The News Journal from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 1

Hassle-free fun: Teens tell where to find it 0 j. 'jjtf-L )-. i Notre Dame faces NCAA penalties Sports, CI Shell out your 'Peanuts' treasures Life Leisure, D1 News own uinj 1 999, The News prim fiiitet Im I I. if I 'J ill 1 UT7 The News JoumalFRED COMEGYS The 3-mile-long Wilmington Rail Viaduct, completed in 1908, cost $9 million, about $150 million in today's dollars. Viaduct is a working work of art 1 FRIDAY Dec.

17, 1999 Approximate front mes Russian forces suffer heavy losses in tank attack Urus-Martan 25 miles RUSSIA 25 km i H' CHECHNYA Grozny CHECHNYA GEORGIA" Dagestan AP Russians deny big losses in Grozny By DAVID McHUGH USA Today MOSCOW Facing a Sunday election, Russian government officials Thursday dismissed as "lies and disinformation" eyewitness reports by Western news organizations that an intense firefight in Grozny had left more than 100 Russian soldiers dead. The Associated Press and Reuters reported a Russian armored column was wiped out by Chechen rebels in the breakaway republic's capital. The AP said its reporter personally counted 115 bodies, with Reuters also carrying an eyewitness account of bodies and burnt-out tanks. Accounts of the three-hour battle Wednesday night were chillingly similar to those of the disastrous New Year's 1995 attempt to seize Grozny, in which Russian tanks were trapped in the streets and destroyed by Chechen fighters. Military officials strenuously denied Russian tanks had even been in Grozny Wednesday.

A spokesman for the Federal Security Service said the reports were attempts to harm Russia's effort to subdue the breakaway province. Western governments have been critical of Russia's 11-week-old campaign. Noting there were only two days until Sunday's election for the State Duma, or lower house of parliament, the FSB spokesman said the news reports were "an attempt to deal a blow to the government." The Associated Press and Reuters stood by their stories. iliuwilhhMilil mwiitwiild 1 On A2 today: Dec. 17, 1936 HIGH LQW 144 32 Details on A4 Business B7 Lotteries B3 Classified C7 Movies 55hours "Comics D5 Obituaries B4 Crossword D4 People A4 DearAbby D4 Scoreboard C2 Editorial A32 Sports C1 A SERVICE OF THE NEWS JOURNAL 5 1 Russian 15 miles joccupied areas Terek River i X.

1 Letters A32 TV listings D6 55hours 500 FINAL EDITION 2 U.S. 025 prices Gas prices in the United States have been on the rise since February 1999. Source: U.S. Department of Energy The News Journal has increased in Asia, where the economy has been recovering. These factors combined have been steadily driving up the price of gas.

The average gasoline price nationwide has- risen by about 32 cents during the past year, an increase of about 33 percent. Analysts expect it to continue rising as gas and oil inventories remain low amid a strong economy. Some experts believe prices also reflect precautionary buying that's occurring as industrial customers stock up against possible disruptions related to the Year 2000 computer bug. Some experts even have predicted the prices could go up another 20 cents a gallon around the New Year See PRICES A20 U.S. says a "degrading, dehumanizing and despicable" way.

Butterworth said the Daytona Beach hotel charged guests of the Black College Reunion weekend in April more than other special event guests, and a barrier prevented them from using the hotel's main entrance. Guests were required to pay cash for room service and were not allowed to use telephones in their rooms without first paying a cash deposit, he said. Acting Assistant Attorney General Bill Lann Lee, head of Justice's civil rights division, said the government would seek to have the company issue new policies and regularly test their enforcement. Property owner ordered to lower height of earth berm. Wilmingtufi i Newark The News Journal $1.25 $1.20 ESHf' $1.00 $0.95 II $0.90 Dec Apr Aug Dec '98 '99 '99 '99 ft.

1 -Si 1 I 1 4 121st year, No. 235 Production is dropping as use rises By BILL YINGLING Staff reporter Gasoline prices hit a three-year high this week and experts predict that in this strong economy they will go higher, forcing motorists to dig deeper to fuel cars, trucks and vans. A gallon of regular gasoline now costs an average of $1.27 across the nation, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Energy. In Delaware, the average price of a gallon of self-serve regular this month is $1.31, up 2 cents from November and up 31 cents from a year ago, said Colleen Healey, spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic in Philadelphia.

Analysts say gasoline consumption has been rising in the United States, largely because the economy is strong and more people are earning disposable income. The strength has allowed many to feel more comfortable spending on luxuries such as gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles and distant vacations. At the same time, worldwide inventories of oil and gas have been falling for much of the year and demand still exists," Attorney General Janet Reno told a Justice Department news conference. "This isn't fair. It isn't right.

And it's against the law." After settlement negotiations failed, the Justice Department filed suit in U.S. District Court in Orlando, accusing the chain of violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964's ban on discrimination in public accommodations. In St. Louis, Fred S. Rummer, president and chief executive of the privately held chain, would not comment until he read the government suit.

Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth said the Adam's Mark hotel in Daytona Beach treated blacks in February County Councilman Robert Weiner suggested the residents pursue Leitner in civil court, saying the county could not stop his activities. Weiner said the county won Thursday's decision because its lawyers went "beyond the call of duty pursuing this matter after many earlier losses. "The community has won a great victory," he said. Smalls' sentence exceeded the fine recommended by Jonathan Layton, the assis- See BERM A22 it jj Journal Co. A Gannett newspaper rwn(," Old Statehouse and historic Lewes on the National Park Service's list of the nation's most significant historic sites.

"I think it's quite attractive in terms of the workmanship, the arches. It's quite a work of art," said Daniel R. Griffith, director of the state's Historic Preservation Office. "It's really very beautiful," said Debra Campag-nari Martin, who as Wilmington's preservation planner, compiled the report that led to the viaduct's listing Nov. 10.

"It's an extremely defining feature for the city." To appreciate the significance of the viaduct, think of Wilmington without it. The Christina River its See VIADUCT A18 torrent days to begin lowering the berm, which is steeper than the 30-degree slope New Castle County code allows. Leitner also will have to stabilize the berm with vegetation and remove construction debris that litters the 1.8-acre property at 1505 Naamans Road. Leitner has been landscaping the property, which he has called "my Monticello," for more than two decades, moving dirt and boulders with heavy machinery, to the annoyance of neighbors in an adjoining neighborhood, The Timbers. a.

rv i mm in 13 in If Wilmington, Del. I I i'r black vacationers who said the Adam's Mark in Daytona Beach, singled them out as security risks and made them, but not white guests, wear bright orange wristbands to get into the hotel. That private case has become a class-action lawsuit joined by the NAACP. On Thursday, the state of Florida asked to join it, alleging the hotel violated state consumer protection laws. "It is hard to believe that 35 years after the Civil Rights Act was passed by Congress, this type of discrimination himself at Thursday's court hearing, has 15 days to appeal the decision to Superior Court.

Leitner could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon at a home he owns in Fairfax, and the phone at his Naamans Road property has been disconnected. To Leitner's neighbors, the berm had become a symbol of the county's inability to enforce its own codes. For years, county lawyers filed charges against Leitner in Justice of the Peace courts, with no success. In wi Wilmington's arches named to historic register By CARL WEISER Washington Bureau reporter WASHINGTON Delaware's latest addition to the National Register of Historic Places is covered with graffiti, weeds, rust and soot. And it's certainly on the wrong side of the tracks underneath them.

The addition is the Wilmington Rail Viaduct, the 3-mile-long stone and steel elevated train platform that runs through the city. Last month it joined du Pont family estates, Dover's Fleeing a Thomas Rivera, 53, sits Thursday under an archway of the Wilmington Rail Viaduct, where he has set up housekeeping Browntown, south of Maryland Avenue in Wilmington. Hotel biased against blades, Lawsuit charges Adam's Mark with putting white guests in best rooms APFERNANDO LLANO Venezuelans from the outskirts of Caracas abandon their mudslide-damaged houses as torrential rains continue to fall. Hundreds are feared dead in the deluge. Article, A2.

By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN Associated Press WASHINGTON The Justice Department alleged Thursday that the Adam's Mark luxury hotel chain charges black customers higher prices than whites and segregates them in less desirable rooms as part of a corporate pattern of discrimination. The St. Louis-based chain owns 21 full-service hotels in states, including a hotel in Philadelphia. The chain was sued earlier this year by five Smalls asked the county to file a report 15 days saying whether Leitner has complied with the court order.

he hasn't, Joseph Leitner Frustrated neighbors win battle of the berm Homeowner fined $9,300 By DENNIS THOMPSON Jr. Staff reporter A Brandywine Hundred homeowner received a $9,300 fine and a year's probation Thursday for refusing to take down a 14-foot-tall dirt berm that has irritated his neighbors for decades. Court of Common Pleas Chief Judge Alex J. Smalls gave Joseph Litner, 62, three the judge could hold a violation of probation hearing and cite him up to $300 for every day his property remains in violation after the three days. Leitner, who represented .11.