The Daily News Leader from Staunton, Virginia • 1

The Daily News eader No one gets hurt in this type of racing Sunday Focus Coming Sunday 25 CENTS STAUNTON, 24401, FEBRUARY 17, 1990 VOL. 143, NO. 41 Thr on I-'" it been to a basketball game in Waynesboro between Waynesboro and Robert E. Lee high schools earlier that evening. Dickerson then went to the Staffoifd Street residence to visit a friid who plays for one of the school teams.

I Dickerson and his fraud were getting ready to leave in a yehicle when the armed assailants pulled up and confronted them. Dicker-son was shot in the middle of the street in front of the residence. Wells said the investigation revealed there was an altercation involving the suspects at a pizza restaurant in Waynesboro prior to the shooting. Waynesboro police responded and disbursed the crowd. The suspects then drove to Staunton, Wells said, looking for the other individuals involved in fight.

Neither Dickerson nor his friend were reportedly involved in the Waynesboro altercation. "We don't know what the altercation was about," Wells said. "We are still looking into the motive. We have very preliminary information at this point," according to King. Wells added, "We are not getting a whole lot of cooperation out of those three gentlemen." When contacted Friday evening, neither Eugene nor Shelby Dicker-son had any explanation for the slaying of their son.

Police hadn't located the murder weapon as of Friday evening but believe it was thrown along the northbound lane of 1-81. Police utilized metal detectors and a Virginia State Police canine unit was brought in to assist in the search for the handgun. (See MURDER, page A2) I. By NATALIE AUSTIN Staff Writer Three Waynesboro men were charged Friday with first degree murder stemming from the shooting death of a man in front of a Stafford Street residence late Thursday. Eugene Elliott Dickerson II, 19, of 1881 Springhill Road died at 1 a.m.

Friday from multiple gunshots wounds, according to Staunton Police Chief G.L. Wells. The body has been sent to Roanoke for autopsy. Charged in connection with his murder were John Bostic, 28, of 268 Elkins Circle, Lee Rossa Ford 26, of 1649 Wickham Lane, Apt. 97, and his brother, Darren T.

Ford, 23, of 125 Bookerdale Road, Apt. 2. Waynesboro and Staunton police Ail- sSUftf shooting and petitions are on file charging the suspect with first degree murder. Police wouldn't identify which suspect they believe allegedly pulled the trigger. The incident occurred at approximately 11 p.m.

Thursday in front of 101 Stafford a block away from the Staunton Police Department. Wells said an unidentified resident in the area called the dispatcher and reported the shooting. When police arrived the victim had already been transported to King's Daughters' Hospital by a private vehicle and the suspects had fled the area. A vehicle belonging to one of the suspects was located in Waynesboro, was impounded and is being processed for evidence. Dickerson and his father had Trade deficit improves WASHINGTON (AP) A surprisingly large 30 percent trade-balance improvement in December allowed the nation to close out 1989 with a $108.6 billion deficit, the smallest in five years, the government said Friday.

While conceding that most of the December improvement was dependent on special factors, the Bush administration hailed the 8.4 percent narrowing in the deficit for the year as evidence that the administration's effort to open foreign markets was succeeding. However, private economists were not as enthusiastic, pointing out that while U.S. exports hit an all-time high last year, so did imports, driven upward by America's growing dependence on foreign oil. Some economists forecast that the deficit this year will resume worsening as consumers continue their love affair with imported products and the foreign oil bill rises. But other economists were not as pessimistic, believing that 1990 would show another slight improvement in the deficit, although probably not enough to dampen protectionist cries in Congress.

"The trade deficit is coming out of a six-month period of deterioration but what happened in December overstates whatever improvement is occurring," said Allen Sinai, chief economist of the Boston Co. In other economic news, the government said that industrial production fell 1.2 percent in January, pushing the operating rate at the country's factories, mines and utilities down to 81.9 percent, al EUGENE ELLIOTT DICKERSON II Namibia elects oma WINDHOEK, Namibia (AP) Sam Nujoma, a former guerrilla leader who spent 30 years in exile, was elected Namibia's first president Friday and will take office when the territory wins independence from South Africa on March 21. Nujoma helped found the Southwest Africa People's Organization in 1960 and led it through a 23-year bush war against South African rule of Namibia, Africa's last colony. 'On behalf of the Namibian people and myself I want to express my sincere appreciation for the trust and honor you have bestowed upon me," be told the 72-member Constituent Assembly after its unanimous vote. "I call on all Namibians to remain united behind our government and work together for peace and stability," he said.

U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar will swear Nujoma into office on Namibia's independence day. Namibia's South African administrator, Louis Pienaar, will remain in charge of the territory until then. More than 20 heads of state are expected to attend the independence ceremonies. SWAPO leaders say they will invite both South African President F.W.

de Klerk and recently released African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela. Nujoma will serve five years, then will be eligible for a second term. However, the constitution limits a president to two five-year terms, a rarity on a continent where most leaders serve for life. South Africa, which has ruled Namibia since 1915, agreed to grant the territory independence under a regional peace accord signed in 1988 with Angola and Cuba. More than 6,000 U.N.

military and civilian personnel have been monitoring the transition to independence, which began in April. The Rev. Jesse Jackson attended the assembly session Friday and was allowed to speak to its members. "I'm impressed by people civilized enough to agree and disagree," Jackson told the assembly. Nu FIRST LOOK Striking United Mine Worker members Joseph Brummett, Cleveland Combs and Radfert Rhea, look over the proposed contract between the Pittston Coal Co.

outside a the Russell County Fairgrounds Rank and file will vote on Monday. (AP Laserphoto) worked throughout the night and all three suspects were located Friday in Waynesboro and apprehended without incident, Wells said. Police were provided information by eye witnesses to the incident. "The pieces are starting to fall together but it will take some more legwork to determine what happened before the shooting," Wells said. All three are being held in the Augusta County Jail in lieu of $250,000 cash bond each.

They will be arraigned Wednesday, according to Capt. L.B. King. Additional charges, including use of a firearm in commission of a felony, are pending, said Wells. Police are also looking for a 15-year-old male juvenile from Waynesboro in connection with the "Vs.

If the miners ratify the contract Monday, Trumka said they could be back at work before the end of the week, nearly 11 months after the strike began and more than two years after the old contract between the UMW and Pittston expired. Charlie Keen, who has worked in the mines for 44 of his 62 years and has been involved in numerous labor disputes, said this contract is a winner. "There's no doubt in my mind it will be ratified," he said after Trumka met with miners at the Russell County, Va. Fairgrounds. The UMW's strike drew the support of labor groups nationwide and led to sympathetic wildcat strikes for several weeks during the summer that involved 46,000 UMW members from Appalachia and the Midwest.

Trumka, who said collective bargaining has "suffered drastically" in the last 12 years, hailed the settlement reached New Year's Eve as a victory for the entire labor movement Pittston President Michael drug summit say how those goals would be achieved. National drug policy director William Bennett said many of the blanks would be filled in during bilateral negotiations with the summit countries. "I'm not saying we won't have more difficulties (with the Andean nations) from here on. We will," he said, adding that the summit had been of "transcendent importance." "It was the first time the four countries faced up to all the problems," Bennett said, calling it important for the South American leaders to talk about the "moral dimensions" of a coca economy. Assistant Secretary of State Bernard Aronson called it "a meeting in which nobody talked in stereotypes or cliches." Bennett said there was "a lot of good-natured sparring." UMWA and meeting at Friday.

the contract Miners consider contract most 2.5 percentage points below where it was a year ago. While much of the January drop was a factor of unseasonably warm weather reducing the need for utility production, analysts said much of American industry, particularly automaking, remains in a slump. The 1989 trade deficit followed a $118.5 billion deficit in 1988 and was the smallest since a $106.7 billion deficit in 1984. However, it still represented the sixth consecutive year that the difference between imports and exports remained above $100 billion. Many econmists believe the huge trade deficits are symbolic of America's inability to compete internationally.

But the Bush administration maintains that after hitting a record high of $152.1 billion in 1987, the past two years of trade improvements shewed that the country was regaining many of its lost overseas markets. Commerce Undersecretary Michael Darby noted that U.S. exports climbed by 13 percent last year to an all-time high of $364.3 billion, while imports were up 7.3 percent to $472.9 billion, also a record high. "Growth in exports was strong across most categories of goods, including a wide variety of manufactured goods, especially machinery and telecommunications equipment," Darby said. However, the export increase was just half the 26 percent rise enjoyed during 1988, a year when American manufacturers benefited from a falling dollar that made their goods more competitive on overseas markets.

mm (Two sections) Abby Page A6 Church Page A7 CityCounty Page A3 Classifieds Pages B5-7 Comics Page B5 EntertainmentTV Page B4 Financial Page A8 Minipage Page B8 Obituaries Page A2 Sports Bl-3 Partly cloudy and cooler today; highs in the low to mid-50s. Clearing and colder tonight; lows from 20 to 25. Sunny and cooler Sunday; highs around 50. See complete weather on Page A2. Odom said the company was delighted that the contract is going to a vote.

"It's a good contract," he said in a statement. "It's a good contract for our employees, good for the company and good for the communities. We look forward to going back to work." Pittston and the union have kept the contract a closely held secret while both moved to dismiss lawsuits and fines stemming from the strike. The union leadership decided Thursday to go ahead with the ratification vote despite Russell County Circuit Judge Donald McGlothlin's reluctance to waive $64 million in fines against the union for illegal strike activities. Trumka said the union had not decided whether to try again to persuade McGlothlin to reduce the fines or to get them rejected by the state Supreme Court.

The contract in many respects mirrors health and pension benefits contained in the 1988 Bituminous Coal Operators Association contract, the industry's national labor contract. I Severe flooding hits south By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Flooding forced hundreds of people to evacuate Friday in the South after thunderstorms spawned tornadoes and dumped up to 10 inches of rain, and a strong Pacific storm swept inland after dumping up to 3 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada. "All of a sudden the roof went one way and the floor went the other way," Frank Higginbotham said of a tornado that struck his home Friday morning in Alabama. "I cradled my daughter to my chest and we were blown through the wall into another room." He had a bump on his head; his daughter was unhurt. Thousands of customers still had no power in the Midwest and Northeast after snow and ice storms.

One man apparently drowned Friday in a raging North Carolina river one was missing In Georgia. Traffic accidents on ice and snow had killed at least 11 people since Wednesday four each in Kansas and Minnesota, two in Michigan and one in Missouri. 1 In Georgia, a tornado destroyed 15 homes and injured 11 people in Carrollton, the National Weather Service confirmed. And authorities said as many as 1,000 people were evacuated Friday from Trion in northwestern Georgia after 10 inches of rain fell in 15 hours and the Chattooga River rushed out of its banks. CASTLEWOOD (AP) Striking United Mine Workers got their first look Friday at a proposed settlement with the Pittston Coal Group that could end an often bitter lOMs-month walkout in three states as early as next week.

"I'm proud," said UMW President Richard Trumka, choking back tears as held up a copy of the 49-page pact to a round of applause from miners in southwest Virginia. "I'm proud you did this." But the pact drew protests in eastern Kentucky, where miners initially refused to attend a contract briefing. They were angered with pact's lack of provision for rehiring 13 strikers who were let go for picket-related violence. "I've glanced at it enough to know what my vote is, and my vote is no," said Jerry Hurley, a Pike County, Ky. miner.

The agreement gives Pittston's 1,700 union miners in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky concessions on health care and pension benefits and the company more flexible work rules. economic assistance, debt relief and trade policies that do not undermine legitimate exports such as coffee and flowers. Controversial subjects such as the extradition of drug suspects and increased U.S. military involvement in the drug war were largely ignored when Bush met Thursday with the leaders of Colombia, Bolivia and Peru. Likewise, there was no discussion of any specific amount of increased aid from the United States, though the Andean nations clearly want more assistance and relaxed trade policies.

The summit communique proclaimed sweeping goals, such as replacing the coca-growing economies in Peru and Bolivia, attacking the production and trafficking of drugs and reducing the demand by users. However, the document didn't Some questions linger about The Accu-Weather forecast for noon, Saturday, Feb. 17. 1 10s 20 30 40 Bands show high 10 XJ 1 SOa 60 70 80S temperatures. et990 Accu-Wtatw.

IncJ WASHINGTON (AP) President Bush won Democratic applause Friday for attending the Colombia drug summit, but there were lingering questions about the meeting's achievements and its deliberate avoidance of areas of dispute. "I respect and admire" the show of solidarity with Colombian President Virgilio Barco, said Sen. Joseph Biden, chairman of the Judiciary Committee. But while Biden praised Bush for "his courage and leadership" he called the president's drug policies misdirected, with too much emphasis on military assistance. "This continues our policy of attacking the drug traffickers but doing too little to stop coca growing by farmers, which is the root problem," Biden said.

The United States, Biden said, should focus on crop development, COLO WARU STATIONARY S3 0 dfl HIGH LOW SHOWERS PAIN T-STORUS FUMWeS SNOW ICC SUNNY PT. CLOUDY CLOUDY UUpgM Ami arapNctfW 4 'v. IJ.