Hattiesburg American from Hattiesburg, Mississippi • 1

HATTESBURG METS FIRE MANAGER JOHNSON TThWl A1XT BARRY: FEOS TRIED TO O.D. HIM Page 3A DE KLERK CANCELS VISIT IS Page 1C HIKING TRAILS GROSS AREA LAW Dave Johnson raSe STATE PLAYS GEORGIA IN CWSPage ic rage i Marion Barry HURT' WORKERS CAUGHT Page 3 News Digest WEDNESDAY, MAY 30, 1990 bum koO tw Columbia grounded again with fuselage problems CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) NASA said it will be late tonight before engineers can pinpoint two hydrogen leaks that forced cancellation of today'; launch of Columbia and its $150 million observatory. The planned 11:38 p.m. liftoff was scrubbed just six hours before launch after sensors detected rising levels of hydrogen gas in Columbia's engine com partment.

The gas leak occurred while the shuttle i rocket propellant tank was being loaded with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. NASA spokesman Bruce Buckingham said today that all of the propellant must be vented from Col umbia's big external tank before workers can search for the exact point of the leaks in the maze of plumb ing in the spacecraft aft engine compartment. It will be late tonight or early Thursday before 1 NASA knows for certain what repairs are needed. Beaver dams halt leak FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) Railroad crews tried to contain a fuel spill threatening a i waterfowl refuge today and got help from beavers. The jet and diesel fuel spilled after an Alaska Railroad freight train derailed Monday 40 miles south of Fairbanks.

Seven cars, each holding 20,000 A gallons, ripped open, spilling fuel into beaver ponds to either side of the track which drained fuel into a creek. The beaver dams helped to prevent more fuel from running into the creek. Let there be nuclear light -f-r. ft vf! i SEABROOK, N.H. (AP) Four years after it was completed and 14 years after construction began, the Seabrook plant has supplied nuclear-generated elec tricity to New England customers for the first time.

I The plant was operating at 15 percent capacity and producing enough electricity to supply 65,000 homes when it was hooked into the New England power grid Tuesday night, officials said. AMERICAN photo by Sieve Coleman afternoon. Two men died of injuries suffered in the blast near Heidelberg, and three others remain hospitalized. THE DARKENED area near the center of this aerial photo shows Oil and Gas Company's Travis No. 3 oil rig, which exploded Tuesday AOICANA Two men critical, one in serious condition Dognapped Muffy found after bizarre abduction By JANET BRASWELL AMERICAN Senior Writer Renee Miller couldn't believe it Friday evening (9) If miles nas wBiil explodes fV Heidelberg Miss.

ffg) si day at the University of South Alabama Medical Center and Burn Unit in Mobile. Green said Barnett gave officials information about the accident. "He gave us everyone's name. He was just as calm as he could be, but I knew he was in real bad shape," Green said. The critically burned men were taken to South Central Regional Medical Center in Laurel.

From there, they were taken by helicopter to burn centers in Mobile and Greenville. In critical condition at the University of South Alabama bum unit in Mobile this morning are Donnie Bolivar of Laurel, 31, and Mike McCormick of Heidelberg, 32. Another man, Charles Windham of Heidelberg, 40, was taken to the Mississippi Burn Center in Greenville where he was listed in By MELINDA GHOLSON AMERICAN Laurel Bureau Chief More than 50 people are away from their homes today after an oil rig explosion near Heidelberg killed two men and released poison gas into the air. Officials still are trying to find out what may have caused the explosion. "From what I have been told, water went into it (the well), and when pressure built up, it blew out," Jasper County Sherriff Tom Green said.

"Just any kind of spark could do it," said Keith Rowell, an oilfield worker and a friend of the dead and injured. Dwayne Kennedy of Heidelberg was killed in the explosion. "He was on the derrick. It fell with him, but he was burned too," Jasper County coronor William Jordan said. Another man, Dudley Barnett of Heidelberg, 31, died about 11 p.m.

Tues- serious but stable condition this morning. South Central nursing supervisor Ann Smith said the men were almost completely burned in the accident. They were able to talk to medical workers immediately after the accident, she said, but after tracheal tubes were inserted they could no longer speak. Several friends of the men waited Tuesday afternoon about a mile from the scene of the accident at Stafford Springs Travis Well No. 3 near the Jasper-Clarke County line.

The well is owned by Oil and Gas Co. Inc. of Tickfaw, La. "They were all homeboys. We know them all.

We worked with them," a friend of the men said. Three of the men were able to run See BLAST, section back when three young men drove away with the family dog. Mrs. Miller and her son, Robby, were outside calling Muffy when the car pulled up in front of the house on Williamsburg Road in Hat-tiesburg. The driver asked if the dog in the car belonged to her.

She said yes and called to Muffy. But the window was not open enough for the dog to escape. Muffy nuifnfl Heidelberg Mexico Juan Thomassie, Gannett News Service U.S., Soviets remain split on arms, trade "He kind of took her little paw and said, Mrs. Miller said. The car drove off, taking Muffy along, and the Millers spent Memorial Day weekend looking for the pet, afraid they had lost her.

But Muffy apparently escaped her kidnappers and almost found her way home this morning. "I know she has been out of the area because her fur is matted and she's covered with fleas and there's no place we haven't looked," Mrs. Miller said. She said Barbara Clayton, who lives on South 28th Avenue, took her to the animal hospital on South 28th Avenue this morning. "The vet called me because I had alerted them about her," Mrs.

Miller said. "I'm on my way to get her now." Mrs. Miller said the Clayton house is about seven blocks from her home. "I know she was not in the neighborhood because we have combed this area for three days," she said. "Every night I've waited up 'til 2 or 3 o'clock to see if they're going to bring her back." Mrs.

Miller reported the theft to Hattiesburg Police. She described the dognappers as three 16- to 21-year-old males in a black Chevette. "The one in the back was larger than the two in front," Mrs. Miller said. "The driver's the one that had her.

He was tall, black-headed with a black mustache and real cocky. He really let me know he was having a good time." Mrs. Miller said she isn't sure where they found Muffy. "I don't know where he picked the dog up," she said. "That's my mistake 'cause she got out." acknowledged the emergence of a new domestic worry the election of political maverick Boris N.

Yeltsin as president of the Russian republic. On the major international issue of a united Germany, however, Gorbachev was upbeat as he spoke to reporters Tuesday outside Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's residence in Ottawa. Gorbachev said he was confident that he and Bush will find a way to preserve the balance of power in Europe. Asked if he was optimistic about agreement on Germany and its See SUMMIT, section back WASHINGTON (AP) Mikhail S. Gorbachev arrives tonight for summit talks with President Bush that may fail to produce trade and arms control accords, but the Soviet leader voiced optimism they will agree on terms for German unification.

As Gorbachev was winding up a brief visit to Canada before flying to his second Washington summit the first was with Ronald Reagan in 1987 Bush was spending his second consecutive day closeted with his advisers over summit negotiating strategy. Before leaving Canada for three days of talks with Bush, the Soviet president Laurel bomb trial scheduled for Monday By KELLY CARSON AMERICAN Staff Writer Accused Laurel bomb-maker John Shoemaker is scheduled to go to trial Monday in U.S. District Court in Jackson. Jenny Smith, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney, said Tuesday Shoemaker's trial on charges of making and possessing a destructive device will begin at 9 a.m before U.S.

District Court Judge Tom S. Lee. A separate trial is planned for Osbie Booth, the reported victim of Shoemaker's bomb who was implicated in the case three days after Shoemaker was arrested by federal authorities. Lee has not set a trial date for Booth, Smith said. "The judge has not decided if he will try them (Shoemaker and Booth) back to back," Smith said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Payne said Tuesday he expects Booth to stand vsV Mikhail Gorbachev State 11th-graders' literacy scores up Index. trial on charges of making and possessing a destructive device on June 20. Booth's trial tentatively is set for Ann Landers 1B Bridge 6C Payne said he expects Shoemakers trial to last three days. City-State 4 A Classified 6-8C Comics 4B "We 11 get a jury by noon Monday and "Scores really didn't change enough over last year to make too much of an assessment.

They are going to fluctuate slightly from year to year. We know that," said Andy Mullins, special assistant to the state superintendent. The Basic Skill Assessment Program, also given only to public-school students, isn't a prerequisite for promotion to the next grade, although teachers and principals may take student scores into consideration. Moore said the test has become a tool to measure how well school districts are doing in teaching their students basic skills. Mullins said the newest scores don't indicate a need to radically reshape the way students are being taught.

dicates a student would most likely find it "extremely difficult to get and hold a job in the future," acting state Superintendent of Education Walter Moore said. Students who failed the test this spring can retake the exam next fall. A passing score on the three-section test is 699 out of a possible 850 points, with a student scoring no less than 211 on any one of the reading, math or written communications sections. Another statewide test given annually to public school students in grades 3, 5 and 8 shows slight improvement this spring in basic reading and a large jump in math fluency. But scores on the exam, the Basic Skills Assessment Program, continue to slide on the test section that measures written communication skills.

JACKSON (AP) This year's 11th-graders improved slightly over juniors in 1989 in performance on a state literacy exam designed to test their ability to accomplish such everday tasks as balancing a checkbook and reading a help-wanted advertisement. Education officials said 6 percent of the 30,000 Mississippi juniors who took the Functional Literacy Exam this spring failed to pass, compared with 7.2 percent who failed in 1989. Overall, the average score increased by 1.5 points. Only public-school students are required to complete the examination, which is required for a student to receive a high school diploma. A failing score on the Functional Literacy Exam, tested across Mississippi in 1987 and made mandatory in 1988, in Legal Pad 2A Living 1-2B Movies 5C Marketplace 6A NYT 1B.5B Obituaries 5A Sports 1-5C TV log 5B Weather 8 A finish the government's case in chief by Tuesday," Payne said.

Crossword 6C Shoemaker is accused of making a Editorial 7A bomb that exploded in Booth's back Horoscope 6C Jumble 8C yard on March 9 after Laurel police officers, answering a call about it, arrived at Booth's Lindsey Avenue home. Both Booth and Shoemaker remain in A GANNETT NEWSPAPER Four Sections PubMwd Daily Hutinburg, Mlislulppl custody in the Harrison County Jail where they are being held without bond. mmmm.