The Bismarck Tribune from Bismarck, North Dakota • 1

MONEY i 1 ii iiiii ii DAKOTA State tax burden Eagles survive N.D. impresses businesses (IB) going down (7B) Bears' rally (4B) 1 II i I I I I I I tmnw Tuesday, September 13, 1994 BismarckMandan, N.D. Call 223-2500 or Toll Free 1-800-472-2273 Single copy 500 "We cannot carry '60 Minutes' until the football season is over," Bob Romine, general manager at KXMB, said Monday. The station's owners, who also own CBS affiliates in Minot, Dickinson and Williston, signed a contract in June with Fox. The contract allows the KX Network to televise Minnesota Vikings and other NFC games this fall as it has for at least 25 years.

"It's a damned if you do and damned if you don't scenario," Romine said. The KX Network, which won't be able to televise "60 Minutes" until late January, received 50 to 60 telephone complaints on Sept. 4, the first weekend of the blackout. Instead of the popular news show, KX officials are running episodes of "Coach," a syndicated situation comedy. CBS spokesman Joe Eustace said KX officials were offered "60 Minutes." "They elected to continue their long association with NFC football," he said.

"It was their choice to go with the football." Fox signed a $1.58 billion contract in February with the National Football League to broadcast the NFC games which had been televised by CBS for 38 years. Fox doesn't have an affiliate in western North Dakota and KX signed a contract with the network because of the area's many Vikings fans. Eustace said broadcasting the games would interrupt "60 Minutes." "If you have a late game or a double header, football will run through 6 p.m., and therefore "60 Minutes" can't be carried in its entirety," he said. Meredith Cable is negotiating with CBS so that some Bismarck viewers might be able to watch "60 Minutes" Sunday on Community Access Cable Television. The Bismarck cable company needs permission from CBS to pick up the network's satellite feed of the news magazine.

The proposal seems like a long shot. 'Two weeks ago I was very optimistic," said Jot Turner, general manager at Meredith Cable. Romine, who said CBS has dragged its feet in the negotiations, hopes an agreement is reached by Sunday. "We are prepared to do whatever it takes to promote it," he said. By CHRIS STEINBACH, Tribune Staff Writer CBS has punished its western North Dakota affiliates for televising the Fox Network's National Football Conference games this season.

Fans of "60 Minutes," who tuned in Sunday night for the news show's season premiere, are suffering the punishment, however. And they will continue to suffer until Meredith Cable and KXMB officials reach an agreement with CBS. wm Pilot dies as airplane goes down on lawn WASHINGTON (AP) In a bizarre and menacing breach of security, a despondent truck driver crashed a stolen plane on the White House lawn Monday where it cartwheeled against the mansion two floors below President Clinton's private quarters. LP5MV Elevator riders become trapped One of two elevators in Bismarck's Parkade had to be shut down Monday evening for repairs after firefighters were called twice to rescue people trapped inside. Lt.

Kermit Schaefer of the Fire and Inspections Department said crews responded at 6:12 p.m. and again at 6:38 p.m. to rescue people when the elevator doors would not open at the city-owned parking ramp at Sixth Street and Broadway Avenue. The stranded elevator riders one person during each episode were able to summon help using a phone inside the elevator that rings at the police Schaefer said. -J? The firefighters used a special key to open the doors.

In the first incident, the elevator had refused to open at the fourth floor; the second time, it was at the third floor. Tortured life ends bizarrely Washington Post WASHINGTON -During the past year, most every aspect of Frank Eugene Corder's life had begun to unravel his small trucking company failed, his father died and his 10-year marriage had just recently collapsed. Monday, relatives of the Aberdeen, man said the 39-year-old Corder had even Clintons 1 were tf- staying at 1 Washington VI i X' Monument 2 Garden -J W' Clinton's if 2 l072on 1 Plane nlts lawn about wJr JFJwv rJttX 50 feet from White TIN Ntts, House and comes to w' wmtmm rest against a wall of B'mr the building. The Secret Service was looking into whether there was any connection between the president's trip Sunday to Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland and his mention of the nearby Perry Point Veterans Hospital, where Corder once underwent alcohol detoxification treatment. The Secret Service launched an immediate review of whether security procedures were followed and how the pilot made his way unchallenged through prohibited air space.

Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen, whose department oversees the Secret Service, said the review would look at the adequacy of procedures to protect the president and first family. "We take this incident seriously," Clinton said, "because the White House is the people's house and it's the job of every president who lives here to keep it safe and secure." Slamming into the South Lawn, Corder's plane tumbled across the White House driveway and sliced through a gnarled magnolia tree planted by President Andrew Jackson. It came to rest against the White House at the window of the White House physician's office, just below the State Dining Room, about 50 yards from the Oval Office. The pilot, killed in the twisted wreckage, was Frank Corder, 38. He was said to have a history of mental illness and alcohol abuse, and relatives described him as depressed over the breakup of his marriage and the death of his father.

Clinton and his family were not in the White House when the small, single-engine plane hit at 1:49 a.m. They were staying in a government guest house across the street because of renovation work at the White House. They returned to their White House residence Monday. No shots were fired as Corder flew near the Washington Monument and then banked the plane toward the South face of the White House. Security agents spotted it only at the last second, with just "enough time to run for cover," Secret Service spokesman Carl Meyer said.

"I don't think there was all that much time, to be quite honest with you." The Secret Service refused to speculate on Corder's motive but said the intrusion "does not appear to be directed toward the president." No bombs or weapons were found in the wreckage, the agency said. Meyer said it was possible Corder was trying to land the plane, not crash it. spoKen ot a desire to crash a Slane into le White House, though no one took him seriously. At the one-story Aberdeen home where Corder Corder: No joke. White House security was immediately tightened.

Pennsylvania Avenue, which Clinton has been crossing each day between Blair House and the White House, was closed for most of the day. One witness said the plane was silent as it went over the White House fence, as if its engines had died or been turned off. It flew that way for several hundred yards before hitting the lawn. It was the worst breach of White House security since 1976 when a man tried to ram a beat-up pickup through the White House gate. He was stopped by the steel bars.

Two years earlier, an Army private stole a helicopter and landed it on the White House South Lawn. The (More on CRASH, Page 10A) Death possibly tied to 'huffing' The death Thursday of a Bismarck teen-ager is being investigated by police as possibly self-inflicted but accidental due to inhaling toxic chemicals. Lt. Myron Heinle of the Bismarck Police Department said the preliminary indication is that Donald Vogel, 15, 419 E. Capitol died of asphyxiation at a friend's home.

He said the department is still awaiting official medical reports as to the cause of death. "It's unofficial. We have to wait for an autopsy (report)," Heinle said. Asked if the youth is suspected of dying during an episode known among young people as "huffing," Heinle said yes. Huffing is slang for efforts to become intoxicated from sniffing paint, glue, correction fluid, gasoline or other substances.

Donald's funeral was Monday. us fcilla's foarol Prosecutor qu By JANEU COLE, Tribune Staff Writer spent his childhood years, his older brother, John Corder, came outside, at times holding back tears while he sketched out the details of his younger brother's life. "He said, 'If I'm going to check out, that's the way I'm going to do it. I'm going to crash a plane into the White John Corder said of a phone call he had received from his brother about a year ago. "We thought it was a joke." John Corder said he received another call from his younger brother Frank a few days ago but declined to take it because he suspected his brother might have been drinking, or had landed himself in jail.

Corder said he learned recently that his brother had separated from his wife, but he said he had no indication that his brother wanted to kill the president. "He knew how to fly," his brother said. "It wasn't some crazy guy who said, 'Hey (More on PHOT, Page 10A) A Burleigh County prosecutor has asked the state Parole Board to explain how they could set a parole date for convicted murderer Dennis Houle at their meeting last week. years. The Pardon Board has twice reduced Houle's sentence in recent years, once from 50 to 49 years and last December from 49 to 44 years.

Haskell wrote: "I would appreciate your informing me of the circumstances under which (Houle) was eligible to be considered for parole, given the provisions of (state law)." Parole Board staffer Ernest Reinert said both the Parole Board and Pardon Board have historically interpreted state law to mean that once a person's sentence has been reduced by the Pardon Board, he's eligible to go to the Parole Board. He cited past examples of other North Dakotans convicted of class AA murder who have appeared before the Parole Board over the years: Mark Wells, Richard Skjonsby, James Iverson, August Vogel. None have succeeded in winning parole except Skjonsby. Probation and Parole Director Warren Emmer said Haskell's letter will be forwarded to the Pardon Board and asked that it review the question at its next meeting on Dec. 5.

At this point, neither the letter nor the request that it be reviewed by the Pardon Board undoes the Parole Board's decision to release Houle. Emmer showed the Tribune a 1988 attorney general's opinion that says the Pardon Board may reduce (More on PAROLE, Page 10A) Bruce Haskell, a Burleigh County assistant state's attorney, wrote to Parole Board Chairman Warren Allen after the Parole Board agreed to parole Houle on his murder conviction in 1997. After serving an additional year for escape, Houle could be free by January 1998. Houle shot 16-year-old Sherri Collins in the head in a Bismarck motel room in 1980. He was 18 at the time.

Haskell said state law dictates anyone convicted of a class AA felony murder is not eligible to have his sentence considered by the Parole Board for 30 years, minus good-time. Under the 1980 good-time laws, that worked out to 20 calendar years before parole eligibility. Houle pleaded guilty to a class AA felony murder and received 50 (Front page compiled by Steve Wallick, news editor) For readers with ideas OUTSIDE Cloudy today with a 30 per cent chance of thunder storms. Hiah around Oman irefiififins inns Wind northeast 5 to 15 mph. Cloudy tonight with a 30 percent cnance ot thunderstorms.

Low 55 to 60. Cloudy Wednesday with a 30 percent chance of thunderstorms. High in the lower 70s. Details on back page. his second term.

"What we're trying to do is set a target out there, and start down the patn to getting mere, he said. Even Monday's short reform list lacked details, as well as any agreement between Schafer and Sanstead on how much state money it will need to work. Sanstead, a Democrat, is pleading for at least $60 million in fresh aid for schools over the next two years. The Republican governor has been resisting talk of higher spending, transportation aid during the 1993-95 bienmum. Schafer said the amounts given to individual districts will not decline.

He said the approach would encourage more efficient ways to haul students. It may be cheaper, for example, to pay parents to bring children to school than to run bus routes in sparsely populated areas, Schafer said. Increased state aid to isolated schools will compensate them for higher operating costs, Schafer said. The program would apply to schools with small enrollments whose geographic remoteness rules out a merger with a neighboring district. Schafer could not say Monday what the proposal would be worth to small, remote schools, or how the term is defined.

He said those specifics will be worked out by De-(More on SCHOOL, Page 10A) Rep. Moine Gates, R-Grand Forks, the retiring chairman of the House Education Committee, said the reform task won't get any easier. "The issues are still there I don't think they've changed, and you're still going, to have some of the same people fighting that," Gates said. Schafer and Sanstead briefed a Department of Public Instruction conference of school administrators Monday on their list of reforms, which represent concepts on which the two political rivals agree. Transportation subsidies, which now are linked to bus miles traveled and the number of students carried, would be scrapped in favor of cash grants to school districts, Schafer said.

Schools are being paid $35.6 million in By DALE WETZEL, Associated Press Writer Gov. Ed Schafer and state school superintendent Wayne Sanstead unveiled an abbreviated education finance reform agenda Monday that could overhaul busing subsidies and divert extra cash to remote schools. The package would require all North Dakota property taxpayers to support a high school, which would raise property taxes for residents of about 60 school districts. Schools would be protected against precipitous drops in state assistance. Schafer does not plan a more comprehensive overhaul effort until the 1997 Legislature, when he hopes to be serving INSIDE ADVICE 7A APPOINTMENT BOOK 9A CLASSIFIED 7B COMICS 8A DEATHS 9A ENTERTAINMENT 6B FOR THE RECORD A METRODAKOTA 6A MONEY IB MOVIES 6B OPINION 4A SPORTS 4B a i Schafer: First step.

saying it would be futile to pour more cash into the system until it is changed..