The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 1

Playoff hunt thickens as Magic knock off Warriors In Sports Thursday y- Part'y cloudy High 79 Low 59 Ola WLJi.) Tuesday J4 cloudv H9h 76 Low 54 Wednesday 1 VJVUU Kentucky avenges loss to puke to advance; Stanford rallies to topple Rhode Island. I f- 's Partly cloudy fc Friday Partly cloudy High 79 Low 59 nrnHiV niltv iffiHE High 76 r-T Low 56 lL" Will the Cuban defectors be sent home? Story, A-3. MONDAY, March 23, 1998 ei9H OrtindB 6Mrtf ConvnunkaMM Convany 50 cents METRO The best newspaper in Florida Inside today: Execution 1 wiry gin HI a IM llMM 1 "i 'J Delmonlco steak, medium rare Baked potato with sour cream and bacon bits Tossed salad, bleu cheese dressing Lima beans French bread Half-gallon mint chocolate chip ice cream 2 liters of Dr Pepper Source: Department of Corrections Gerald Stano, a former short-order cook, confessed to killing 41 women in three different states. By Michael Griffin TALLAHASSEE BUREAU CHIEF STARKE Florida's death-penalty ritual began anew Sunday: prayers, court appeals and a last meal as the state prepared to execute Gerald Stano this morning for the 1973 murder of a Port Orange schoolgirl. The same scenario could be repeated three more times during the next eight days as Florida's electric chair is put ed in the fatal arsenic poisoning of her husband.

Scheduled to follow March 31 is Daniel Remeta, condemned for killing an Ocala store clerk at the start of a cross-country crime spree. Anti-death penalty activists decried the renewal of executions, suspended for a year after flames erupted during the March 25 electrocution of Pedro Medina, killer of an Orlando schoolteacher. Speaking on behalf of human rights group Amnesty International, Bianca Jagger told reporters Sunday that Florida politicians were "killing for votes." "The death penalty is being used by politicians to present a simplistic an- swer to a complex problem," said Jagger, ex-wife of Rolling Stones star Mick Please see STANO, A-5 back to work after nearly a year of controversy. Stano, 46, was set to die at 7 a.m. for torturing, strangling and stabbing Cathy Lee Scharf.

The 17-year-old disappeared 11 days before Christmas, and hunters found her body in a ditch in a Titusville-area vildlife refuge on Jan. 19,1974. Scharf is one of 10 women Stano is convicted of killing in Florida. The former short-order cook confessed to killing 41 women; in Florida, New Jersey and Pennsylvania many of them in a circuit he frequented between Daytona Beach, Gainesville and Tampa. Stano's electrocution is the first of four scheduled in the next eight days at Florida State Prison.

Jacksonville cop killer Leo Jones, 47, is in line to die Tuesday. Two more executions are planned for next week, starting March 30 with Judy Buenoano Orlando's "Black Widow" -r- convict WHAT TO WATCH FOR THIS WEEK Stopping the violence Springtime snow slams New York The city was headed for a low-snowfall record until the storm blew in, shutting down LaGuardia Airport. I ft 'x Srr ft- 'Ji ViV The United States leads the charge this week to tighten sanctions against Yugoslavia for its repression In Kosovo. European allies want to restrict Yugoslav assets abroad. Foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germa COMPILED FROM WIRE REPORTS NEW YORK After a virtually snowless winter, up to 7 inches of snow coated the spring buds on trees Sunday and shut down one of the metropolitan area's three major airports.

"There's nothing particularly unusual other than it's the first snow of the season," city Sanitation Department spokesman Lucian Chalfen said. LaGuardia ny, Italy, Russia and the United States meet in Bonn, Germany, on Wednesday to haggle over sanctions. Jews meet pope Expect Jewish leaders' meetings with the Vatican today to be dominated by the Holy See's controversial document on the Holocaust. Issued last Monday, it acknowledged Catholics did not do enough to protect Jews during the war. The meetings end Thursday with an audience with Pope John Paul II, who has defended Pius XII against accusations that he did not do enough to stop the Holocaust.

Michael Jordan Airport, on the north shore of Long Island, shut down at 6:15 a.m. because 6 inches of wet, slippery snow coated both of its runways. Until one of the runways reopened at 11a.m., 130 departures and arrivals had to be The storm front that caused Friday's deadly tornadoes in Georgia and North Carolina sparked the biggest snowfall of the year in New York. It dumped up to: 7 Inches in New York City, 7 Inches in northern Connecticut, 12 Inches in places in the mountains of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Michael Jordan could pay his last regular-season visit to the Orlando Arena on Wednesday when the Chicago Bulls face the Magic at 8 p.m.

Jordan says he will retire after this season if the Bulls don't bring back coach Phil Jackson. It's one of four games in six days as Orlando struggles to gain a play L.1 Jordan canceled, the airport's operations desk reported. LaGuardia handles mostly domestic flights. The second runway reopened during the afternoon, and no more delays were reported. Kennedy International Airport, on Long Island's south shore, and Newark International in New Jersey had about 3 inches each.

Those airports still had-flight delays of about 30 minutes at midafternoon, although some airlines at those airports reported delays of up to two hours. The delays and cancellations in New York and Boston caused no problems at Orlando International Airport, a spokeswoman said. The snow was part of the same weather system Please see SNOW, A-4 off spot. The Magic are in Atlanta on Tuesday, host the Houston Rockets Friday and go to Toronto on Sunday. Spring training Major-league baseball wraps up spring training this week.

The Atlanta Braves are at Disney's Wide World of Sports on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. against the Houston Astros. The Florida Marlins and Tampa Bay Devil Rays finish their spring play in St. Petersburg at 1:35 p.m. GARY BOGDONTHE ORLANDO SENTINEL South African Ernie Els, with help from golf legend was my day in the said Els, who shot 73 for a Arnold Palmer, tries on his winner's jacket Sunday finish of 14 under par.

Jeff Maggert and Bob Estes at the Bay Hill Invitational in Orlando. 'I was keen tied for 2nd. Tiger Woods' performance was forget-to go, ready to roll and had my putter going. This table: a 13th-place finish. Story, B-1.

Is it time to end the income tax? Aid for Florida Congress opens a debate this week on spending millions more in disaster aid for areas including Central Florida. Page A-4 I Some lawmakers have ideas for tossing the current system and starting from scratch. By William E. Gibson WASHINGTON BUREAU mass of rules, forms and heavy-handed enforcement that inspires political cries for some way to simplify or end it all. Just as millions of Americans suffer through this year's bewildering tax returns, some members of Congress are pushing for radical changes that would scrap the entire tax code and start anew.

INDEX National: Section A Names Faces A-2 Sports: Section Local State: Section Obituaries C-6 Television C-8 Business: CFB Late business Who will be the star tonight? Will it be Gloria Stuart, the 87-year-old nominee for best supporting actress from Titanic'? What about Burt TO REPORT NEWS: 420-5411 no exceptions. President Clinton and some members of Congress propose far more modest changes. More than 70 bills in Congress, many of them proposed in the name of simplicity, would give tax breaks for such things as private-school tuition, child-care expenses and buying fuel-efficient homes and cars. But proponents of more radical transformations hope taxpayers will become so fed up that a political groundswell will rise up to demand an end to the income tax as we know it. Please see TAX, A-4 Stuart Reynolds, the comeback kid? Find out at 9 p.m., wnen tne Academy Awards air on ABC, WFTV-Channel 9, Details, A-7 WASHINGTON The federal income tax once was considered a status symbol of financial success, a mere token that only the wealthiest Americans deigned to pay.

That was in 1913. Since then, ithtax code has morphed into a IN A WORD: pathos, PAY-thahs, noun. The quality in something that is experienced or observed that arouses feelings of pity, sorrow, sympathy or com: passion. Today's word is on Page A-7. Comparing tax plans: A-4 Some want a national sales tax.

Many others favor a "flat tax" one low tax rate for everybody, with no deductions, no loopholes,.