The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 1

City Edition I Hideo Nomo says no to the Phillies -Sports fa A impetp 171st Year, No. 152 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1999' ww.philly.com 75 cents seme tocationg A pMTQ outside me metropolian area iJ ll 1 twitter Inside Clinton joins the campaign in Phila. Ill pup ra 1 I PI II vy i (m ifL Promises of change for city's rape unit After a meeting with the police commissioner, women's advocates said the talk was productive. RON TARVER Inquirer Stall Photographer John Street raises hands with President Clinton during a rally at which Democrats came out in force for Street. Applauding at left is Mayor Rendell.

Top Democrats turn out to help Street 1 i I A JL ft f- ri tah, Robert Borski, and Robert A. Brady, Philadelphia's Democratic chairman. The speakers sought to fire up 5,000 Democrats who packed the invitation-only gathering at the Tom Gola Arena on the university's 01-ney campus. Perhaps no one was more fired up than Street himself, a famously controlled politician who went right for the emotional hot button when he recalled shedding tears at age 20 when he learned that John F. Kennedy had been shot in Dallas.

During his 25-minute speech, Clinton delighted the gathering by displaying a nuanced grasp of the Philadelphia political scene. In reading up on the mayoral campaign, the President said, he had noticed that some news accounts had described Street as "a good man" held back by an insular personality. "I don't know who they were talking about," Clinton said, "because the man who introduced me had vision and charisma." The rally was designed to give Street's candidacy a boost. See CLINTON on All By Craig R. McCoy INQU1KER STAFF WRITER.

In an uncommon display of presidential political clout in a local election, President Clinton came to Philadelphia yesterday to pump up the Democratic faithful and boost the mayoral campaign of John F. Street. "What is the deal here?" Clinton" asked, referring bluntly to the fact that Street is in a neck-and-neck Mayor's race in an over- Race '99 Jfelmingly Democratic city. "This is a young, vigorous, brilliant public servant. His heart is on fire for the children of this city.

He has all the experience in the world," Clinton told a noontime rally at La Salle University. "Reward his record." Republican mayoral nominee Sam Katz campaigned yesterday accompanied by a Democratic ally of his own, John White whose endorsement of Katz was an early coup for the GOP candidate. Throughout the day, Katz, a former Mourning Payne Stewart "I realize after 18 years of marriage, you are still the most beautiful man I have ever seen," Tracey Stewart says during a memorial service attended by about people. Sports, Dl Ruling on air pollution A federal court reaffirms a decision blocking the EPA from imposing tougher controls on smog and soot. A2 Regional News Crime in West Mount Airy Women ask John F.

Timoney to address a string of attacks. Bl Reschedule the celebration The USS New Jersey will arrive here at least three days late. Bl An extra hour of sleep? As daylight savings time ends, busy people can catch up. Bl Provident's change of plans Jhe Berwyn mutual insurer abandons an effort to restructure so it could sell stock. Business, CI Quest for all-news cable Two new TV stations are pursuing Comcast's help for a local venture.

Business, CI On Wall Street I Dow Jones industrial average: Vp 107.33, close 10,729.86 fe Standard Poor's 500: tip 20.49, close 1,362.93 Nasdaq composite: tip 91.21, close 2,966.43 A bad trick for candymaker Computer troubles foul up fclershey chocolate deliveries. CI Obituaries I S. Louise Fuhrman Vanett, 80, pf Philadelphia, a former book reviewer for The Inquirer. A14 Gerald D. Shockman, 73, a microbiologist and retired professor at Temple University School of Medicine.

DS Columnists John Corr: 1921 was a good year for theater in Philadelphia. B2 Bill Lyon: Joe Torre and Don dimmer, baseball's wise men. Dl Weather Mostly sunny and pleasant today and tomorrow. Highs around 70, lows near 50. Full report, BIS Daylight time ends Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m.

tomorrow. All clocks are turned back one hour. It is a good idea to reset your clock before retiring tonight. Also, the National Association of Fire Chiefs recommends that batteries in smoke detectors be changed at this time. Sections Nationallnt'l A City Region Triclassifieds B4 Business Entertainment C8 feports Features Auctions A15 Comics C12 Editorials A12 Movies C8 Cll Obituaries A14 Religion A14 Television Cll 1999, Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc.

Call 665 1234 or 1 800-523 9068 lor home delivery. i i fetfllBafc mf i JOHN COSTELLO Inquirer Staff Photographer from a prominent Democrat, John Katz" rally in Center City. Bl. sagging fortunes," Katz said. Clinton was joined at the La Salle rally by Sen.

Edward Kennedy Mass.) and the city's ranking Democratic politicians, ranging from Mayor Rendell to Reps. Chaka Fat- By Mark Fazlollah, Michael Malza and Craig R. McCoy INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS Police Commissioner John F. Timoney yesterday promised changes in the department's sex-crimes unit and an extensive review of rape and sexual-assault complaints that may have been buried by investigators, according to women's advocates who met with him. Timoney, meeting with leaders of four women's organizations at Police Headquarters yesterday, said he would increase the number of detectives assigned to the Special Victims Unit.

He also said he had ordered the department's internal auditing arm to scrutinize case files going back several years. The women's advocates said Timoney also told them he would not oppose City Council hearings into the sex-crimes unit's performance. A majority of Council members have come out in support of such a public examination of the handling of sexual-assault cases. "It was a really good exchange. We all have as a goal rebuilding trust and trying to create the best services for women and children who are victims of sex Carol E.

Tracy, executive director of the Women's Law Project. "We also believe that because of past practices and current publicity, it's important for the public to hear what we heard today," she said. In articles published Oct. 17 and 18, The Inquirer reported that the rape squad, established in 1981, dumped thousands of sexual-assault complaints nearly a third of its caseload into a bureaucratic limbo known as Code 2701, "investigation of person." By shelving cases in that fashion, investigators kept them out of the city's official crime tally. The practice was never revealed to the public or to sexual-assault victims.

Cases given the noncriminal designa-See RAPES on A8 Clinton plans peace push for Mideast He will meet with Barak and Arafat while in Oslo to attend a Rabin memorial service tomorrow. By Christopher Marquis and Nomi Morris KNIGHT R1DDER NEWS SERVICE WASHINGTON President Clinton will travel to Oslo, Norway, tomorrow to prod Middle East peace negotiators toward a permanent settlement of the issues that have long separated Jews and Arabs. Clinton hopes to use a Norwegian memorial service in honor of slain Israeli peacemaker Yitzhak Rabin to craft a mini-summit with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat. Progress in the peace talks has been uneven since Barak took office four months ago. But Barak and Arafat say they remain committed to reaching an agreement in principle by mid-February on the ancient, thorny issues dividing their peoples, followed by a permanent settlement by September.

"Both sides have a huge dependence on Clinton. His clock is ticking, and so is theirs," said one U.S. official who asked not to be named. See MIDEAST on A4 William 'Curly' Conners, 89, was a man among Mummers Judgment Houses counter Halloween. Churches respond to 'devil's holiday' Sam Katz (right) got a boost of his own White Jr.

(center), at a "Democrats for Democrat, downplayed the importance of party affiliation and dismissed Clinton's visit. "Everybody in the city has known for weeks that the Street campaign has needed outsiders to boost its 4 William "Curly" Conners, shown in a 1982 photograph, helped people learn about Mummers. By Gwen Florio and Stephanie Dostcr INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS A Bucks County church is including a controversial reen-actment of the Columbine High School shooting in a public "Hell House" production timed to Halloween. "Witness my work at Columbine! It's beautiful!" a black-clad demon hisses to visitors to the Episcopal Church of the Redemption in Upper Southampton as youths in trenchcoats stalk through a hall, firing pistols. "My boys do good work." The church's Hell House tours are part of a growing number of evangelical productions being presented as ire-and-brimstone alternatives to Halloween, which many conservative Christians shun as "the devil's holiday." Across the country, several hundred Hell Houses and a less graphic model known as Judgment Houses strive to show viewers the wages of sin and the glories of salvation.

The Hell House model, developed five years ago by a church in Arvada, is known for its frightening depic-See ALTERNATIVES on A15 By Murray Dubin INQUIRER STAFF WRITER He was the sage of the string bands, the Mummer's Mummer, whose golden slippers were on Broad Street when the liquor was hidden in banana wagons and the crowds so deep their backs rubbed against the building walls. In 1922, as a member of the Epiphany of Our Lord parish's Naval Battalion Band, William "Curly" Con-ners went up the street in his first Mummers Day parade. "I played the said in an interview this summer. "There were a lot of guys coming back from the war and they were playing in church-organized brass bands. I wore a naval uniform with the pea coat.

It was cold." Mr. Conners, 89, a member of the Joseph A. Ferko String Band since 1941, died Thursday morning in his apartment at the Philadelphia Protestant Home in Lawndale. He had been the Ferko historian and chaplain and served as the unofficial historian of the entire parade at the Mummers Museum for more than 30 years. "My brother and I grew up with the string band," said his son, Jack, a Democratic assemblyman from Pennsauken.

"He was music director, assistant music director; he just loved the string band. His whole life revolved around it. "When we were little, he used to play weekend jobs. Take his tenor sax and play at places like the Cow-town Rodeo. We'd ask him where he was going, and he'd say, 'Out to get you a new pair of He and my mom were both bank tellers.

They needed that extra money." See CONNERS on A16 A plea: Keep the phone on the hook come Don't busy yourself with New Year's. Y2K worry doesn't mean you've been bitten by the Y2K bug," said Bill Kula of GTE the local-phone company based in Irving, Texas. Y2K problems may arise from breakdowns in computer systems that read only the last two digits in a year and interpret "00" as 1900 instead of 2000. The big phone companies say they have already solved their Year See DIALING on A4 in the New Year by calling family, and there's a potential for a telecommunications traffic jam. Some callers who pick up their handsets might hear nothing or get a fast busy signal.

But that won't necessarily indicate that Year 2000 problems have wrecked the network, telephone companies say. "Just because you pick up the telephone at or around midnight Dec. 31 and get a busy signal By Kalpana Srinivasan ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON Major phone companies are sending an unusual New Year's plea to their customers: Don't pick up that phone! They fear millions of people will check for a dial tone just after midnight on Jan. 1 to see whether their phone service survived the Y2K bug. Add them to all the folks who ring III! llll 1 I.