Altoona Mirror from Altoona, Pennsylvania • Page 1

Sports: Tyrone girls win District 6 swimming title Business: Manufactured housing field growing quickly El 2000 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2000 $1.50 newsstand Study: Race a factor in Pa. prison time Local officials disagree on impact here Witherspoon BY PHIL RAY StaffWriter HOLLIDAYSBURG Blair County President Judge Thomas G. Peoples said racial inequality in sentencing is not happening in Blair County. But others, including the head of the local NAACP and the county's chief public defender, aren't sure there isn't a bias; even if it is an unconscious one, on the part of justice authorities. But Peoples, in his 21st year on the bench, is adamant.

"I have never treated somebody of color differently than I have any-, body else," he said. "I defy anybody io show hie when I have." But one thing is agreed upon: There is no hard data on Blair County sentencing to prove the point. Court Administrator Michael D. Reighard said sentencing in the county has never been studied. Donald Witherspoon, the long time president of the county's NAACP, said his group has "done some checking" into the issue and he thinks "our judiciary is not as fair as it should be." Please see A4 By the numbers Percentage of Percentage blacks among of blacks in Pennsylvania I Pennsylvania residents: prisons: 9 I 56 Many social factors cited for disparity BY TIM MOLLOY The Associated Press crimes were the same, but not the punishment.

Kyle Banks, 25, and Martin Ward, 21, both were convicted of third-degree murder: Ward for shooting a friend with a gun he said he thought was unloaded and Banks for shooting a friend in what he said was self-defense. Neither had a prior record, and their crimes were deemed equally severe under state sentencing guidelines. But now Banks is serving a 10- to 20-year sentence in the middle of the state's recommended range, and Ward is serving a five- to 10- year sentence that was the lowest he could have received. Another difference: Banks is black; Ward is white. The gap between the sentences sounds familiar to many Pennsylvania blacks.

And it should. Blacks routinely receive longer sentences than whites in the state even when their crimes and records are nearly identical, an Associated Press review of thoasands of state records found. Please see A4 Banks Ward THE BOSS AT BJC Springsteen's music strikes a primal chord among fans BY KEVIN OTT StaffWriter Sprung from cages out on Highway 9, chrome-wheeled, fuel-injected, and step- pin out over the He's coming. If you listen, you can hear the tour bus rumbling. If you sniff, you can smell the sweat and diesel fumes.

If you close your eyes, you can see the exhaust smoke drifting out over the Jersey shore. He's coming. Tomorrow night, an ocean of denim will flow into the Bryce Jordan Center as Bruce Springsteen, the Patron Saint of the Garden State, takes the stage. On what seems like the zillionth show of a tour that stretches hack to early 1999, fans still flood from all over to see him. The girls comb their hair in rearview mirrors and the boys try to look so To millions from his generation and many from younger generations Springsteen is it.

The Stones times Elvis to the power of John Lee Hooker and Buddy Guy. Thp one good thing to come out of music in the last century. The Ross. He kicks the spandex-clad butts of most of his contemporaries, says Dave Parry. "He was the only one of those guys lived and didn't go nuts," he Parry is a Penn State professor of philosophy and a blues musician.

You could call him a Springsteen fan, but word "fan" implies an excitedness that laid-back Springsteenites are too cool to have. Call him an enthusiast. "He really is working in the rock and roll tradition," says Parry, "attributing Springsteen's popularity Cto a firm understanding of the roots of jock music. "This guy is like a walk; -ing encyclopedia." But, he says, that's a scientific reason. It's not the real reason.

Baby, this town rips the bones from your back. It's a death trap: it's a suicide rap. We've got to get out while "He's almost like New Jersey's Faulkner," says Parry. Springsteen is the voice of the regular people, the people who are in their thirties and still working at photocopy stores or slinging chili sauce at 7-11. Please see AS The world according to Bruce Personal: Born in the U.S.A.: Sept, His hometown: Freehold, N.J.

J. Glory Days: Before makinglfbig, Springsteen paid his local bands around New Jersey, notably with the Castiles, Earth, Steel Mill and Dr. Zoom And The Sonic Boom Family ties: Married to Street band member Patti Scialfa Springsteen three children: Evan James (b. 1990), Jessica Rae (b. 1991), Sam Ryan (b.

1993) Discography: fl 'Tracks," 1999 ft The Ghost Of Tom-Joad," 1995 J5 "Human Touch," 1992 "funnel -Of 987 fl "Born ,1 984 River," 1980. "Darkness Oh The Edge Of The Innocent The Street Shuffle," 1973 fl "Greetings From Asbury "Park, NJ," 1973 By the numbers: 1999: Year Springsteen was inducted jntothe: Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame 10: Number oftimes he's appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine 18: Amount in dollars that The Boss forked over for his first guitar at age 13 in: 1962 1,800,000: Number of fans who saw.the Boss's 87-show tour in the fall of 1999 The Street Band: Roy Bitten: keyboards Clarence demons: saxophone- percussion Dahny.Federici: keyboards; Nils Lofgren: guitars Patti Scialfa: vocals, percussion Garry Tallent; bass Van Zandt: guitars Max Weihberg: drums Inside today: Looking at an Aifopria man's passion for live music E1 Flashbacks a concern at museum Not everyone is sure that story of Vietnam War soldiers should be retold at local site. Inside official, has i questions about a for the Vietnam. museum project. i AS BY WILLIAM KIBLER Staff Writer A local veteran fears the realistic presentation of a ground soldier's experience at a planned Vietnam War history center in Westfall Park could trigger ugly flashbacks.

"What's going to happen when some of these people see those kinds of things?" asked vet Donald Singer of Hollidaysburg, a former Marine who had three tours of duty in Vietnam and participated in groups that helped veterans come to terms with war memories. Fire Base Eagle plans to use modern museum techniques to reproduce the sights, sounds and even smells of an infantryman's experience, said group President George Montgomery. But there will be understanding staffers to head off problems and even turn soldiers toward help. Singer has a point, and Fire Base Eagle should be cautious, said Jim Prescott, Vietnam veteran, intake coordinator at the Altoona Hospital Access Center and leader of a Vietnam veterans readjustment program at the hospital in the 1980s. The center could show what it's like to go on a mission by using sensors to mimic the dangers, such as wires for booby traps, enemy soldiers popping up from spider holes, beer cans on barbed wire as warning signals around encampments, tea and rice in enemy bunkers, panicked radio chatter from field units to command posts, even the smell of latrines, Montgomery has said.

"As realistically, as possible," said Montgomery, an infantryman in Vietnam. But that's a bit much for Singer, a four-times wounded Marine who won a Silver Star and was nominated for the Medal of Honor. "What's going to happen when some of these people see these kinds of tilings and get flipped out?" he asked. "We've spent 25,30 years trying to get this out of guys'heads." Please see AS Mirror ptiolo by Gary M. Baranec 4 ltoona posts three District 6 Class AAA wrestling champions for the first time since 1382.

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