes suss over Lambert mm GOP courts African-Americans Bond's victory may signal a political shift for blacks Many of Missouri's black voters did on Tuesday what a few short years ago would have been con sidered unthinkable: they voted Republican.

According to exit polls, slightly more than one of every three black voters cast a ballot for Republican U.S. Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond in his re-election bid against Democratic Attorney Gen- eral Jay Nixon. Missing cross at fatal accident site renews Noise from extra runway will be harmful, city says Impact studies are challenged grieving for 12-year-old Fenton girl rreeigan 1 Bond's black support provided about half of his 10-point margin of victory. Considering that an overwhelming majority of black voters have voted Democratic historical ByKenleiser Of the Post-Dispatch Jets taking off and landing from the future third runway at Lambert Field will send noise levels soaring in St.

Charles a point that was all but ignored in environmental studies of the project, according to a. suit filed Wednesday. The city of St. Charles on Wednesday became the second unhappy neighbor of the proposed $2.6 billion airport expansion project to mount a legal challenge. In its lawsuit filed in federal Appeals Court, St.

Charles officials said their city would be squarely beneath the flight path of the proposed runway, creating an unacceptable racket for homeowners and celebrants at city cultural events. "St. Charles would experience significant adverse noise and other environmental impacts from the operation of the project," the city charged in the 15-page suit. On Sept. 30, the FAA gave the green light to the massive airport expansion project that includes the addition of the new parallel runway by 2004, relocation of major roads and other improvements.

St. Louis wants to upgrade its airport to accommodate future growth in air travel through the hub airport by eliminating potentially costly delays especially in bad weather. Local business leaders say it will provide a shot in the arm to the local economy. The controversial expansion already has drawn a legal challenge from the city of Bridgeton, where 2,000 houses are going to be razed to make room for the southwest runway. St.

Charles County is also considering its legal options. St. Charles City Attorney Lyn Porterfield said the chief difference between the two cities' lawsuits is that St. Charles is focusing only on the noise impact. Bridgeton's suit says that city's zoning laws are being violated.

Porterfield said the FAA violated federal environmental laws by approving environmental studies See Lambert, Page B4 nrirr i nlrt i a V6w. A Kevin Manning POST-DISPATCH Ashton Boon, 12, of Fenton, works on a cross to mark the spot on Highway 30 in Sunset Hills where her friend, Danielle Erin Vrtale, 12, was fatally injured Dec. 2 in a traffic accident. Danielle's father, Kevin Vrtale, noticed last week that the original cross was missing. Her friends will make a new marker for memorial on Highway 30 in Sunset Hills By John G.

Carlton Post-Dispatch Staff Writer It really wasn't much of a crime. Just a small white cross taken from beside a busy highway in south St. Louis County, probably some time last week. A couple pieces of wood, a little paint it couldn't have been worth more than a few dollars. Who's going to miss something like that? Wind and weather had faded the cross, but you could still see the message inscribed by a grief-stricken 12-year-old girl.

"We love you, Dani," she wrote. In place of the word "love," she drew a picture of a heart. Ashton Boon painted those words. She and her friend Christina turning left across the westbound lanes of Highway 30 when an oncoming car slammed into the passenger's side of her Jeep Cherokee. Her vision had been screened by a line of stopped cars.

They were waiting to turn into a church parking lot. In September, there was another story. Some local people wanted to put a stoplight at that inter-section. But the Missouri Department of Transportation wasn't convinced it was needed. In that story, Janet Vitale talked about how she replays the accident over and over again in her mind.

"I stopped. I looked. I saw nothing," she said. "Then this car came out of nowhere." Kevin Vitale, Dani's dad, found a strange kind of peace driving past the cross. See Cross, Page B4 where Highway 30 meets Maurer Industrial Drive in Sunset Hills.

On a dank December night last year, their best friend died there in a traffic accident. Before the wreckage had been cleared away, Ashton and Christina rode past. They recognized the battered remains of their best friend's car. The crash story took up just five paragraphs in the Post-Dispatch. It told how a little girl from Fenton named Danielle Erin Vi- Glennon Children's Hospital in a vain attempt to save her life.

It said she died at 10:25 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 2, 1997. She was 12. There wasn't enough space to say that Dani her friends all called her Dani had been on her way to gymnastics class.

It didn't mention that Dani loved Celine Dion and the Broadway musical "Grease," Girl Scouts, the Beach Boys and the Fenton Sharks girls Softball team. The story told how Dani's ly, the 34 per-zzzzzzz: cent of the black vote that Bond carried is significant. In presidential elections, blacks have voted for Democrats in heavy numbers since 1932, when Franklin D. Roosevelt doomed Herbert Hoover's re-election bid during the Great Depression. They've voted similarly in state and local elections.

So Bond's black vote total Tuesday more than triple the percentage of black votes he received six years ago sends a couple of important messages to both Democrats and Republicans. To Democrats, the message is simple. Black voters said they don't want to see their votes taken for granted. African-American voters urged on locally by such prominent black figures as St. Louis American publisher Donald Suggs and NAACP St.

Louis chapter president Charles Mischeaux were dissatisfied with Nixon's strong push to end school desegregation programs here and in Kansas City. Although most black Democratic officials either endorsed Nixon or remained silent during this election, a grass-roots movement among many blacks to oppose Nixon developed as well. Many in that movement noted that while blacks are the most loyal supporters of the Democratic Party, their votes are often taken for granted by Democrats. To Republicans, black voters sent another message: many of them are now willing to at least listen to GOP candidates and consider giving them their votes. That's meaningful, says John Hancock, executive director of the Missouri Republican Party, who noted that Bond had campaigned hard among the state's black voters.

"I've long felt that the day was coming when African-Americans realized that there are Republicans worthy of their support," Hancock said. "We do have candidates who have very much to offer African-American voters, if they can be heard." In past years, many Republicans felt it was a waste of time to campaign for black votes. Some black voters automatically dismiss any candidate with the letter behind his name. Indeed, some of those who voted for Bond on Tuesday probably did so holding their nose. But with the success of moderate Republicans like Bond, Texas Gov.

George W. Bush, who won about 20 percent of the black vote Tuesday, and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who doubled the number of black votes he received four years ago, that's likely to change, Hancock said. "I think it's a harbinger of changes to come," Hancock said. "You'll see more Republican candidates courting African-American voters.

I'm very optimistic about the future for our candidates. I think you'll see our ticket-toppers very visible in the African-American community." tale had been airlifted to Cardinal Dakich planted the cross at a spot mother, Janet Vitale, had been 'A ft! Jewish temple time capsule is round during MetroLink work in E. St. Louis BYROYMALONE recovered the time capsule a cop- ers during the period. One sho tY, u.

i ai 1 ...1 Of the ers during the period. One shows Moses Alexander, who was gover Post-Dispatch per container about the size of a shoe box from the cornerstone. Its contents offer a look back to when East St. Louis had a sizable Jewish population among its various ethnic groups. These groups dispersed and were replaced by African-Americans.

Fragile papers in the capsule show the orthodox congregation began in 1911 and the synagogue, with 125 members, was completed within five years. It cost about $15,000 to build, financed mostly by a loan. Contributions of members totaled $3,332. Leaflets of prominent Jews in government suggest that prejudice against Jews was on the minds of the congregation's lead nor of Idaho and who was to speak in St. Louis at the Democratic National Convention.

The other is of Louis B. Brandeis, who had just been appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Arnold Spirtas, head of the wrecking company, brought the capsule to Bi-State, suggesting it be passed on to descendants of the founders. Linda Hancock, a spokeswoman for Bi-State, tracked the congregation's move from 823 Pennsylvania Avenue to 89th Street, near Illinois Route 157.

When it disbanded in 1961, some members joined a synagogue in Belleville. Spirtas, who is Jewish, wants to be part of transferring the histori- A time capsule recovered from a former synagogue in East St. Louis has tie Bi-State Development Agency trying to find descendants of the original Jewish congregation that built it in 1916. The building, at Ninth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, was torn down a few months ago to clear a path for the extension of the MetroLink light-rail line from East St. Louis east to Belleville.

The synagogue had been called Agudas Achim. The congregation moved in 1961 and the building was acquired by the Haynes Miracle Temple, which has now had to relocate. Workers of Spirtas Wrecking Co. A sketch of a synagogue found in a time capsule from the demolished building in East St. Louis.

The synagogue was built in 1916. cal find to the congregation's de- want to know how their ancestors scendants. "The descendants of contributed $4 or $6 to make it the people who started this would See Cornerstone, Page B4 ip "Mm Native American events are set for this weekend in Ladue and Edwardsville Native American storyteller Johnny Moses will spin tales and entertain with songs and teachings of the spirit and soul from the Nootka and Tulalip nations of the U.S. Northwest coast region at 8 tonight in the East Room of St. Louis County Library Headquarters, 1640 South Lindbergh Boulevard, Ladue.

On Friday, he will speak on the Northwest coast Native American philosophy at noon at the Religious Center at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. He will share more stories and songs at an all-day Northwest Coast cultural gathering from 1 to 9 p.m. Saturday at the Religious Center, with a potluck dinner planned for 5 p.m. Moses, from Washington state, is an oral historian and a teacher of the Northwest Coast Salish languages and a practitioner of the Si-Si-Wiss medicine tradition. For information on the Friday and Saturday events, call (618) 692-9301.

Rock climber will speak at St. Peters City Hall World-class rock climber Pat Anient will present a lecture on some of his adventures as a rock climber at 6:30 tonight at St Peters City Hall. He will talk on "Master Climbers: The Art of Rock Climbing" at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, also at St. Peters City Hall.

Ament, who has written 27 books on the subject, will sign his latest book, "Stories of a Young Climber," from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Alpine Shop, 601 East Lockwood in Webster Groves. Tickets for the lectures are $10. For more information call 939-2386, Ext 608, or the Alpine Shop at (314) 962-7715.

Other News Mayor Clarence Harmon took the wraps off his plan for a new streamlined planning and urban development department combining several of the city's existing development agencies, commissions and boards. Under Harmon's plan, the Community Development Agency would be eliminated and its duties would be performed by both the existing St Louis Development Corp. and by a proposed new office Federal Entitlement Programs that would be part of the city's existing budget division. B2 Michael Worthington, 27, from Peoria, was sentenced to death Wednesday for the Aug. 28 strangling and raping of Mindy Griffin, 24, in her Lake Saint Louis condominium.

B4 Attorney Jerry Hunter, a black Republican and Bond supporter, says he thinks GOP candidates who are fiscal conservatives but social moderates what George W. Bush has dubbed "compassionate conservatives" stand a chance of winning large numbers of black votes. "Kit Bond's record of supporting public housing for the poor, his development of Missouri's Parents as Teachers program, his support of affirmative action while opposing quotas all of those things made him an attractive candidate to many black voters," Hunter said. Many of the issues that Bond -f- See Freeman, Page B2 Rock climber Pat Ament.