The Kokomo Tribune from Kokomo, Indiana • Page 5

KOKOMO TRIBUNE call us News editor, 454-8581 Monday-Friday between 7:30 a.m. 2:30 p.m. A5 State UPDATE Teen charged for carrying gun MERRILLVILLE, Ind. (AP) A 17-year-old Merrillville High School student has been charged with carrying a handgun without a license after the pistol he had in his pants pocket went off during his math class. Sophomore Ryan A.

Salazar was charged as an adult The charge, filed in Lake Superior Court, carries a maximum sentence of eight years. Salazar told school administrators that he brought the gun to school to protect himself from other gang members. After the semiautomatic handgun fired, Salazar fled the classroom during the ensuing confusion and hid the gun in a nearby bathroom, where administrators found it, according to court records. A bullet was found in the classroom carpet, but no one was injured. Sanitary District agrees to soUfumont HAMMOND, Ind.

(AP) The Hammond Sanitary District has agreed to pay more than $2.3 million to settle a 6-year-old federal lawsuit alleging that it unlawfully discharged sewage into the Grand Calumet River. The settlement is expected to be paid for with a bond issue that will raise the tax rate for residents in Hammond and Munster who use the sewage system. After all the parties involved in the lawsuit, including the municipalities, the Sanitary District, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, the U.S. attorney's office and the Justice Department, sign the consent decree, residents will have to file complaints with District Court clerk 1 in 'Hammond. If it is approved'by a judge it will put an end to a 1993 lawsuit that alleges clean water laws violations dating back to the late 1980s.

The lawsuit was to go to trial in three weeks. Jurors get first murder case BLOOMFIELD, Ind. (AP) Jurors received the case Thursday in the first murder trial to come out of the horrifying 1995 slaying of a developmentally disabled woman abducted off the streets of her hometown. Roger L. Long, a 47-year-old drifter from Bedford, was on trial for murder, conspiracy to commit criminal deviate conduct and criminal confinement The jury of seven women and five men received the case from Greene Circuit Judge J.

David Holt and, after going to lunch, began deliberating about 2 p.m. Foddrill, 44, was a developmentally disabled Linton woman kidnapped in front of a Linton grocery store on Aug. 18,1995. Her body was found Dec. 2, 1995, in a remote area in Lawrence County, 111.

The cause of death was ruled blunt force trauma. Activists seek end to 'gravy train' DBS MOINES, Iowa (AP) Farm activists, filed petitions Thursday seeking to end a $480 million pork checkoff they said is little more than "a gravy train" for corporate interests. "I lost $18,000 last year," said Larry Ginter, a hog farmer from Rhodes in central Iowa. "I'm getting sick and tired of putting money into a system that's not going to give me a fair share." At a Statehouse news conference, the activists announced they've gathered petitions with 16,500 signatures, well above the number needed to force an election on ending the mandatory checkoff farmers must pay when they sell animals. The checkoff was put in place to boost the market for pork, but critics said pork prices have been lower in eight out of 12 years the checkoff has been in place.

They said only advertisers and pork industry executives have gained. "Hog farmers across the U.S. are taking a big step toward retaking our industry," said Rhonda Perry, a Missouri activist. Expressions of regret Cohen speaks about civilian deaths in the NATO attack. WASHINGTON (AP) Pentagon leaders expressed regret Thursday for the civilians killed in a mistaken NATO attack on a refugee convoy in Kosovo, but seethed at the prospect of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic using the tragedy for propaganda gains.

Defense Secretary William Cohen said the pilot was evading Serb anti- mmmmiimmmi aircraft 'Any time there's a loss of innocent life it is regrettable' William Cohen, Defense Secretary artillery and missile fire at the time and had to make a "split-second decision" when he spotted the vehicle convoy. "It was under extraordinary circumstances with the kind of stress placed upon pilots," Cohen told the Senate Armed Services Committee in the first congressional hearing on the air war since it began March 24. "Any time there's a loss of innocent life, of civilians being killed during the course of combat it is regrettable," Cohen said. Testifying with Gen. Henry Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Cohen acknowledged that the Kosovo conflict may stretch into summer and said American casualties are like- ly.

Many committee members expressed deep doubt that NATO can win without ground troops. Sen. Bob Smith, a 2000 presidential contender, urged the administration to ask Congress for a declaration of war and said he would vote against it Evoking images of the Vietnam quagmire, Smith said this was the "Balkan swamp." Sen. John McCain, expressed disbelief that the administration had not started planning for a ground war in Kosovo. He said NATO's attacks should have hit harder from the first day.

"Limited actions beget limited results," said McCain, who is also seeking the Republican presidential nomination. Cohen, facing the committee on which he sat during his years in the Senate, said the Clinton administration has no intention "for the present" to begin planning a land invasion. He urged Congress to be patient with an air campaign that will intensify in the days ahead. In a presentation featuring colorful charts depicting NATO's air offensive, Shelton told the senators that "in the next few days" attacks would be carried out against the most sensitive targets on NATO's list Spiro Kalloudra pushes his mother Mysheref through the border crossing between Yugoslavia and Albania. They came from Mitrovica, Kosovo, and Spiro said he carried his mother for five hours before finding a wheelbarrow along the road, with which they traveled 20 additional hours to the border.

Albania has taken in 300,000 Kosovo refugees in the last three weeks. (AP photos) New NATO strikes after convoy attack Blerim Mataj, 30, carries his two-year-old son Ferith along the muddy paths of the Montenegrin mountains towards the refugee camps at Rozaje. BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) A day after its bombs hit a con- refugees in Kosovo, NATO with-its paigri Thursday, hitting ihilitary barracks, TV transmitters and; bridges throughout Yugoslavia. Serb forces, meanwhile, lobbed artillery shells over the border into northern Albania in a running battle with the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army. International observers said Thursday that five KLA fighters had been killed in the past 24 hours.

Some mortars landed close to Albania's border checkpoint at Morini, where international aid workers were operating and refugees were passing through, said monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which watches the border. Thousands 1 of ethriiCjtAJbanlans crossed ovetiinto Macedonia and Albania on fleeing they described as a methodical Serb push to empty towns and villages in Kosovo. Yugoslavia renewed its denunciations of the attack on the convoy. 'This is the worst picture of a humanitarian catastrophe brought on by the NATO bombings," Foreign Ministry spokesman Nebojsa Vujovic said. In Djakovica (jah-koh-VEET-sah), the main town nearest the attack, an investigative judge said 69 bodies, mostly women, children and elderly, had been identified so far.

Impeachment cost at least $1.2 million Some investigators received as much as $20,000 a month. WASHINGTON (AP) The House paid its top impeachment investigators as much as $20,000 a month, part of the $1.2 million-plus price tag for the five-month congressional proceedings that ended with President Clin- ton's acquittal, expense records show. In addition, chief Republican investigator David Schippers and Democratic counsel Abbe Lowell were given special consultant status that allowed them to bypass congressional restrictions on outside income and continue work at their private law firms. Schippers, whose private practice is in Chica- State health officials confirm man died from botulism FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) State health officials have confirmed the first case of botulism in Indiana in more than nine years.

Alan Ogelsby, an epidemiologist with the state Department of Health, said Thursday tests by the Centers for Disease Control confirmed that Forest Bolen, 60, of Fremont died from botulism in February. Ogelsby said officials aren't sure what caused the botulism but suspect Bolen may have contracted it through some of the home- canned vegetables he ate before his death. They also found traces of the toxin in baked potato skins they found in Bolen's home. Ogelsby said baked potatoes have been linked to botulism in the past usually when someone leaves one unrefrigerated and wrapped in aluminum foil, conditions that are favorable to the toxin developing. Both of Bolen's dogs were also found dead, and Ogelsby said it's believed they ate the same food as their owner.

"Our understanding is that he basically fed them off the table, and we weren't able to determine with certainty which food item it was, but we do know he had a history of home canning consumption," he said. Botulism is rare, with fewer than 10 cases a year occurring in the United States. It's caused by bacteria that produce a deadly toxin when they grow in food. A royally proud moment go, was paid at the rate of $20,000 a month during the height of the investigation, according to House Judiciary Committee records. Lowell, a Washington lawyer, was paid at a monthly rate of $18,000, according to expense records reviewed by The Associated Press.

Adjusted to annual salary, both men were being paid at a rate of more than $200,000 per year. Officer charged with taking dead man's wallet fired Nation UPDATE Reagan's daughter seeks funding WASHINGTON (AP) Citing her father's foresight, Maureen Reagan urged lawmakers to spend more money on research into the disease responsible for the former president's decline. She said Ronald Reagan had the foresight in September 1983 to issue a presidential proclamation that drew national attention to the Alzheimer's disease that now afflicts him. He also asked a House Appropriations subcommittee to fund the research he believed was so vital. "He was moved to do this, in large part, because this relatively unknown disease had stricken 4 million people, yet most Americans had never heard of it," said Ms.

Reagan, who testified on behalf of the Alzheimer's Assodatioa Energy officials ducked questions WASHINGTON (AP) Energy Department officials acknowledged Thursday they withheld information from a House subcommittee last fall on an alleged Chinese spying case. A department intelligence officer said he was told by the deputy energy secretary not to talk about the case, a charge the senior agency official denied. "We are very upset," said Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif, chairman of the House Armed Services military procurement subcommittee. He said the two officials, testifying under oath in a closed session in October, dodged specific questions about spying activities at the department's national weapons laboratories.

World UPDATE Britain's Prince William, right, is shown with his godson Prince Konstantine Alexious, by the baby's grandparents, King Constantine and Queen Anna-Marie of Greece, outside the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sophia in London. William attended the baby's christening. (AP photo) LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) A state trooper accused of taking cash and credit cards from a man killed in a traffic accident has been fired and charged with theft Michael A.

Grimes, 31, who joined the state police in Decem- ber 1997, was charged with stealing from Eddie Jackson, 39, of Branson, Mo. He was freed on $5,000 bond after pleading innocent Grimes could get 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine if convicted. Jackson was killed March 13 in an accident on Interstate 40. An arrest report said his wallet was given to Grimes by an ambulance company employee. The ambulance worker told investigators he saw at least $500 in the wallet, the report said.

Grimes at first told investigators he never received the wallet, but later admitted he took $1,100 from it and spent it, and cut up credit cards and telephone calling cards, the report said. At least five killed in mudslide BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) Two mudslides killed at least five people in western Colombia, some of them rescue workers. Another 25 people were missing and feared buried alive, authorities said. After weeks of torrential rains, the mudslides plowed under several blocks of the town of Argelia, 150 miles west of Bogota, the capital. The first slide occurred before dawn, the second after rescue workers had arrived.

Child's remains found in tomb ROME (AP) An excavation near city hall has turned up the tomb of a child, more evidence that Capitoline Hill was inhabited before the legendary founding of Rome. Archaeologists showed the remains of a child a skull, pelvic and thigh bones who was about four or five years old and who was buried just outside the simple homes of the villages atop one of Rome's seven ancient hills. Buried along with the child were terracotta and ceramic vases whose handles were broken so, according to ancient ritual, no one could use them after the death of a loved one. Also buried near the child was a small animal, Arafat asks for Chinese support BEIJING (AP) Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat met with China's president to win Beijing's support for the declaration of a Palestinian state as early as next month, state-run media reported. While stopping short of a public pledge of support, Chinese President Jiang Zemin said China backed "the just cause of the Palestinian people," the Xin- hua News Agency said.

"Palestinians will surely realize their lofty goals of restoring their legitimate national rights and establishing an independent Palestinian state" so long as they adhere to peaceful negotiations with Israel, Xinhua quoted Jiang as saying..