Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 1

f. A Mllll II IMIMII IMI IIIM II I III llllll I II I WIBIM IIIMIIBI Hill III IIMIIWIlTM III Ml ALBUQUERQ If 112th Year, No. 216 76 Pages In 5 Sections Monday Morning, August 3, 1992 Copyright6 1992, Journal Publishing Co. Daily 500 Made in USA OURNAL N.M. Project The men's program needed a hero.

We needed a hero like Trent. Gymnastics Coach Ed Burch ay Reshape Health Care ISB Junding Could Help'State 1 Reach Out to Uninsured By Jackie Jadrnak i JOURNAL CAPITOL BUREAU i SANTA FE New Mexico is getting a major private grant to explore revolutionary ways of getting health care to its uninsured population. Under the grant, one of 12 scheduled to be announced I today by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the 4 ti A. KAP tA A A. i state wouia get over two years 10 gamer information needed to set up statewide health co vera ee.

FROM JOURNAL WIRES 1 1 Health officials applying for the grant were told to think big, said Janet Rose, executive director of the New Mexico Health Policy Commission. So that's what they did, she said, adding that she was pleased New Mexico won a share of the $8.4 million being distribut-'ed by the Princeton, foundation. "This could be a blueprint for the federal government," she said. "They (foundation officials) wanted to see what could work." Gov. Bruce King has been concerned about exploding State Medicaid costs and about the number of people who have no health insurance at all, said press secretary John McKean.

"He's eager to experiment with alternatives to the turrent system which may help address these two problems," McKean said. An estimated 28 percent of New Mexicans a larger percentage than most other states don't have any type of health insurance, so New Mexico's grant proposal focused on how to make sure they get medical care. Or, the flip side of that effort would be to make MORE: Sea STATE on PAGE A3 i 'I? Dimas is a graduate of Eldorado High School and attended the University of Nebraska and UNM. Dimas, born in Albuquerque in 1970, became only the second native New Mexican to win an Olympic gold. The first was Albuquerque swimmer Cathy Carr in 1972.

Wearing his red, white and blue warm-up suit with USA emblazoned across the front, Dimas held his right arm aloft, index finger extended as he walked to the medals podium. Even when the Spanish announcer called him "Dimas Trent," he smiled, He breathed in through his mouth while waiting for his medal and puffed the air back out nervously. As the national anthem played, Dimas, hand over his heart, sang along, smiling and closing his eyes. Dimas provided one of the few bright moments in the team competition when his work on the high bar drew an ovation from the crowd. The cheers turned to boos and whistles when the judges awarded Dimas only a 9.725.

On Sunday night, they kept on cheering. "It was a moment I'll never forget," Dimas said. "My routine seems almost like a dream now, but getting the medal is clear and sharp." Olympics coverage C1 "i i New Mexico has a new sports hero today. So do gymnastic fans from across the United States. Albuquerque's Trent Dimas ended a week that was full of mistakes and misery for the U.S.

Olympic gymnastics team, capturing the gold medal in the high bar competition. Dimas put on a dazzling and gravity-defying performance above the treacherous bar. He executed his three releases and catches with career-best proficiency. He received a standing ovation from the Americans left in the crowd, then jumped with joy as the winning score of 9.875 went up. Dimas medal will raise the level of men's gymnastics in the United States as never before, said Ed Burch, his personal coach at Albuquerque's Gold Cup Gymnastics School.

"The men's program needed a hero. We've been put down a lot. We needed a hero like Trent," Burch said. "Everything until now was built around the 1984 team and the medals they won. That stops now.

Trent stops that" Dimas, 21, promptly leaped into the waiting arms of Burch. "I thought about it all day today. I was so nervous, so scared. You get to where you have to accomplish your goals or get out," Dimas said. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Punching his fist into the air, Albuquerque's Trent Dimas on Sunday celebrates his gold medal performance In the high bar.

"My routine seems almost like a dream now, but getting the medal is clear and sharp," he said. Dimas received a standing ovation from Americans In the crowd, and a score of 9.875. Liquor-License Broker, Oil Company Fined Ownership Violations Draw $1,750 in State Penalties By Art Geiselman JOURNAL INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER New Mexico's most active liquor-license broker and a regional oil company have been penalized for changing ownership of a license twice without seeking state approval. 1 On July 8, H. Davidson Associates paid $1,000 and Giant Industries Inc.

of Scottsdale, paid $750 in penalties to the state, but did not admit guilt "What I saw were violations of the state Liquor Control Act," state liquor director Mary Ann Hughes said Friday. "I wanted to get the attention of individuals involved in this transaction and put them on notice that these types of violations would not be permitted in the future." H. Hil Davidson, who has engineered scores of liquor-license sales in New Mexico in recent years, signed the negotiated agreement to pay the penalties "in protest" Davidson has gone to Hughes' superior, Jerry Manzagol, superintendent of Licensing and Regulation, MORE: See LIQUOR on PAGE A4 Hi Tense Gulf Region Ignores Invasion Anniversary By Neil MacFarquhar THE ASSOCIATED PRESS able. "This dayMs' the anniversary of the Iraqi brutal aggression on sister Kuwait, that base aggression that felled a divisive blow on Arab solidarity," said the official Saudi Press Agency in Riyadh. "Saddam Hussein still leads the helpless Iraqi nation into more loss with his defiance of the will of the international community and non-compliance with the demands of the U.N.

Security Council cease-fire resolutions," it said. State-run Baghdad radio and Iraqi newspapers used MORE: See TENSE on PAGE A5 chips off faded murals glorifying past battles. The anniversary was ignored, both here and in Kuwait City. Most conversations focused not on the past violence but on current tension, exemplified by last month's standoff between U.N. weapons inspectors and Iraqis who refused to let them enter a government building.

The only public signs of the anniversary were editorials and banner headlines. Gulf-region and Kuwaiti newspaper editorials called for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's overthrow, state-run Iraqi media continued to lay claim to Kuwait, and the Kuwaiti opposition said those at home responsible for the disaster should be held account UMM QASR, Iraq Before the quick trip across this border town Sunday, the second anniversary of the Iraqi invasion, U.S. Marine Capt Ralph Croce proffered a flak jacket and a helmet in the light blue of United Nations peacekeepers. "Don't you know these will stop anything? We're the U.N.," he said, grinning. But there is no need for such battle props.

Where two years ago all the menace of the Iraqi military machine bore down on Kuwait the wreckage of tanks now rusts in the 120-degree heat and paint MONDAY Wffl Clinton Win N.M.? It's a Possible Maybe 3 v. fir i I Vu'V'S. i Jim Unger, creator of the popular "Herman" comic, is taking a medical leave for an indefinite period of time. The panel appeared in the Journal daily and Sunday, Starting today "Herman" will be replaced daily by "Walnut Cove," a strip-format comic about a trio of high school sophomores who share the woes of dating, algebra tests, parents and other everyday crises of adolescence. The comics page has been redesigned to accommodate the strip.

In The Sunday Journal, Herman has been replaced by "Foxtrot" In oi co so 0 O) CO If) in cn 0) to CO 9 to CO in CO 1984 1988 1864 1960 State Usually Votes GOP in U.S. Races By John Robertson JOURNAL POLITICS WRITER When the presidential race looked like a three-way contest among Republican President Bush, Democrat Bill Clinton and Texas wild card Ross Perot, New Mexico political veterans hedged their bets on the outcome. Democratic Gov. Bruce King was among those wary of Perot's appeal to stampede-prone voters. King said he "wouldn't have been a bit surprised" if New Mexico had ended up in Perot's column in November.

But even now with Perot out of the running and the contest back to Clinton vs. Bush -Democrats and Republicans here still are cautious about presidential race odds. Republicans, who've had the; upper hand in New Mexico presidential contests for years, sound unusually spooked. National economic news is bleak and Bush is 1968 1972 1976 1980 REPUBLICANS DEMOCRATS foothills 20 miles outside of Yose-mite National Park. A3.

5 wl 1 00 br of additional randidatas, instance, in -1968 Geora Wallace received 9 of the popular vote; in 1 380, John Anderson received 6.4 of the popular vote, B2 HOROSCOPE B2 BRIDGE CLASSIFIED C8-14 METROPOLITAN 86 Good Morning -Three cheers for the Duke City's U.S. king of gymnastics. Weather I. Mostly sunny with high near 95. Low tonight near 67.

CI 5. California Fires 'Firefighters on Sunday battled COMICS CH MILITARY A8 B4 CROSSWORD B2 MOVIES DEAR A8BY B2 NEW MEXICO B6 CHARLES GOOGE JOUHNAL, But, when it comes to predictions, they're like long-buried groundhogs checking out the possibility of spring: They sense there's a chance to come out of their presidential hole, but know that a belt of bad CIS SPORTS DEATHS C1-7 EDITORIALS A8-7 TV B5 said of the Republican dilemma. "You're seeing it in the (national) polls. I don't recall any of our presidential nominees being as far behind as now. So, the chore (of re-electing Bush) is much greater." Democrats are still glowing with their national convention crush on Clinton and running mate Al Gore.

floundering in national polls. "I think the prospects are pretty clear that it's going to be a tight race, not only in New Mexico but nationally," former Republican Gov. Garrey Carruthers said in an interview last week. "I don't think that's very hard to see," Sen. Pete Domenici, againstflames that burned across health B1-2 WEATHER C15 SPORTSLINE 821-1800 brush and timber dried by six years of drought in California.

The fire burned in the picturesque Sierra MORE: See SOME on PAGE A3 WEATHERLINE 821-1111 4-.