Argus-Leader from Sioux Falls, South Dakota • Page 1

BEAR BATTLES Soft, fuzzy toys are hot for holidays 1 State's corn harvest nears end IF Miami's Torretta top college player 1B -a Tfiie Sunday ILcgSQdkBir Dec. 13, 1992 Sioux Falls, South Dakota A Gannett Newspaper 1992 Argus Leader $1.25 Snow likely return fire on Somalis Troops Low High arrived in the starving country Wednesday to protect food shipments from looters and clan gunmen. To secure their own safety, Marines have been confiscating weapons from marauding gunmen. Military officials said they hoped the exchange Saturday would serve as an example to others who might challenge the troops. There were Somali casualties, Marine officials said, but it was considered too dangerous to investigate the burned vehicles.

"It's not our responsibility to go and get people wounded on the ground like that," said Col. Fred Peck, spokesman for the U.S. forces in Somalia. The incident came the same day that U.S. Marine armored vehicles, accompanied by scores of press cars, delivered the first food of the mercy mission, crossing Mogadishu's war-devastated "Green Line." The delivery of the 20 tons of rice and beans to northern Mogadishu, where food is scarce but there is no danger of starvation, was portrayed as a demonstration that U.S.

forces can do what they were sent to Somalia for: keep food flowing to hungry Somalis. Much like the Marine landing four days ago, the operation was mobbed by photographers, camera First convoy delivers 20 tons of rice to hungry MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) U.S. Marines Saturday delivered the first food of their mercy mission to joyous Somalis, and combat helicopters destroyed three armed Somali vehicles that attacked the aircraft, military officials said. The exchange of gunfire was the first between Somalis and foreign troops since the U.S.-led force crews and journalists weaving in and out of the convoy. CARE International spokesman Rick Grant criticized the convoy for delivering only 22 tons of food, a fraction of what CARE normally moves.

"We should be seeing large convoys of 500 to 1,000 tons at a time," Grant said. "It's not really a convoy, it's a convoyette. Twenty tons is less than symbolic." Still, Paul Mitchell, spokesman for the U.N. World Food Program, described the operation as a turning point. "It's the first time the United Nations has been able to take a convoy across the Green Line without the threat of getting shot or robbed," he said.

Saving Somalia DAY FIVE On Page 10A: REALITY: Black soldiers that make up the 2,400 U.S. troops in Somalia come face-to-face with their African heritage. TARGETS: Teen-agers rob a photographer, and later a mob stones him and two others. 29 22 Today: Freezing rain likely changing to snow in the afternoon; 1 to 3 inches of accumulation. Northeast winds 15 to 25 mph.

Chance for precipitation near 100 percent. Tonight, snow likely with additional accumulation. Monday: Snow likely with additional accumulation. High, mid-20s. Low, lower 20s.

Chance for snow near 100 percent. Tuesday-Thursday: Dry. High, mid-20s to lower 30s. Low, 5 to 15. FULL REPORT.

2A State can brace for heavy snows The Associated Press Warnings and watches were issued Saturday for South Dakota as a storm began spreading snow into the western part of the state. Snow was forecast to spread east over the state through Monday. Occasional blowing, drifting snow is possible through the weekend. The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for western and central South Dakota for today and a winter storm watch was posted for the eastern part of the state today and tonight. A low pressure area was expected to move from Texas into western Iowa by late Monday.

Freezing rain and sleet could precede the snow in the east today. Total accumulations of 6 to 10 inches of snow were forecast in the west and central by tonight. Forecasters said it was too early to accurately predict snowfall in the east, but they said it could total around 6 inches by tonight with more snow Monday. I fXt i Old friend fills top staff post Clinton also names minority to Cabinet LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) President-elect Bill Clinton said Saturday his chief of staff will be his oldest friend, Thomas "Mack" McLarty, an unassuming millionaire utility executive who will make sure "everybody's voice will be heard." Mi As S.D.

case unfolds, pain returns to hometown Willi Dllli fmwmMm ww- Argus Leader photo by CARSON WALKER 1' 1 1 Thomas McLarty Clinton also named Democratic Party Chairman Ronald Brown as secretary of Commerce, and said he hopes to fill his Cabinet by Christmas. McLarty was a surprise choice. "I am not a Washington insider. I have lived my life in the heartland," said McLarty, 46, head of Arkansas Louisiana Gas Co. "But through Inside: THE TEAM: Bill Clinton begins to reveal the shape of his economic team and his thinking.

1C i i. i Argus Leader photo by MIKE ROEMER Michael Swango leaves a meeting Monday with the USD-School ol Medicine's Residency Review Committee. By CARSON WALKER Argus Leader Staff "v- ULNCY, 111. Dennis Boudreau can't under- stand how his high school friend who learned to play the piano in one year and graduated as valedictorian could possibly have poisoned hjs co-workers. His friend, Dr.

Michael Swango, was convicted in 1985 of giving food and drink tainted with arsenic to six fellow paramedics. "When I knew him in high school, you could ask your son to follow the example of Michael Swango," Boudreau, now a Quincy businessman, said. Swango served two years in an Illinois prison and was released on parole. He also was investigated in the suspicious deaths of five patients while an intern at Ohio State University Hospitals. Now, Swango, 38, is fighting dismissal from the University of South Dakota Medical School's internal medicine residency program.

The school says he didn't tell the whole truth about his past. Dennis McFarland, Swango's Sioux Falls lawyer, said the doctor would not discuss his past, nor his current situation at USD. As news stories about Swango's stay in Sioux Falls filter back to his hometown of Quincy, Boudreau and others who knew him struggle with their memories. Some Quincy law enforcement officials are reluctant to talk because they wonder if Swango may be a threat. Former teachers and friends hesitate because the memory is too painful.

Two of the paramedics he was convicted of poisoning, Greg Myers and Brent Unmisig, said Swango was a friend and a good worker, but they have no doubt he poisoned them with arsenic-based ant killer. Unmisig and two others got sick and vomited Sept. 14, 1984, after eating doughnuts that Swango (Alcove i 4J Ml ft 5 Argus Leader photo by CARSON WALKER my experience" in the state Legislature and as a business leader, "I do know Washington relatively well, and I have learned something about how to make organizations work," he said. Clinton, who resigned as Arkansas' governor Saturday, said problems that have befallen chiefs of staff of the past "have not been rooted in whether the chiefs of staff have been in Washington before." McLarty has known Clinton since their days in a Hope, kindergarten class. McLarty had no formal role in Clinton's campaign, but serves on his transition board.

Unlike McLarty, Brown, 51 is a consummate Washington insider. He has been head of the Democratic National Committee for four years, the first black to hold the post. He also has been a highly paid corporate lobbyist. Clinton said Brown would make the Commerce Department a "powerhouse." Brown, the first minority appointment to Clinton's Cabinet, said the essence of economic strategy would be to bring business, labor and government together into a "new, more effective" partnership that will compete in overseas markets. Clockwise from above left: Greg Myers (left) and Brent Unmisig are two of the six paramedics that Michael Swango was convicted of poisoning with arsenic-based ant poison in 1985.

Swango as a student at Quincy College in Quincy, III. He attended the school from 1 977 to 1 979. A photo of Swango in the 1982 yearbook from Southern Illinois University in Springfield, III. Some of the chemicals, poisons and books on how to kill people found in Swango's apartment when he was arrested in 1 984. On Page 4A: BACK HOME: Friends and associates talk of Michael Swango's talent and of what may have caused him to change.

On Monday: AT USD: What impact will the Swango case have on the USD medical school's reputation? IN WRITING: Read the text of the school's report to the Board of Regents on the Swango case. AP photo Miss Russia, Julia Kurotchinka, was bhosen Miss World on Saturday in Sun City, South Africa. Russian woman wins Miss World SUN CITY, South Africa (AP) Miss Russia, Julia Kurotchinka, was chosen Miss World on Saturday in an extravaganza at this controversial resort in the African bush. In a sign of the changing times in her former Communist homeland, the 18-year-old, blue-eyed student said her ambition "is to be a financier" and travel the world. Judges said it was the closest result in the pageant's 42 years.

Kurotchinka won by one point. The tallest of the 83 contestants at six feet, Kurotchinka listed classical music as a hobby. the nausea lasted did I have diarrhea," Myers said. "He just seemed real interested in what I was going through at the time." In sentencing Swango, Judge Dennis Cashman summarized the man's conflicting personas. quite frankly, have come to like you as an individual, Dr.

Swango; and it makes it even more difficult to understand why you would do these things. "The only explanation I can come to is mat inside of Michael Swango there must be another person. There has to be two Michael Swangos. Otherwise, I could not in any way come to a conclusion that you could have possibly performed the acts that I found you guilty of." brought to the lounge of the Adams County Ambulance Service, where they worked. "It became an issue of who's going to use the bathroom next," Unmisig said.

Unmisig got sick the next day after drinking a Coke that Swango gave him at a football game. A few days later Myers drank a Diet 7-Up that Swango brought him and went home sick. That's when the paramedic began to suspect that he and the others had become subjects in a scientific experiment, said Myers, now director of the ambulance service. "I didn't have any suspicion until the next day when Mike called me up and asked me if I had stomach cramps; how long Sioux Falls legislators plan school-aid fight Tomorrow What's ahead for the USD School of Medicine? Read an update on Monday. inside state money the difference between what each school district can raise locally and what it needs to educate its students.

Critics say the formula doesn't reward frugality or penalize overspending. Sioux Falls Superintendent Jerry Weast said it also doesn't recognize his district's special problems, caused by an unusually high number of special education students and by rapid community growth that adds up to 500 new students a year to the school School aidSee 2A Movies 5G The numbers: The following are Gov. George Mickelson's budget projections for sales tax collected and education's share of 56.25 percent. The second column is five-year totals, fiscal years 1990-94. Projected 1994 FY 90-94 total Sales tax $298,020,860 $1,344,981,901 School snare $167,636,734 $756,552,319 Source: S.D.

Bureau of Finance and Management "There isn't a whole lot of money in there, and the way the formula works, Sioux Falls won't see much, if any," he said. In preliminary discussions, some lawmakers have concluded that the existing school formula can't be changed enough to help Sioux Falls. "We're actually looking at a completely new way of allocating the money," Caselli said. "There's no way to redo that formula to do the things that need done." The aid formula is supposed to provide in By TERRY WOSTER Argus Leader Staff PIERRE Sioux Falls legislators who believe their schools gets too little state education money will meet Friday to talk about ways to change the system. Sioux Falls' complaint about the school-aid formula isn't new, but Gov.

George Mickelson's just-released budget plan for fiscal 1994 with only $2.6 million in new state aid lends an urgency to the legislators' strategy session, said Democratic Rep. Bob Caselli. 112 pages Business Sec. Obituaries 3F 8-9A Channels Opinion Sec. Classified Sec.

Life Comics Sioux Empire Sec. Sports Sec. 5E Crossword 1F Ann Landers 5G Lotteries.