Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 1

NSiSJ I I i Calgary defeats North Stars 4-3 1 Eastern Airlines to cut 3,500 workers 1M Ortega accuses Reagan of reneging4A VARIETY til warenouse ujs center of art, dining Power PlantiQ i nn I 1 Iffnr-il IrNri rir-1 won't be fo capture iruLaiyjj teuo, more as unf a 'east THURSDAYNovember 121987 NEWSPAPER OF HE TWIN CITIES A II II i I II II I i-" I 1 1 1 Third high court nomination seen as conciliatory fl it: f.J, fsw ill; i A 1 whose nomination was derailed after he admitted having smoked marijuana as a law school professor. Kennedy said he had been asked before being offered the nomination whether he ever had smoked mari In a low-key ceremony, Reagan appeared conciliatory after four months of confrontation with the Senate over his previous two choices for the court. "The experience of the past several months has made all of us a bit wiser," he said. With his wife, daughter and two sons looking on, Kennedy, SI, shrugged off a question about whether he was juana. "The answer," he said, no, firmly no." was Kennedy continued on page 14A 0 Polardash chronicled in book bySteger By Sharon Schmickle StaffWriter On the eve of the airlift to their starting point, members of the Steger expedition to the North Pole crowded into a window-.

less room of the Eureka weather station in the high Canadian Arctic to make final pledges. Should any of them die on the trail, their bodies would be buried in the Arctic Ocean rather than carried home, they agreed in writing. They also concluded agree- -ments that leaders Will Steget and Paul Schurke would bor- -row the diaries of all eight 1 i team members for a book about the trek by dog sled. 1. Other team members were not 'Z to publish books until Steger's had been on the market for a year.

I Two injured team members were evacuated from the sea il ice, but a dog, Critter, was thert only fatality. And six team members, including three reached the top of -the Earth on May 1, The first book about that "North to the Pole," was re-leased this week by Times Books of New York. Written in Steger's voice with Schurke's assistance, it's a chronological account of tensions and vie- tories during the 55 days the team spent crossing the 480 miles from North America's 1 -northernmost point to the pole. Steger continued on page 10A upset that he was the third candidate for the seat "I'm delighted with this nomination," he said. If confirmed, he will fill the seat on the court vacated June 26 when Justice Lewis Powell Jr.

retired. Kennedy had been interviewed for the job two weeks earlier, but Reagan chose Judge Douglas Oinsburg, 7 rnr -r m-Jtmmi 1 1 i 4 4 J- if Associated Press Judge Anthony Kennedy Si jfi (. 4 i 1 Jis Angeles Times D.C. Resident Reagan, in his third at-; iempt to fill a vacant Supreme Court seat, said Wednesday that he will nominate federal appeals Judge Anthony Kennedy of Sacramento, whom he described as repre-'. senting "the best traditions of America's judiciary." Eagan High is going to be extra special By Conrad deFiebre Staff Writer Despite all the 12-hour work days Jie's been putting in lately, Tom Wil-' son is the envy of high school princi-- pals in Minnesota.

His school doesn't exist yet, except in the minds of Wilson and a few others connected with the Rosemount-Ap-ple Valley School District. But they are well on their way toward making the new Eagan High School the biggest, costliest, most innovative and perhaps most remarkable local school in the state. When earthmovers begin scraping the Eagan landscape near Diffley Rd. and Lexington Av. next week, it will mark the start of construction of the Twin Cities area's first new public high school in eight years.

And when Eagan High and the adjoining Dakota Hills Middle School open in 1989, state education officials say, about 2,400 students will Step into a 10-acre learning environ-'. m'ent unlike any seen before in Min- hesota. How big is it? It's the first school in the state to require an environmental assessment, something usually prepared only for major commercial and industrial projects. How costly? At an estimated $37.5 million, it took the biggest local school bond issue in state history to finance it. The cost of Eagan High alone is $20.8 million, more than School continued on page 9A Arab League unites against Iran, condemns 4 actions ingulf Washington Post Amman, Jordan In a surprise ending to a four-day summit of Arab leaders, Syria joined an Arab-world majority in condemning Iran's stepped-up aggression in the Persian Gulf war and lent its Support to a U.N.

cease-fire resolution that could lead to an arms em- bargo against Iran. jhe leaders expressed their anxiety at the continuation of. the war and voiced their indignation at the Iranian regime's intransigence, provoca- fions and threats to the Arab gulf said a communique approved without objection by the Arab League summit The 16 Arab heads of state and five other Arab delegations "denounced bloody criminal acts perpetrated by the Iranians in the vicinity of the 1 holy mosque in Mecca" on July 31, whcri noting by Iranian pilgnrns brought a harsh response from Saudi Arabian security forces. Syria also joined the 21 Arab League members assembled in Amman in Arab leaders continued on page 6A Dedication Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, center, prepared to lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during Veterans Day ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C. Veterans were honored across the country on Wednesday.

Details, Page 3A. 'Irises' sells for record $53.9 million I Rural phone customers overcharged, report says By David Phelps Staff Correspondent Washington, D.C. Rural and small-town telephone cus-' tomers apparently have been over-, charged $179 million through the lending policies of a federal agency whose original goal was to lower the cost of providing phone service to the countryside. Congressional reports show that the Rural Telephone Bank (RTB), a government lending arm, has accumulated large profits by charging higher-than-necessary interest rates to telephone utilities on loans to install and maintain phone systems. Although created as a break-even agency, the RTB has been lending money at interest rates in excess of its cost of borrowing funds, sometimes two to four percentage points' higher, the reports show.

As a result, officials estimate, consumer phone bills have increased by $2 to $4 a Telephone continued on page 14A" Almanac Thursday, November 12, 1987 316th day; 49 to go this year Sunrise: 7:06. Sunset: 4:48 Partly cloudy, high near 60. Business 1-11M Movies Comics 6.7C Obituaries 14B 8C Corrections 3A TV, Radio uroworq au variety 1-10C Editorial 18.19A Weather 4B. Want Ads 1-12K- Circulation 372-4343 Copyright 1 987 Star Tribune Volume VlNumber 222 7 sections 1. .1.

Van Gogh's Associated Press New York, N.Y. Vincent van Gogh's "Irises," the famous depiction of a flower garden at an asylum the painter entered shortly before he committed suicide, sold Wednesday for a record $53.9 million. The buyer, a collector who did not attend but bid by telephone through a European agent, chose to remain anonymous. The previous record for a painting was set by another Van Gogh masterpiece, "Sunflowers," which sold for $39.9 million earlier this year to a Japanese insurance company. The fierce bidding for the masterpiece last night at Sotheby's North America was witnessed by an international gathering of about 2,200 collectors, dealers and museum curators, a standing-room-only crowd that watched the proceedings in person and over closed-circuit television.

There was a gasp in the room as the auctioneer, John L. Marion, Sotheby's chairman began the bidding at million. It progressed in Si million increments. When Marion brought down the hammer at $49 million, there was huge applause. The buyer will pay a 10 percent com- Van Gogh continued on page 13A 3 i 111 in I a V.

I 1 I I .1 i ii. 11. i. ft 1 1 Vincent van Gogh's "Irises," shown above, sold Wednesday for a record $53.9 million. The previous record for a painting was set by another Van Gogh masterpiece, "Sunflowers," which sold for $39.9 million, I i.l mull I .1 It.