The Facts from Clute, Texas • Page 8

THE FACTS FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 10, 1999 A v. Particles chilled to a new state of matter WASHINGTON Researchers cooled fundamental particles to near absolute zero and created something called Fermi degenerate gas, a state of matter in which atoms act like waves instead of individual particles. (n a study reported in the journal Science, researchers at the JILA in Boulder, said the gas was cooled to the point where atoms were dominated by a basic state of matter called "quantum degeneracy." The condition is similar to Bose- Einstein condensate, a state of matter where bosons, one of two classes of fundamental particles, are chilled until they form a single atom. The Bose-Einstein condensate was first formed in 1995 by another team at JILA, which is a joint laboratory run by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado. Clinton: did not discuss clemency' WASHINGTON President Clinton said Thursday he did not talk with his wife about his clemency offer to 16 Puerto Rican nationalists, while Hillary Rodham Clinton said she hopes opposing that clemency won't sully her possible Senate bid.

Republicans and some law enforcement officials have accused Clinton of making the clemency offer to curry favor for Mrs. Clinton among New York's 1.3 million Puerto Ricans. Two more militants accepted the clemency Thursday bringing the total to 14 even as the House of Representatives overwhelmingly condemned the offer. Speaking to reporters on the lawn just outside the Oval Office, the president said the political ramifications for the first lady played "absolutely" no role in his decision to free the nationalists. He said Mrs.

Clinton wasn't aware of his offer until one of her aides asked her to comment on it. "I did not discuss it with her," Clinton said. "I have not discussed other clemency issues with her, and I didn't think 1 should discuss this one. It was up to her, and entirely appropriate for her, to say whatever she wanted to about it." Clinton said he doesn't believe his wife has flip-flopped on this issue, and it is up to New York voters to "evaluate that as they please." Judge: Weston can be medicated WASHINGTON Russell Weston charged with killing two Capitol police officers, can be forced to take medication that could make him mentally fit to stand trial, a federal judge ruled Thursday. U.S.

District Judgfe Emmet G. Sullivan authorized trie Bureau of Prisons to administer anti-psychotic medication to Weston despite his objections. Sullivan postponed execution of his order until Sept. 16 to give Weston's lawyers time to appeal, which they said they intend to do Monday or Tuesday. Weston, 42, is charged with killing Officers John M.

Gibson and Jacob J. Chestnut after forcing his way into the U.S. Capitol on July 24, 1998. Weston, who is being held at the Federal Corrections Center in Butner, N.C., has spent 20 years in and out of hospitals. He has a variety of behavioral problems and has been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic.

Study: Ultraviolet radiation increases WASHINGTON A decades-long study has confirmed that sunburn- causing ultraviolet radiation in New Zealand has increased by about 12 percent in the last 20 years, probably as the result of a thinning ozone layer in the atmosphere. The study, to be published today in the journal Science, measured the midday level of ultraviolet radiation at Lauder, New Zealand from 1979 to last summer and found a steady increase in the UV rays. On several occasions last summer, the study found, the UV index in Lauder exceeded 12.5. A UV index level of 10 or more is considered to be very high by the Environmental Protection Agency. Ultraviolet radiation has been measured at a number of places around the Earth over the last few years because of concern about the thinning ozone layer.

The erosion of ozone has been blamed on the decades-long use of industrial gases, such as propellents in hairspray and some refrigerants, that destroy the natural atmospheric Nations rushing to report Y2K readiness WASHINGTON Two months after a deadline, nations worldwide are rushing to report the readiness of their airlines and airports for the Year 2000 computer problem. As of the end of August, 53 countries still had not responded to a survey issued by the International Civil Aviation Organization, a U.N. group that sets international flight standards. In recent days, the number has fallen to 41. The Montreal-based organization had asked its 185 members to respond by July 1, so other nations could gauge where it will be safe to fly on New Year's Eve, when older computers may malfunction at the start of the 2000.

A report by ICAO, originally due to be released by July 31, is now scheduled to be released this month. Kenneth Mead, inspector general of the Transportation Department, told a joint meeting of two House subcommittees Thursday that it is imperative the lagging nations disclose their readiness. Clinton offers to buy baek guns WASHINGTON Taking a page from local communities. President Clinton announced a $15 million federal plan Thursday to slow gun violence by having authorities buy firearms in and around public housing projects. Meanwhile, a group of mayors joined with members of Congress, police chiefs and clergy to urge the House of Representatives'to enact tougher gun safety measures passed earlier this year by the Senate.

Standing on the steps of the Capitol, Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, compared the 20 mayors gathered there to an infantry division in a battle to reduce gun violence. "We need some air support from the House," Webb said. Clinton said the new federal program will give local police departments up to $500,000 each to buy guns in and around public housing projects for a "suggested price" of $50. The guns will be destroyed, the White House said.

Associated Press BUILDING EXPLOSION AP photo Russian army and Emergency Situations Ministry soidiers dig through the rubble of an apartment building destroyed by a huge explosion in Moscow Thursday. More than 100 rescuers were combing the rubble for survivors, but fire and choking smoke made it very unlikely that anyone trapped in the rubble has survived. AP photo Former Sen. John Danforth answers questions as Attorney General Janet Reno looks on during an announcement Thursday in Washington where Reno named Danforth to investigate the FBI's 1993 Branch Davidian standoff in Waco, Texas. AP photo A Drug Enforcement Agency agent, left, escorts a suspected drug smuggler, who works at Miami international Airport, out of DEA Headquarters Thursday in Miami.

Fifteen suspects were rounded up before dawn for smuggling cocaine after a long investigation. This bust comes just weeks after 58 people were busted at American Airlines. These suspects worked for outside vendors to airline companies. GOP: No trade of tax cuts for higher spending WASHINGTON (AP) Top congressional Republicans said Thursday they will not engage President Clinton in budget summit talks this year because he would insist on higher spending in exchange for the GOP's cherished tax cuts. "We're just not prepared to trade with the president with the American people's money, a spending buck, for me, a tax reduction for you," House Majority Leader Dick R-Texas, told reporters.

While not ruling out that Republicans themselves will break budget limits to help push the coming fiscal year's spending bills through Congress, Armey renewed the GOP's pledge to use- Social Security surpluses solely to reduce the $5.6 trillion national debt. "We are not going to let one dime of Social Security money be spent" to expand other federal programs, he said. "We're going to have to give a little and take a little," said Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, a Senate GOP leader. "But we're going to have to protect Social Security, that's a must." The remarks partly reflect Republicans' distaste for high- level budget bargaining with Clinton and distrust of him.

Many Republicans think Clinton has outfoxed them in past talks, and there is also resentment about decisions being made by a handful of GOP leaders. The comments also underline the GOP's goal of casting this autumn's budget battle as their desire to protect Social Security vs. Clinton's plans for higher spending. Republicans say they will win the public relations war if voters view the budget fight that way. Even as Republicans rallied behind Social their leaders were all but abandoning hope of achieving a major tax cut this year.

As Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, said Wednesday, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-I11-, said Thursday that Clinton's virtually certain veto of the GOP's $792 billion, 10-year tax cut will probably end this year's legislative battling over taxes. "This is our one chance to do that," Hastert told reporters. He cited the difficulty of pushing a second tax package through Congress during this session's dwindling weeks. Armey and others insisted that their August strategy of staging hundreds of town meetings talking up tax cuts had worked. But few opinion polls reflect a deep public interest in tax reductions.

And about 10 conservative Democrats from districts where the popularity of tax cuts would be likeliest to appear said their voters prefer using surpluses for debt reduction. For his part, Clinton said Thursday he is willing to be. flexible in reaching a tax cut 'deal this fall, but said the ball is fully in the GOP court. "Whether there is (a compromise) bill, of course, is up to them. They can control what bills come up," Clinton said at the White House.

"But if they're saying, well, it's our way or no way, then that is evidence that this has been pretty much about politics all along." Bush begins posting contributions daily WASHINGTON (AP) As Texas Gov. George W. Bush began posting daily lists of his campaign contributors on the Internet, the first group of names included several House members who reached into their campaign bank accounts to make contributions to the Republican presidential frontrunner. Bush received almost $20,000 from House members including $1,000 apiece from House GOP Conference Chairman J.C. Watts and Chief Deputy Majority Whip Roy Blunt and another $5,000 from the leadership PAC of National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Some four dozen state and local officials also contributed to Bush from their campaign accounts. "I think he offers the best promise to give new direction to the country as we enter a new century," said Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, who also gave $1,000. Boehlert has taken both Bush and his father, former President George Bush, on tours of the Baseball Hall of Fame, which is in his congressional district. Overall, Bush reported raising $12 million between July 1 and Aug.

26, bringing his total to a record $49 million and assuring that he will break the $50 million barrier before the end of September. Meanwhile, the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain, expects to report raising more than $10 million by Sept. 30, including $2 million transferred earlier from his Senate account, and Gary Bauer reported that he had raised more than $5 million to date. Historic carrier sold to BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) The carrier that survived torpedo, battleship, submarine and Kamikaze attacks in World War II was sold to a salvage company on Thursday for $185,000, disappointing veterans and at least one group that wanted to save the vessel.

P.K. Patel, representing Sabe Marine Salvage, made the winning bid for the USS Cabot at an auction held by the U.S. Marshal's Service. The sale derailed a nonprofit group's plans to convert the once mighty ship into a floating museum. The head of the Education Council for Space Age Technology, whose highest bid was $180,000, declined to say whether the group might file an objection to the sale.

"This thing has gone on for years," said Stephen O'Neal, chairman of the Miami- based nonprofit group known as ECOSTAT. "It'll still go on for more." Patel, who had asked auctioneers earlier whether he would be allowed to export the vessel, which has been rusting in a boat slip in Brownsville, left the auction without commenting. Three registered bidders and several observers, including some who served on the Cabot, attended the auction by the U.S. Marshal's Service, which sold the ship to pay off the debt it had racked up. Ray Clark, who served on the ship from 1943 to 1946, was concerned that it would likely be destroyed.

"I don't like that at all," he said. "I'm in favor of the museum idea." O'Neal had called the Cabot the last of her kind. "She is the last of the light fast carriers," he said. O'Neal said his group had collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to acquire the ship, named for explorer John Cabot. It was the only survivor of nine small- but-fast light carriers used in World War II.

Presidents George Bush and Gerald Ford were among the veterans who served on the Cabot's sister ships, all of which have been either sunk or scrapped. The USS Cabot Association, a group of veterans who served on the ship, asked its members and veterans of the sister ships to company donate money to ECOSAT for bidding. "When you get an obsolete ship, as far as your navy is concerned, you scrap it," said Bill Anderson, immediate past president of the Cabot Association and a pilot on the ship from October 1944 to May 1945. "We've done that with airplanes and ships to the point that we have very few historic ones (left)." Famed war correspondent Ernie Pyle, who nicknamed the Cabot the "Iron Woman," filed dispatches from the ship, which fought in every Pacific battle of 1944 and 1945. Its pilots shot down 252 planes and sank 49 vessels.

The Cabot later was a training carrier at Pensacola Naval Air Station before it entered the Spanish Navy, renamed the SNS Dedalo. In 1989, Spain gave the ship to a group that planned to make the Cabot a museum in New Orleans. The federal government declared the Cabot a National Historic Landmark and contributed $2 million toward the project, but a lack of private funds sank plans for the museum. AP photo The USS Cabot sits moored at the a slip in the Port of Brownsville, Texas Thursday. The fighting carrier was sold at auction to a marine salvage for $185,000 disappointing veterans and at least one group that wanted to save the vessel..