The Times from Munster, Indiana • 1

WEATHER WEST LAKE FINAL An edition of The Tunes serving western Lake County I li. Skies will be mostly oui ry dim temperatures will remain mild. Fufl report, Back Page 5637 I B- 1 HI if.te in qui; Historic garden treasures Experts say heirloom. varieties are more Cinema paradiso The Century Centre Cinema gives film lovers more than the Oscars to look forward to. In One-Tank Trip, C3 It's time for spring cleaning Cash in on your old junk with a rummage" It could take a lot "Whatever it Takes," the latest in a seemingly endless stream of teen comedies, ails to be worthwhile or entertaining.

In Dinner a Movie, C6-7 fragrant and tasty than sale. In Shoo. C5 Thsre back I VllVIIIVIIlflllV I IIWIi 7V cr- a-s- Movie" is now on hybrid varieties of vegetables. In Home Garden, El Living 'On Golden Pond' A new luxury townhome community is a block off U.S.' 41, but seems miles from the bustle of the highway. In Homefront, Dl video.

In Dinner It's not necessarily but it's good an actionomedyi romance from Jackie Chan, lias its moments. In C8 a Video, www.thetfmesonline.com Newsstand: 50 cents 6 SECTIONS, 72 PAGES I I mm Gambling complaint leads to wider probe, arrests of five family members plaining her husband was losing apparent that there was more BY MARK KIESLING Times Staff Writer CROWN POINT -One woman's those arrested were from Hobart, two from Gary and one from Portage. Friday night police obtained a search warrant for a building at 3400 Liverpool Road in Lake Station where they discovered an auto chop shop in a building owned by one of the arrested mea Lt. Thomas Bock said once police began piecing together paper recovered from a trash container behind the cleaners, it became than gambling involved. Sgt.

Daniel Bilek and Dets. Brian Czerwinski and Robert Mahan were assigned to the probe, which "got us checking into other locations, other members of the family," Bock said, adding that the investigation is not yet over. Andrew Batalis, 59, of 3786 Liverpool Road, Hobart, was charged See RAIDS, A8 money playing cards in a backroom operation behind Peacock Cleaners, 98 W. 53rd in Gary on its border with Merrillville. A monthlong operation that eventually took in almost every division of the sheriff's department ended in raids late Thursday and early Friday on two locations in Gary and one in Hobart.

Five men, all members of the same family, were arrested. Two of anger over her husband's gambling losses led Lake County Sheriffs Police detectives to a family-operated business of stolen guns and cars, drugs and illegal gambling, Sheriff John Buncich said Friday. Buncich said the woman phoned a tip into the sheriff's hot line about a month ago, com JOHN i. WATKINS THE TIMES, Lake County Sheriff John Buncich led the raid on a backroom gambling nnAwftAn Ma Tltiie(4au anil Cvlrlau naHat inino artrf eAlAil mro ONE COMPUTES, THE OTHER DOESN'T 7 started asking for one when I was a little kid, but times were harsh. I feel like kids Who don have One are missing OUt." Christian Colon, East Chicago Central High School sophomore $450 MILLION DEAL U.S.Steel buysEuro 1 i lmakei Sl6C Purchase adds more than 3 million; metric tons to company's production.

BY CLINT MITCHELL Times Business Writer 12 TJ.S. Steel completed a year's worth of negotiations Friday for Slovakian steelmaker VSZ AS, reaching a tentative deal that would increase U.S. Steel's workt HA wide production by 30 percent U.S. Steel officials weren't saying how much they've agreed to pay for the Kosice, Slovakia-based steel i ii plant, but steel analyst Charles Bradford estimated the deal to be worth $450 million, with only $60 million in upfront cash. Non-steel assets will remain under the direc PHOTOS BY TAMARA BELL THE TIMES East Chicago Central High School sophomore Christian Colon does his Chris Parker, a sophomore at Hanover Central High School, uses the computer homework with pen and paper because he does not have a computer.

Indiana In his bedroom for school projects. Educators nationwide are concerned about Is considering programs to help more students get computers. the gap between students who have computers and those who do not. Local 'digital divide' looms tion and ownership of VSZ. Paul Wllhelm U.S.

Steel President Paul Wil- U.S.Steel helm said the agreement should president produce "economic benefits for the steel plant, the residents of Kosice, the shareholders of VSZ and the people of the Slovak I See STEELMAKER, AS Teachers must adjust education plans for students who lack access to home computers seeks Clay bail show sun wo I us li say less than half of all students have access to a computer at home. Educators in Minister, Schererville, Valparaiso and other communities say a growing majority of their students do have access to a computer at home. As a result, students in different communities who share the same interests have to pursue them in very different ways. Parker and Colon share passions for science and computers. Parker belongs to his school's online newspaper; Colon rebuilds computers at school through his school's computer club.

At home, Parker speaks about his Pentium computer with the same kind of zeal kids once had for their brand new Schwinn bicycles. He blazes through descriptions of the machine's e-mail capacity, chat See DIVIDE, Back Page partment of Commerce released a report showing the widening gap between families with access to computers and those without. "Certain kids are a great disadvantage," said Marvin Bailey, president of the Indianapolis-based Corporation for Educational Technology, which is helping the state implement its technology plan for schools. A sampling of Indiana fourth-and eighth-graders in 1998 conducted by Education Week magazine showed that about 59 percent had access to computers in their homes. Area schools have little concrete data about whether their students use computers at home or how they use them, although anecdotal data reveal a disparity based on income and other factors.

In Gary, Hammond, East Chicago and some communities in the southeast suburbs of Chicago, educators BY DAN BARON Times Staff Writer Chris Parker of St John zips through the options on his anutys computer almost as easily as he dials a phone. When the sophomore at Hanover Central High School in Cedar Lake comes home from school, he checks his e-mail and surfs the Net like many other high school students who have access to a computer at home. Meanwhile, East Chicago Central High School sophomore Christian Colon goes home and writes notes for an assignment in a spiral notebook. His family doesn't own a computer. The difference between the lives of these two young men illustrates what President Clinton and many other public officials call the "digi- tal divide." Last summer, the De Commissioner pushes for councils i to prohibit sales on county property.E BY RICH BIRD 4 Times Staff Writer Tt CROWN POINT Lake County CornmUsionej Rudolph Clay announced Friday he will ask the County Council to ban the sale of guns on county property.1 1 Clay, D-Gary, said he failed to sway his fellow corn missioners to prohibit the gun shows that are held; several times a year at the Lake County He approached council President Will D-Gary, who said he plans, to introduce the ordi.

nance banning the sales. i Clay said his renewed push to ban the gun shows was prompted by "the violent acts committed with guns that are sold at gun shows, namely the incident involving the Columbine High School shooting and possibly more that we are not aware of." See BAN, Back Page INSIDE The Department of Education looks at a program to lease equipment to families. Back Page COMING SUNDAY The digital divide threatens to leave behind those without computer access or skills in the modern world of work. In Business INDEX Morning Briefing Obituaries F6-7 Homefront Dl-8 Horoscopes Local Sports Bl-8 TV C8 Advice Cll Bridge Fll Business Fl-5 F8-26 Crossword (Classified) Crossword (Newsda) The Times Is printed with soy color Inks, exclusively on recycled paper. 1.