St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 1

0 piu VOL. 115, NO. 120 Copyright 1993 FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 1993 (2) 5-STAR 50 SUTDTD D2D DTDK HH DS3Hldl a Casinos May Roll On State Rivers As Early As This Fall By Phil Linsalata and Fred W. Lindecke Of the Post-Dispatch Staff With his signature of a new gambling law Thursday, Gov. Mel Carnahan opened the state's waterfronts as the nation's next gambling frontier.

The first floating casinos in Missouri may open as early as the fall, an aide to Carnahan said. More riverboat casinos will be licensed through 1994, the aide said. And in St. Louis, officials with the administration of new Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. revealed for the first time Thursday their intention to scrap the bid process for casinos at Laclede's Landing.

Now, they plan to seek new proposals from any interested parties. Carnahan's penstroke was the final act in a campaign to legalize riverboat gambling in Missouri. Gaming commissioners in Missouri listed 6A Metro East casinos welcome competition from Missouri 7A The effort's first success was approval of riverboat gambling by voters statewide in November. All that remains now is for casino operators in St. Louis and the state's 12 other legal gambling areas to set up their boats and secure licenses.

In the St. Louis area, gambling is authorized in the city of St. Louis, Maryland Heights, Jefferson County, St. Charles and Portage des Sioux, in St. Charles County.

Riverboat gambling licenses will be awarded by a five-member Missouri Gaming Commission. Carnahan nominated its members immediately upon signing the bill. The nominees will begin work even before they are confirmed by the state Senate, according to Roy Temple, an aide to Carnahan. Temple led the administration's long and often difficult effort to move the legislation through the Legislature. The new law is a sweeping reform of the one approved before the referendum.

For instance, former Gov. John Ashcroft in office when the first law was passed considered the original law too weak against corruption, which can eat into the 20 percent share of a casino's win that will be shared with state and local governments. The new law "carries out the spirit of what the voters approved, and does it much better," Carnahan said as he signed the law. Under the law, the state holds the right to monitor casino finances closely and to reject applicants unable to prove their personal and professional integrity. See GAMBLING, Page 6 1 I Plane Crash Kills 2 r.v; "v-vy'i Kt iV Trw 7 i Kevin MannirtflQSt-DiSffatch Paul McCartney performing Thursday night at Busch Stadi um.

He opened with "Drive My Car." 4The Cute Beatle' Wows Crowd Here By Kim Bell Of the Post-Dispatch Staff A twin-engine plane crashed Thursday in a landfill near Castlewood State Park, killing both men on board. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the cause of the crash. But authorities at the scene speculated that the plane might have run out of fuel. Officials believe the men are from Germany. The identities of the two men were being withheld until their families could be notified.

The plane went down about 2 p.m. just east of the park at the end of Fern Glen Road. The area is in west St. Louis County, near Valley Park. Authorities said the plane was a Cessna 42 IB Golden Eagle.

The type, an eight-seat propeller-driven business aircraft, was last built in 1976. Witnesses said the plane appeared to be heading east, possibly following the Meramec River and railroad tracks near the West County Landfill. One witness, Bill Fox, said he heard the plane sputtering in the air. "The motor was dying out, and I looked up just in time to see it about tree level, spiraling down," said Fox, who was working on a homeowner's See CRASH, Page 14 By Patricia Corrigan Of the Post-Dispatch Staff The one and only Paul McCartney brought his New World Tour, some old songs (and some new), his vivid message on behalf of animal rights and his $25 T-shirts to Busch Stadium on Thursday night. The crowd appeared to approve of all of the above.

Women of a certain age and men too, but mostly women dropped years from their lives as they squealed and danced and sang along with "the cute Beatle" as he crooned "All My Younger fans, introduced to McCartney's music by older siblings or even parents, joined in, too. Fans stripped off the T-shirts they'd worn in and slipped into any one of about a dozen different souvenir shirts. And few people seemed unmoved by the often grisly animal-rights video that preceded the show. A stadium employee estimated that about 40,000 people attended. "I'm fulfilling a lifelong dream that I didn't fulfill in 1966," said Janice Jennings, who drove to St.

Louis from Huntsville, Ala. (McCartney appeared at Busch Stadium with three of his friends in 1966.) "In 1966, 1 was 11, and my See MCCARTNEY, Page 5 J.B. ForbesPost-Dispatch Firefighters extinguishing a blaze after a twin-engine Cessna 421 Golden Eagle crashed Thursday afternoon near Castlewood State Park in west St. Louis County. Two men aboard were killed on impact, authorities said.

1MS1 Congress Awaits Clinton's Call On Bosnia UP 11.62 CLOSE 3425.12 President Nearing Decision After Meeting With Advisers 2F 28 Area Students Win Merit Awards Twenty-eight high school students in the St. Louis area each get $2,000 awards from the National Merit Scholarship Corp. 30D Compiled From News Services WASHINGTON President Bill Clinton examined a number of U.S. military options in Bosnia with his top advisers and the Pentagon's top brass Thursday as he neared a decision on what to do about the Serbs. Secretary of State Warren M.

Christopher emerged from the two-hour meeting to say the president was unswayed by an announcement by international meditators that they had scheduled a meeting in Athens, Greece, of the warring Bosnian factions this weekend in an effort to stop the fighting. "It does not change our plans at all," Christopher said. "What we need from the Serbs, both the Bosnian Serbs and the Serbs from Serbia, is deeds, not words, so we'll be proceeding with our plans Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the chiefs of staff of all the military See SERBS, Page 15 Tewksbury, Cards Beat Colorado Bob Tewksbury drives in two runs to help nail down his first victory of the season as the Cardinals defeat the Colorado Rockies 5-2. IE By Kathleen Best Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau WASHINGTON A deeply divided Congress awaits President Bill Clinton's decision on whether to increase U.S.

involvement in Bosnia, where more than 134,000 have died in a bloody ethnic conflict. Reports of genocide, rape and other horrors in former Yugoslavia have raised anew the specters of the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, sparking calls from some in Congress for U.S. air strikes against Bosnian Serbs. For others in Congress, Bosnia's mountainous geography and history of ethnic warfare resurrect images of Vietnam, the military quagmire that sucked away the lives of thousands of American service personnel. The debate, which legislators say is never far from the surface in any gathering, has turned doves into hawks and hawks into doves.

But for none are the answers easy. "All of us are disturbed," said Sen. Christopher S. Bond, R-Mo. "It's an unspeakable tragedy.

And no one has come up with a good plan to end it." Illinois Sens. Carol Moseley-Braun and Paul Simon, both liberal Democrats, are urging the president to authorize air strikes. Simon, said press spokesman David Carle, asked opponents of intervention, "What happens next if we do nothing?" "Another museum," responded Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, The Holocaust Museum opened in Washington last week. But while the deaths of thousands of innocents rely heavily on the consciences of legislators, so, too, do the potential deaths of thousands of U.S.

servicemen and servicewomen. Rep. Ike Skelton, warned in a letter to Clinton Thursday that what may begin as "limited" use of force would eventually lead to a "Vietnam-size effort." "The decision to use limited U.S. military force inherently includes the decision or commitment eventually to use whatever force is necessary if the limited force proves insufficient to do the job," Skelton wrote. Bond also counseled caution.

"So far, no has one been able to define a mission that would accomplish the desired result without massive land, air and naval forces. I think we can justify lifting the arms embargo, but random bombing would harden the opposition of the Serbs and put See BOSNIA, Page 30 Idle Carries On Python Tradition Eric Idle's new movie carries on the nutty 'Monty Python' tradition. 1H Simon also has urged the president to authorize military escorts for relief planes in the region. When asked why Simon, who voted against use of force in the Persian Gulf War, was pushing military intervention in Bosnia, an aide recounted an exchange at a Senate Democratic retreat last week in Virginia. "The human rights abuses that have occurred in Bosnia, especially the rapes of women and girls and systematic ethnic cleansing, are the worst since the Holocaust during World War II and the Cambodian genocide," Moseley-Braun said.

"The world sat silent in the 1930s, and we cannot sit silent again. We need to do more." Jobless Data Raise Questions The official unemployment rate for St. Louis rose to 6.6 percent last month but the people who prepared the figure don't believe it. IF Tax Credit Plan Appears Doomed Investment tax credit, the tax part of President Bill Clinton's economic stimulus plan, seems headed for the same fate as his $1 6 billion jobs bill, Democrats say. 12A III it.

1 Tax Assessors Face Waves Of Appeals j. Homeowners Ready With Private Appraisals In The 70s Health Bill Deserves Senate Approval (editorial) A Good Lesson Plan From The White House (EDITORIAL) 2C 15np In EKnua FORECAST: Today: Variable cloudiness and pleasant. High 74. Chance of showers tonight. Low 56.

Saturday: Chance of showers. High 73. Other Weather, 2A Business 1-8F Classified 2-29D 3C Commentary Editorials Everyday By Mark Schlinkmann Regional Political Correspondent When Linda Roy of Mehlville appealed her home's reassessment figure to St. Louis County officials this week, she felt obliged to correct county records that undercounted her bedrooms a change that might actually hurt her case. "It has three, not two," she told Larry Hewlett, the county employee assigned to her informal conference with the assessor's office.

"I won't lie about it. I'm a minister's wife." But Roy, like many of the thousands of other homeowners going through the conferences this spring, also came armed with other data designed to back up her contention that the value assigned earlier this year to her family's home was way too high. They're also concerned, of course, Movie Timetable 2C 1-12H 10H 12A 1C 4C that this fall's property tax bill based on the assessment would be out of line. Roy, a trust officer at Commerce Bank's Clayton branch, joined several taxpayers who this week let a reporter sit in on their appeal sessions. She first pointed out that a private appraisal company that she and her husband, the Rev.

Howard Roy had hired last June had pegged the value of their home at $75,000. "You have it at $86,000," she said, citing the county's new figure. That's about a 10 percent jump from the $78,000 figure assigned to the home in the county's last reassessment in 1991. Phil Muehlheausler, the county's residential assessment supervisor, said the percentage of taxpayers bringing along the results of their own appraisals seems to have increased. "We're seeing more appraisals be-I See HOUSES, Page 8 NationWorld News Analysis POST-DISPATCH Obituaries WEAincrtomu ui pai.

orr. People Real Estate Wendi FitzgeraldPost-Dispatch Reviews 4A 1D 3H 3A 1-10E 9H St. Louis Sports Linda Roy, her son Howard and their dog, Button, outside the family's home in Mehlville. She and her husband, the Rev. Howard Roy were among the thousands of taxpayers in St.

Louis County who appealed their property reassessments. 1 Television 09 11 00' i.