South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 1

OS Miami art collector Priscilla Kruize AFICAW-AEUiEIICAW MIT FIN A H0SU3E IM. AFRICA tiuaa-Mi-MiitJ 2D FINAL EDITION SOUTH FLORIDA WED NESDAY APRIL 9, 1997 STREAKING COMET Boaurdl approves a ch(D)ol for 1 7 1 .4 I i I TMll1.Al1l'-.,.r Dozens of classrooms to be added in deal By SARAH TALALAY Education Writer Ending weeks of arguing, the city of Pembroke Pines and the Broward School Board agreed on Tuesday to build an elementary school and dozens of permanent and temporary classrooms in the city and provide $3 million for east Broward schools. The tentative ac- NEWS DIGEST Legal community studies Ault's stand Members of the legal and psychological communities wonder why murder suspect and convicted child molester Howard Steven Ault agreed to jailhouse interviews in which he said he murdered a Fort Lauderdale woman and confessed to the murder of two girls. LOCAL, 1B County: Investigate Huizenga company County commissioners on Tuesday said they want state prosecutors to investigate whether H. Wayne Hui-zenga's arena building company is breaking the law by disobeying an order to pay construction workers higher wages.

LOCAL, IB Legislature advances school voucher bills The state would help pay tuition for up to 25,000 private school students under a plan that cleared two key committees Tuesday. The plan still faces an uphill battle. STATE, 6B Slaying sparks new Middle East violence Israelis and Palestinians gave conflicting accounts of the shooting, which occurred in Hebron, but the incident sparked some of the worst of the region's recent surge in violence. WORLD, 10A NOTICE TO READERS Because of production problems, your newspaper delivery might be late today. We regret any inconvenience.

cord, worked out by district and city staff and their attorneys in a meeting just before noon, eliminates a middle school for Pembroke Pines from a plan approved last month and relies on different sources of school district money. "1 think we finally accomplished what we needed to do to get schools built," said "I'm worried about the precedent the Pembroke Pines proposal sets." Brian Dassler, student adviser to School Board Staff photoELIOT J. SCHECHTQH Viewing the comet Today through Saturday, the best time to view -Hale-Bopp will be about 8:30 p.m. Cometgazers should look in the northwest sky, just west of the constellation Cassiopeia. Hale-Bopp will look like a fuzzy star with a faint tail.

1 For more on Hale-Bopp, visit the Miami Planetarium Internet site at (http:www.startiustier.com) and the iiMM Sun-Sentinel's Comet Page at itl Comet Hale-Bopp is framed by the Interstate 7.5. and Sawgrass Expressway interchange as it streaks across the northwest sky Monday night. The photo is a 30-second exposure shot at f-stop 2.8 on Fuji 800 ASA film. The peak time for viewing the comet has passed, but it should continue to be easy to see without a telescope until sometime in May. For twice-weekly updates with astronomy columnist i Arnold Pearistein, call SOURCE LINE at the numbers below and enter category 2595.

Broward: 954-523-5463, Boca-Delray: 561-496-5463, Boynton Beach: 561-625-5463. Immigrants arrive poor, then thrive, study shows Out of poverty Forcign-born residents work their way out of poverty as their time in the United Slates increases. U.S.-born citizens In poverty I J12.9 Foreign-born residents In poverty Entered mm-mmmwm before 1 9-0 1 970 mH wri Pembroke Pines Mayor Alex Fekete, who embraced Schools Superintendent Frank Petruzielo publicly just before the unanimous board vote. "Plus, we had to stop this bickering. We would be damaging the entire process." The plan, which needs to be voted on again by the board in two weeks, sets the stage for other communities to come forward with their own plans.

Coral Springs is one of several cities drafting proposals for new classrooms. Fekete had lobbied the School Board since last May to consider his city's plan to build schools and lease them to the district. Three weeks ago, the board voted 4-3 for a version that included an elementary and a middle school, with the understanding that financing still needed to be worked out. Those discussions nearly killed it altogether, but city and school district officials met Tuesday morning and came up with the following plan: The School Board will borrow $12.2 million to build an elementary school that will open in August 1998 north of Pines Boulevard east of Interstate 75. Pembroke Pines will pay any interest on the loan that goes above 4.25 percent for five years.

PLEASE SEE SCHOOLS 12A lyzed the data. The study, based on personal interviews in 50,000 households nationwide, says 1 in 10 people in the United States are foreign-born. Recent arrivals, those who immigrated in the 1990s, are more likely to live in poverty a median income of about $10,875 and have higher unemployment rates than U.S.-born, the study says. However, those who have been in the country more than six years are doing as well as the U.S.-born in terms of income. Foreign-born as a group had a lower median income in 1995 than U.S.-born $14,772 compared with $17,835.

But there is no significant difference between the median in- PLEASE SEE IMMIGRANTS 20A By NANCY SAN MARTIN Staff Writer Immigrants who come to the United States start out poorer, but eventually catch up economically to the U.S.-born population, according to a new U.S. Census Bureau study. The report The Foreign-Born Population: 1996 is based on data collected in March 1996, comparing the characteristics of U.S.-born residents to foreign-born nationals living in the United States. While the study affirms many negative stereotypes about immigrants, it also points to positive, long-term achievements. "The most important thing it shows is that all of the foreign-born are not the same," said Kristin A.

Hansen, a demographer who ana 16.8 mn -n ft Entered FVWWS 1980-89 Entered 1990-96 SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of the STAFF Census, Current Population Study U.S. court OKs California's affirmative action ban bly unconstitutional. Tuesday's decision is scheduled to take effect in 21 days, but affirmative-action advocates said they will ask a larger panel of the 9th Circuit to continue the ban on enforcement while the case is PLEASE SEE AFFIRMATIVE 16A "A system which permits one judge to block with the stroke of a pen what 4,736,180 state residents voted to enact as law tests the integrity of our constitutional democracy," the court said, referring to a Dec. 23 ruling by U.S.

District Judge Thelton Henderson that the initiative was proba dered the lifting of a lower-court injunction blocking enforcement of Proposition 209. The initiative enacted last November, making California the first state to attempt to roll back affirmative action, bars preferential treatment and discrimination in public hiring, contracting and education. In a strongly worded decision that reflected the politically charged nature of the issue, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said there is "no doubt" the measure is constitutional. The judges unanimously or By WILLIAM CLAIBORNE The Washington Post LOS ANGELES A federal appeals court, siding with opponents of affirmative action, on Tuesday upheld California's voter-approved ban on preferences based on race and gender. Heat topples Nets in 94-92 comeback Alonzo Mourning had a season-high 35 points rebounds as MCjf the Heat staged cr- their biggest comeback of the season in beating the Nets 94-92 Tuesday night.

SPORTS, 1C THE SOUND OF SILENCE Radio station WRBD tunes out after 30 years. voice and entertainer to Broward TODAY'S WEATHER James Thomas was a WRBD disc jockey in the late '7(Ts and later became part owner. He's now the morning DJ and program director for WEDR. Stiff file photo 20 of its history and tradition, but the business just wasn't strong enough to keep the cash flow going. It came down to a business decision, and I take all the responsibility." Forever known by longtime listeners as "Rockin" Big Daddy," WRBD, which was 1470 on the AM dial, had mixed gospel, and prominent black performers PLEASE SEE WRBD 6A At HIOH LOW J( i HIOH LOW CHANCE By JONATHON KING Staff Writer In its time, it could soar like the gospel choirs it broadcast.

Back in the day, it would yelp with the energy of James Brown and rumble with the mellow of Otis Redding. There was rhythm. And there were blues. But not until last week was there the sound of a funeral dirge at WRBD. The radio station that was County's black community for more than 30 years has gone quiet.

It has fallen victim to a nationwide trend of black AM stations losing audience and advertising dollars to FM stations. "It's a great part of South Florida history gone forever," said Jerry Rushin, who owned the station with James Thomas, for a little more than four years. "We tried to keep it going, keep some OF RAIN Increasing clouds with a slight chance of showers. WEATHER, 2B TODAY'S TOP NEWS, SPORTS AND FEATURES ONLINE 2A OPINION 20A SPORTS SCOREBOARD 1 1 JOHN GROGAN 1B Lottery 3A STATE NEWS 1D HUMBERTO CRUZ 6B BUSINESS NEWS 3D NATIONAL NEWS 8EI PAGE 8 FOR MORI INFO digHakdition 10A OBITUARIES IB WORLD NEWS 7B TVMOVIE LISTINGS SI I ERRI WINSTON lliiiiil Illlllllli 28337ll19911 AOL KEYWORDS Sun-Sentinel INTERNET: www.aun-Mntlnel.eom VOL. 37 NO.

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