The Montgomery Advertiser from Montgomery, Alabama • 1

Acquisitions: AmSouth agrees to buy First American in $5.3 billion stock deal 6B nfauflMn ft I 1 8 2 9: JawstmirS Do mine WEDNESDAY June 2, 1999 Montgomery edition 50 cents SPORTS Reform: The bill limits punitive damages to $1.5 million in cases involving physical injury and $500,000 in non-injury cases supporters said. The caps also mean an end to maybe the most enduring debate among state politicians, whether juries should be restricted on their awards. "The greatest part of this legislation is that it provides a bar, a limit on punitive damages," said Rep. Perry Hooper, R-Montgomery, who has pushed a caps bill for years. "In my wildest imagination, I never thought the Senate was going to send us a cap on punitive damages," Hooper said.

Children First to get smaller cut of tobacco money 3C Legislature votes to end ban on interracial marriages 3C ntr. ALABAMA LEGISLATURE 1999 won't have to fear decisions like a Hale County jury's $581 million verdict in a case involving the purchase of two satellite dishes last month, The bill limits punitive damages, awarded to punish wrongdoing, to $1.5 million in cases involving physical injury, and $500,000 in non-injury cases. Small businesses, with a net worth of less that $2 million, would be protected by a lower cap, from $50,000 to $200,000 based on their size. There will be no caps in cases involving wrongful death or intentional physical injury. Compensatory damages, which civil juries award to reimburse the victim for tangible losses, such as lost wages or medical bills, are not limited.

"This has been a very divisive issue," said House BEEF PROCESSORS CUTS 600 JOBS Cattle farmers plant cutbacks hurt by the ground-beef patty division of Deep cuts Beef Processor; Beef Processors in South Montgomery ended its slaughter operation Friday and is dismissing 600 of 850 workers at its plant. About 250 employees will continue to operate i jT Beef Processors, LLC. fc fair- "if 4 A Auburn's Kent proves looks can be deceiving 1B Seat belt law awaits governor's signature By Kim Chandler Montgomery Advertiser It's time to buckle up. Law enforcement officers will soon be able to pull over motorists if the driver or front-seat passengers aren't wearing a seat belt. Being caught will cost you $25.

The state Senate approved the primary seat belt bill Tuesday and Gov. Don. Sie-gelman is expected to sign it. It already is against the law to drive in Alabama without a seat belt, but currently police officers can only issue a citation if they pulled the motorist over for another offense such as speeding. "This bill is not designed to raise money.

It's designed to do one thing save lives," said Sen. Gerald Dial, D-Line-ville. The Senate passed the bill 23-2, with Sens. Curt Lee, R-Jasper, and Jimmy Holley, D-Elba, voting against it. For bill sponsor Rep.

John Hawkins, R-Birmingham, Tuesday's action was the culmination of nearly a decade of work. "I was beginning to get worried it wouldn't pass this year," Hawkins said. The issue became something of a personal crusade for the lawmaker after his grandchild was slightly injured in a traffic accident. After the governor signs the bill, there will be a six-month phase-in period in which officers will give only warnings. After that, they are free to write tickets.

FORECAST poo Very warm and shower or t-storm 67 tonight. 10A BEEF PROCESSORS 3 Montgomery, 5,5 Description: Beef Processors is a complete processing facility, including slaughter, fabrica1 "tion and 'ii Chief executive: Henry Bill Wallace-' Employees: 850 prior, to Annual revenue rfiiflion I A By Mike Cason Montgomery Advertiser State lawmakers might have erased a familiar two-word phrase from Alabama politics on Tuesday: "Tort reform." The Alabama House of Representatives voted 98-0 to set a limit on how much civil juries could award plaintiffs in cases involving punitive damages. The bill had already passed the Senate, and Gov. Don Siegelman said he will sign it into law. The caps mean businesses WHOA suspends newscasts for now Changes: 'We plan to make improvements from stem to said the manager of WHOA's parent company By Alvin Benn Montgomery Advertiser Nearly 20 WHOA-Channel 32 employees have been fired as part of an ownership change that will take the station's newscasts off the air temporarily.

John Kendrick, manager of Las Vegas-based Broadcast Media Group, said Tuesday afternoon 7" that "about 18 or 19" employees most in posi-tions have been fired since Thursday. The ABC affiliate's 6 Lumpkin p.m. newscast was replaced Tuesday with re-runs of the situation comedy "The Nanny." WHOA-TV, Montgomery's ABC affiliate, will not have a news department for up to five months while station management conducts an "extensive evaluation of the news product," Kendrick said. "We plan to make improvements from stem to stern," Kendrick said. "We're committed to having a first class news operation." Norman Lumpkin, who has been a television personality in Montgomery for years, said Tuesday night that the decision by WHOA's new management did not surprise him.

"It's their station," said Lumpkin, who was one of five WHOA employees whose contracts were not renewed. "I showed up on time and did my job. I wish them well." Kendrick said his company bought WHOA for $8 million and plans to spend "over $1.5 million" in the coming months to improve the news product. Kendrick said officials with WHOA's previous owner, Media General terminated the five contract employees last Thursday. He said his company notified more than a dozen employees "one by one" on Tuesday that jobs had been eliminated.

David Hicks, who produced WHOA's 6 p.m. newscast, said he was one of the five whose contract was not extended last Thursday. Hicks said his contract would have expired June 11. "Everyone was pretty stunned by what happened," said Hicks, who said he did not want to elaborate on the terminations. "The official Speaker Seth Hammett, D-An-dalusia.

"We're here today to say this issue once and for all has been resolved." "Tort reform" has been the favorite cause of politically influential business groups for at least three years, and they have poured millions of dollars into political campaigns. But their efforts were thwarted in the state Senate, which under the leadership of Siegelman as lieutenant governor repeatedly ignored reform bills that had passed Limits Page 2A Impact: The affected employees will be given regular wages for 60 days By Mike Sherman Montgomery Advertiser The impact of the closing of Beef Processors' live animal processing division extends beyond the loss of 600 jobs in Montgomery. Cattle producers said Tuesday that the end of slaughter at the south Montgomery plant will cost them about $4 million a year. ended its slaughter operation Friday, citing unfavorable market conditions resulting from a low number of cows in the region. It will continue to operate a ground beef patty division in the plant at 4530 Mobile High-" way.

Employment is expected to drop from 850 to 250 people, said Kathryn Danko-Lord, a spokeswoman for the company. She said the 600 employees affected will be given regular wages for a 60-day period and will be eligible to apply for unemployment benefits. A dislocated workers unit will operate through the week at the Holiday Inn Airport South at 1100 W. South Blvd. "This will hurt a lot of people," said Mike Hodges, owner of Montgomery Stockyards.

"They buy here. We are losing one of the major packer-buyers, and all the guys that relied on them for trucking and the fuel stations will be hurt." Billy Powell, executive director of the Alabama Cattlemen's Association, said was an important market for mature cows and bulls, which are regularly culled by cattle producers. "They've been a major Plant Page 2A DIGNITARY'S VISIT Secretary Herman returns to state U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman returned home to Alabama Tuesday to officially open a local Job Corps Center and to make a historic speech to a joint session of the Alabama Legisla ture. Herman cut the ribbon on the new Job Corps Center at 1145 Air Base Blvd.

Tuesday afternoon and announced initiatives to increase job in Alabama's Herman opportunities Black Belt counties. "We have to invest in developing the skills of the people in the Black Belt," she said. Later, she went to the Alabama House of Representatives chamber at the State House with Gov. Siegelman. See stories.

Pages 68, 3C 1 ,1, The Beef Processors plant in Montgomery served competition will cost them millions of dollars a year. Neighbors have much of the Southeast. Beef producers say the loss of local mixed emotions the plant. Marlowe Mason, David Bundy Staff not want the loss of jobs. "We're very upset that 600 jobs will be lost," Sharp said Tuesday.

"We didn't want to see anyone losing their jobs." Sharp said the smell coming from the plant is not as bad now. The company didn't comment on the complaints. Southlawn resident Nathan Harden was still adamant Tuesday about the need to get rid of the odor he said he gets a whiff of every time he passes the plant. "That smell needs to go," Harden said. "It's got to go." The Associated Press there was no cause for worry that the craft would be too dangerous to leave dents, along with some local leaders, unsuccessfully fought a battle to try to keep Beef Processors from bringing a meat rendering operation to the plant.

The expansion has since been scrapped and Beef Processors now says it will close its slaughtering division in Montgomery, causing the loss of 600 jobs, because of a shortage of cows in the area. John W. Sharp, president of the English VillageSouth-lawn Community Organization, said the residents did filed complaints with the state in 1997 to keep the plant from expanding. They said an additional rendering operation could produce odors: "They ain't got no business having no stockyard this close to a neighborhood anyway," Southlawn resident James McCloud said. The plant produces a bad smell in the neighborhood, he said.

But resident Marry Harris said: "I don't want to see them lose their jobs." In 1997, Southlawn resi abandon station space station up and running. "We can't keep the station aloft, because we have no money," Sergei Gorbunov, a Russian Space Agency spokesman, said Tuesday. The decision must still be approved by President Boris Yeltsin. The cash-short government has agreed to finance the Mir only through August, and says it should be discarded then unless private funding is found. Efforts to raise the money have failed.

The Russian Space Agency has been under pressure from its U.S. counterpart NASA to abandon the Mir and concentrate its meager resources on the international space station. Because of Russia's failure to build its segments on time, the first permanent crew isn't expected to be able to move into By Malcomb Daniels Montgomery Advertiser Word that 600 people would lose their jobs at a Montgomery beef processing plant was greeted with mixed emotions in a nearby neighborhood Tuesday. While some said they wouldn't miss the smell produced by Beef Processors on Mobile Highway, others said they hated to see anyone lose a job. Residents of the Southlawn neighborhood near the plant Russia to Mir space The Associated Press MOSCOW In the strongest sign yet that Russia's era of space glory may be ending, cosmonauts will abandon the Mir space station in August and let it eventually burn up in the atmosphere unless new funding is found, officials said Tuesday.

The 13-year-old Mir saw a series of accidents in 1997, including a fire and a near-fatal space collision, but has been running relatively trouble-free since then. When it is abandoned in August, it will be the first time the station has been unmanned since it was launched. Its biggest obstacle lately has been financial: The government can no longer come up with the $250 million needed each year to keep the INDEX Alabama 3C Lottery 2A Autauga Montgomery 1C Elmore 5C Movies 2D Business 6B Nation 4A Classified 6C Obituaries 4C Coffee Break 6D Southeast 5A Comics 7D Sports 1B Crossword 6D TV Log 5D Editorial 8A Washington 9A FY 2C Weather 10A Lifestyle ID World 9A I--' ''''''''''I JWWJS'ffv Jim' www.accessmontgomery.com EMERGENCY ROOM Baptist Medical Center South is today's designated trauma center until 7 a.m. Thursday. A Gannett Newspaper 36 pages I Volume 1 72, Number 153 1999 The Advertiser Co.

SUBSCRIPTIONS 269-0010 The Russian space station Mir flies high above the Pacific Ocean in this 1995 photo. The Russian Space Agency has decided to stop financially supporting the station because of a lack of funds. The last cosmonauts will leave the station in August. the international space station until next March, almost two years behind schedule. A Russian spokesman said WHOA Page 2A 4.