Indiana Gazette from Indiana, Pennsylvania • 4

The Indiana Gazette Thursday, December 29, 1994 Page 4 r7J jK.jrir I Man had four wives at same time Continued from Page 1 want to know why," she said Wednesday, wiping away a tear. The 33-year-old legal secretary married Pierce in Los Angeles in August 1989. They separated in 1991 she wouldn't say why and are getting divorced. They have a 4-year-old son, Jared. "Vernon has always been a really nice person," she said.

"But he does know how to manipulate people." Pierce, who says he used to be a model, set out on his wedding spree earlier this year. Police say be married Whalen, 23, of Palmdale, on April 29; 21-year-old Jam-illah Thompson of Phoenix on May 11; and 27-year-old LeMitrt Reed of Las Vegas on June 5. Pierce said he spread his time between the three women, telling them he was a salesman, model, or engineer jobs that kept him traveling. The truth, he said, was altogether different: "I didn't have a job. I didn't have time." He lived off his wives and other women he was dating.

The tangle began to unravel June 13, when Whalen asked Glendale police to check Pierce's townhouse because she hadn't seen him in some TWO KILLED Residents walk along a Hachinohe road damaged by the earthquake that wrecked homes and buildings through Japan Wednesday. Strong aftershocks rattled the northern part of the country today, hours after the quake left two dead and 274 injured. Preliminary measurements set the magnitude at 7.5. (AP photo) Nine family members die in New Jersey house fire By The Associated Press Two arrested for setting man on fire UNIONTOWN. Pa.

State police say they have found the people who lift a bodv in the trunk of a burning car in Fayette County. I Police arrested James Howell and Jason McGee Wednesday night in the killing of Jeffrey Louis Mowers. 33. Firefighters found Mowers' body liec- 22 as they tried to extinguish the car fire. four-door Buick was parked along a dirt road in Wharton township.

An empty gasoline can was beside the car's bumper. Mowers as wearing a shirt and shoes but little else. Mowers was shot several times with a small-caliber handgun in the parking lot of Calvarv Baptist Church in South Union Township, police sjiid. Howell and McGee. police also said, stole a $75 Oscar de la Renta watch and S25 from Mowers.

The 20-vear-old men were jailed and charged with criminal homicide, 4bbcry. theft, criminal conspiracy and abusing a corpse. fog causes multivehicle pileups GORMAN. Calif. At least 10 tractor-trailers and 20 cars piled up in dense fog on a mountainous stretch of freeway, killing two motorists and injuring 27 others.

The smashup occurred Wednesday afternoon on southbound Interstate Sin the Tejon Pass over the Tehachapi Mountains, about 50 miles north of Los Angeles. A less serious pileup involving about 10 cars occurred in the sfime area on the freeway's northbound side, said a California Highway Patrol spokesman. Glen Dominguez. i Some of the big rigs burned and others were torn open in the collisions. One truck's cab was compressed back to its trailer.

Wreckage, including A lumber truck, smoldered for hours on the damp pavement. The fog cut visibility to near zero, said highway patrol officer Rhett I The southbound interstate, a major route from San Francisco to Los Angeles, was closed for about eight hours. Police arrest nine for teen's torture HOUSTON Police made nine arrests in the beating and torture of a 17-year-old runaway who other homeless teen-agers said was brutalized over a drug debt. The youngster was beaten, sodomized with a curling iron, doused on his head and genitals with flammable liquids and set afire with a cigarette lighter. He was kept in a closet at an apartment, taken out only to be beaten further, police say.

Nine people, mostly homeless teen-agers, were charged Wednesday with aggravated kidnapping in the attack that occurred Dec. 19-21 Those arrested ranged in ages 17 to 24. Tracy Brown, executive director for a downtown shelter for homeless voting adults, said he knows the victim and all but two of those charged. "From what the kids are saying, (the teen) owed a lot of money," Brown said. "He basically stole their stash and ran off with it.

So the big drug dealer sicked the younger ones on him. It's like a hit was out after (the bov I. and Ihel knew it. This is all about drugs." Police spokesman Alvin Wright said investigators would not speculate an a motive Wednesday and would release no further details on the case. Additional arrests were expected.

Battles rage outside Chechen capital SLEPTSOVSKOYE, Russia The thud of artillery and the crack of gunfire shook Chechnya early today as Russian troops and the vastly outnumbered rebels engaged in fierce battles outside the capital of the separatist republic. Reports of fighting within Grozny could not immediately be confirmed, but clashes broke out to the west and east of the Chechen capital. Hundreds of Russian tanks and armored vehicles rumbled toward Grozny from several directions Wednesday as the Kremlin pressed its offensive despite fierce resistance. Intense battles were reported in several villages and the outskirts of Grozny late Wednesday. The Chechens claimed heavy civilian casualties from bomb attacks and accused Russian President Boris Yeltsin of hypocrisy for breaking his promise to stop bombing the city.

I U.S. renews criticism of Bosnian Serbs WASHINGTON The State Department savs no lasting peace is possible in Bosnia unless those responsible for a long list of atrocities by Bosnian Serbs arc held accountable. Spokesman Mike McCurry issued the statement Wednesday to highlight U.S. support for the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal, which is investigating inhumane activities in the former Yugoslavia.

He said the Serb campaign of ethnic cleansing is continuing, citing reports that more than 100 Muslims have been expelled from the Bijelina area in northeast Bosnia in the last 10 days. iMcCurry also called attention to estimates by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees that the Muslim population of northern Bosnia has been reduced from more than 500.000 to around 50,000 in two years. By DONNA DE LA CRUZ Associated Press Writer ORANGE, N.J. An electric space heater apparently started a fire that killed nine members a Haitian immigrant family, including six young children found under their mother's body or huddled in a closet.

There were no smoke detectors in the three-story wooden house, said Orange Fire Director John Gamba. "If they had some, maybe some fatalities could have been avoided," he said. Killed in the blaze Wednesday morning were 39-year-old Viviane Moise; all her children, ages 2 to her mother; and her sister. Four of the children were found under their mother's body and two were found huddled in a closet. Moise's husband, Pierre, left for work before the fire erupted.

"It's a disaster. All I can say is that the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away." Pierre Moise said Wednesday night at his pastor's home in East Orange. Jie disputed Shalala says GOP plan would leave five million children in cold ing on the door, said officer Jim Toomey. The two women teamed up with a detective to uncover records leading to the other two wives, police said. Glendale police have notified California and Nevada authorities about the marriage records they uncovered from those states.

While searching Pierce's town-house, police found a 3-by-5-meh index card reading "Who to Marry," Toomey said. The names of his three latest wives were on the card, as well as the entries "Celeste, middle of May," and "Kadina, end of April." Police have yet to trace the names. Pierce said that once he gets his troubles behind him, he wants to start over with Reed, his newest wife. "She's the one who's really standing by me," he said. irw reuuy to put tax forms in mail Continued from Page 1 This amount multiplied by the taxpayer.

SDOUSe and deDendents reore- sents the amount of income exempt from taxation. STANDARD DEDUCTION: For those who do not itemize, the standard deduction has been increased to $3,800 for singles and $6,350 for couples filing joint returns. SOCIAL SECURITY: Higher-income Social Security 'recipients may have to pay taxes on up to 85 percent of their benefits, an increase from 50 percent. CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS. In order to deduct a charitable contribution of $250 or more, taxpayers must have a written acknowledgment from the charity.

A canceled check will no longer be enough although the new verification does not have to be mailed with the return. Blaze prompts evacuation PITTSBURGH (AP) A fire forced the brief evacuation of 300 patients and employees from a hospital and closed its emergency room for three hours. The fire began at a.m. Wednesday at a trauma wing under construction at Allegheny General Hospital. Authorities believe a welder may have touched it off, but the investigation to determine the cause was incomplete.

Smoke spread through the hospital's ventilation system into the two-story northwestern wing and affected cancer and other wards. People had re-entered the wing by early afternoon, and the emergency room reopened at noon. There were no injuries. last month rise in sensitive material prices. The biggest negative factor was a slowdown in growth of the money supply followed by a fall in stock prices, a drop in building permits, changes in business deliveries and a drop in consumer expectations.

Correct ion The owner of the house that was damaged by fire Tuesday afternoon is Mariita Betty Lou Steele. The house is located at 186 Grandview Ave. in the Grandview section of White Township, just south of the Indiana Borough line. "A man ran around the house screaming to someone in a second-story window," Brown said. "This woman jumped out and he tried to catch her and she fell and hit the ground." Two people who escaped the blaze by leaping from a second-story window were hospitalized today.

One was in fair condition with a fractured pelvis and wrist the other was stable with back and nip fractures. A third victim was in stable condition with scrapes and bruises. Josef Moise said his 36-year-old brother and his family had lived in the house for four years. The children who died were Vanessa, Nirva, Frantz, Jennifer, Stevenson, and Stella, 2. Also killed were Mrs.

Moise's mother, Infaudra Charles, 64, and her sister, Altagracia Michel, 19. "That's life," Josef Moise said outside the house as firefighters searched for survivors. "Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. This time, everybody lost." trayal of orphanages must be contrasted with the "reality of orphanages and state budgets." "The real issue here is not whether orphanages or group homes can be loving and compassionate facilities," Shalala said. "The issue is what actually happens to millions of real-life children who would be cut from welfare rolls, with no money to pay for the real costs of child-rearing." According to the Child Welfare, League of America, residential care costs an average of $100 a day, or $36,500 a year.

Foster care costs about $400 a month, or $4,800 a year. The average monthly benefit for a family of three on AFDC was $373 in 1993. An earlier Agriculture Department analysis found that the Republican plan would also deny aid to millions of low-income Americans who need help buying groceries. The USDA said that 6 million low-income Americans could be dropped from the food stamp rolls alone in 1996 and that spending on federal nutrition programs would be cut by more than $30 billion through the year 2000. 0.3 percent slow next year, which is what we want to happen," she said.

The report noted that the compilation of forward pointing business barometers was equally split, with five components showing strength and five subtracting from the overall total. The biggest source of strength in the leading index came from a rise in orders lor new plants and equipment, which posted its best gain in a year. Other components showing strength were gains in factory Gr-ders for consumer goods, a rise in unfilled orders for durable goods, a decline for the month in the average weekly unemployment claims and a officials' assertions that the house lacked smoke detectors. The Star-Ledger of Newark reported today. City Business Administrator Thomas Morrison said the house is zoned for one-family but had three kitchens, and he suspects a third-floor apartment was illegal.

"It's a nice house, on a nice street, but there were 17 people living there," Morrison said. Investigators believe the fire was started by an electric heater on the first floor and spread quickly up a stairway, Gamba said. The victims were found on the second floor. "I heard a lot of screaming and I thought they were just having a fight and then the whole house went up in flames in two minutes," saia a neighbor. Lisa Williams.

Mayor Robert Brown, who lives nearby, said he was driving by when he spotted smoke coming from a first-floor window and saw a barefoot man yelling for help. He used his car phone to summon the fire department. children out of wedlock. States could use the savings to promote adoptions and establish orphanages for children whose families could no longer afford to support them. But the analysis released today by the Department of Health and Human Services suggested that states would receive only enough money to establish group homes for less than 1 percent of children who would be dropped from the rolls of Aid to Families with Dependent Children.

HHS estimated that at least half of the 10 million children who receive AFDC would be denied benefits but that federal funds would be available to create fewer than 9,000 places in orphanages. In a statement, Shalala said states would be left with two choices: to use state revenues to finance residential care for children whose parents could not afford to support them, or to hope that private charities and other family members would take up the slack. She said the fantasy of the 1938 movie "Boys Town" touted by incoming House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga as an instructive por number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell by 3.000 last week, more than erasing a gain of 2,000 the previous week. The claims figure has remained in the low 300,000 range in recent months, reflecting basic strength in job markets, analysts said-Cynthia Latta, an economist at DRI-McGraw Hill said the rise in the leading index, while slightly higher than predicted, was still pointing to an economic slowdown next year. "The gains in the index over the past six months have been lower than the gains in the first part of 1994, indicating the economy will Stocks" By JENNIFER DIXON Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON A Republican plan to revamp the welfare system would deny aid to 5 million children now on the rolls without providing nearly enough money to care for them in orphanages and foster homes.

Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala said today. Shalala called the GOP welfare overhaul a "cruel hoax whose human consequences would fall on children, and whose financial consequences would fall on state taxpayers and private charities." Her comments are the latest attempt by the Clinton administration to discredit the proposed reforms, which Republican leaders have promised to take to the House floor for a vote by early spring. The While House has yet to reveal its own strategy for welfare reform in 1995. although it has scheduled a bipartisan summit meeting in January with governors and lawmakers to find common ground on the issue. House Republicans are pushing legislation to discourage teen-age pregnane)' and illegitimate births by denying cash welfare and housing benefits to teen-agers who have Mobil OUnCP peco PPGIndS PacTeiesifi PenravJC PaPwLI PeosiCa Polaroid Praxair Procl Gamble SatomonBFd ScarsRoeli SwBell TCWConw Texaco UAL Corp US West U5X-Marathn UnCarbde UnPac UrttivCo walVert WestgnEI Whitlaher WootMorlh ZenilhE NEW YORK 10:3 Stocks: AV.R Coro Coco Airsas Air-Touch AtcanAlum AlroSland AttgPencr AlCCJ Ameritecft Amoco Amseo Armcotne ArrmtWInd Asarco Inc AllStchfW SHIAtl BellSouth BenefciCe Seifr Sied CSSs Cnevrons Chrysler viColGos Comsat Co.nErJison DdndCorpt DialCoroi EH Koaafc Exxon FMCCb ForCMotori GTE Co GenCorp GfnDvwn GenElecs GenMotors GenMolors GPU Genescoloc Goodrich GoaOvetrs tTTCwo IBM miiPaoer mar: LiNvAtlSl loewsCo McDerrplnt 39u HARRISBURG )AP Here are the winning numbers selected Wednesday in the Pennsylvania State Lottery.

Dailv Number 3-2-7 Big 4 Twelve players matched all five winning cards drawn in Wednesday's Pennsylvania Hearts and Diamonds'" game and each will collect 517,037. a lottery official said. Lottery director Charles W. Kline said 1,037 players matched four cards and won S74 each; and 21,381 players matched three cards and won $2.50 each. 25H 6t-1 57i 39 'A i2l -'A 36H 33'.

41 fc 1M 'M 45V 41 7T i 41 J. 26' 2 13' 7 1H I 46 21 -fi Thursday's "Pennsylvania Cash 5M jackpot will be worth at least $100,000. The winning numbers drawn Wednesday in the "Pennsylvania Hearts and Diamonds" game were: 3-H, 4-H, J-H, 2-D and A-D. In Wednesday's "Pennsylvania Million Dollar Spin" game, D.J. Andrews of Moon Township won the grand prize of $100,000.

Nine finalists won $5,000 each. Players are entered in the "Million Dollar Spin" after winning a ticket in the instant lottery game. Leading indicators up By MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON The government's main forecasting gauge of future economic activity posted a 0.3 percent rise in November, signaling to analysts that the recovery is in no current danger of stalling out. The Commerce Department report today said that last month's gain in the Index of Leading Indicators was the strongest since a 0.5 percent rise in August. It followed a 0.1 percent drop in October, which had been the first decline in the index in 15 months.

In a second report today, the Labor Department said that the.