Battle Creek Enquirer from Battle Creek, Michigan • Page 1

Girls tennis preview Sports, IB ENQUIRER FRIDAY Aug. 22, 2003 Battle Creek BA TTLECREEKENQUIRER. COM 50C ONSOGDE 1 i 4 i Mideast peace nun tatters Palestinian militants call off truce 1 rr TZZT' 1 1 1 -mi i i Eclectic Gallery shows off some celebrity skin Neighbors, 1C The news in KEVIN HARETHE ENQUIRER Channel 41 news anchor and Assistant News Director Michelle Edmonds talks to a coworker as she packs up her office after her job was eliminated. TOW BATTLE CREEK Convict is resentenced for 2000 car accident that killed one ST. JOSEPH COUNTY Judge hears case of the quickest probation violation ever Local, 3 A (BOM 'All out of time' Karin Laub Associated Press JERUSALEM Palestinian militants called off a tattered two-month-old truce Thursday after an Israeli helicopter killed a senior Hamas political leader with a volley of missiles.

Tens of thousands of Hamas supporters marched in protest through the streets of Gaza, vowing revenge. According to aides, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas had ordered a major crackdown and drew up lists of militants to be arrested, but scrapped the plans after the assassination. Israel said it could not wait any longer for the Palestinians to act after a Hamas bus bombing that killed 20 people, including six children, in Jerusalem. Gideon Meir, a Foreign Ministry official, said the Palestinians should have moved faster. "If there had been a will of the Palestinian leadership to really take action, they could have done it in an hour, two hours after the horrific terrorist attack," he said.

About a dozen Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers moved into Jenin in an apparent arrest raid late Thursday, the second night of incursions into West Banks towns hunting for militants. The escalating violence posed the most serious threat yet to the U.S.-led "road map" peace plan, launched three months ago. Secretary of State Colin Powell warned that "the end of the road map is a cliff that both sides will fall off of and urged them to pull back. That appeared unlikely after Tuesday's bus bombing and the missile strike. In the Gaza Strip, tens of thousands of Hamas supporters took to the streets after evening prayers Thursday in a massive show of strength.

Gunmen fired in the air and about 15 men marched in long robes a signal that they are willing to become suicide bombers. The target of the Israeli rocket attack Thursday was Ismail Abu Shanab, 53, a prominent Hamas spokesman and U.S.-educated engineering professor who was considered one of the more pragmatic members of the group and who pushed the movement to call their truce on June 29. Israel said he was involved in terror attacks, including the Tuesday bus bombing. The militants' unilateral cease-fire had quelled violence for several Please see MIDEAST, 8A 51 24 fired from B.C. TV station Jenny Rode The Enquirer WOTV Channel 41 announced Thursday morning that its Battle Creek news operation has closed, a move that leaves the Cereal City without a locally anchored television newscast.

Poor finances and too much competition were cited as the reasons that 24 out of 28 news jobs have been cut at the station, at 5200 W. Dickman Road. Channel 41's sister station, NBC affiliate WOOD TV-8, will put its Grand Rapids-based newscast on the air to fill the void. In Battle Creek, Channel 41 will carry the same newscasts as Channel 8. News related to Battle Creek and Kalamazoo will be supplied to Channel 8 by four Battle Creek-based staff mem- 'Chemical Ali' caught NationW orld, 5A Kelly Carr and Sarah Chuby The Enquirer The ending had to be different, or Ethan Forhetz would have been lying.

As the WOTV Channel 41 news anchor ended his 11 p.m. Wednesday broadcast, he couldn't bring himself to say the usual good-bye. This time, he knew much more than he could share with his viewers. It was the final broadcast. It was his last day of work.

It was the end of what he knew of Channel 41. "It was a weird feeling," Forhetz said. 'When I sign off, I usually say 'We hope to see you back here but I knew better this time. Instead I said, 'We are all out of time. Good I knew last night as I was broadcasting the show it would be my last." In a press release on Thursday morning, LIN Television Inc.

announced it was firing 24 Please see NEWS, 4A News anchor Ethan Forhetz cleans out his desk after, learning of job eliminations at Channel 4L Channel 8 news on Channel 41 Here's when WOOD-TV 8 news will appear on WOTV-41. Channel 41 will no longer air its own news broadcasts but a reporting team will contribute to the Channel 8 newscasts. 5 to 7 a.m. Monday through Friday. Noon to 12:30 p.m.

Monday through Friday. 5 to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. 11 to 11:35 p.m. Monday through Sunday.

6 to 6:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Economy shows signs of life Business, 7B and production will remain at the Dickman Road station, said Diane Kniowski, general manager of LIN Please see WOTV, 7A bers: two photographers, a producer and Channel 41 reporter Melissa Dunbar. In addition, 20 employees in sales, engineering Deaths Leah C. Bakle Jean D.

Broughton Rick P. Burdick Margaret M. Monarch Davidson Richard H. Heritage Patricia A. Nelson Donna M.

Smith Lawrence Tobias Obituaries, 4A I Complete index on 2A Michigan lacks ability to force power grid upgrade Schools given chance to ring in on cell phones 2003, Battle Creek Enquirer I Online poll Today's poll: Will you miss WOTV-41 news? Response to Thursday's poll: Is teachers' pay too high, i 19 percent too low. 60 percent; about right, 21 percent. I Total votes: 220. battlecfeekenquircr.com Service Commission. Utilities within Michigan that still own their own transmission systems such as American Electric Power which serves southwest Michigan also answer to FERC or regional independent system operators rather than state regulators when it comes to the grid.

Yet those regional and federal entities have only limited powers to force improvements. While FERC sets the rates transmission companies can charge, neither it nor the ISOs overseeing the Mid- upgrades could be required. State regulatory officials lost much of their ability to force upgrades in the grid when the transmission lines that carry that electricity for areas served by the state's two major utilities Detroit-based DTE Energy and Jackson-based Consumers Energy Co. were bought by private companies. Those companies answer only to regional transmission overseers and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, not the Michigan Public Kathy Barks Hoffman Associated Press LANSING It's too early to know if the state's transmission system needs improvements in the wake of the blackout that left 2.3 million Michigan customers without power, Michigan Public Service Commission Chairman Peter Lark said Thursday.

But even if state and national investigations show something must be done, state regulators have no power to force changes and national agencies would need new enforcement powers before month by Gov. Jennifer Granholm lifted the state ban on cell phone use in Michigan schools. The law, established in 1988 and expanded in 1995, banned pagers and other electronic communication devices because of their association with drug dealers. This school year is singled out in the legislation as a transitional year, in which schools may develop their own policies or keep enforcing the Please see CELL, 7A Kelly Carr The Enquirer Lakeview High School junior Bud Dunn has more than enough reasons to carry a cell phone. He is a founding member of Battle Creek's Youth Advisory Board, president of Lakeview's Student Senate and an athlete on the Spartan golf team.

But when school starts Monday, Dunn's phone will sit silently in his backpack for the entire school day. A new law signed this ASSOCIATED PRESS Michigan Public Service Commission Chairman Peter Lark testifies before the Senate Technology and Energy Committee on Wednesday in Lansing. west can do much more so far. Bills designed to improve electric reliability have languished in Congress. O11 40901 1 ilDH lit OI.