Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 1

FOREIGN WEATHER pr ti 1 I T-IJird pokes I 4 on road rl "national" Accuses panel of stalling '1 1 A2 r- -ill Rejects call for cease-fire B5 Record highs expected -A2 i i IBB9-I9H9 Polls show Thomas, Vinich in dead heat for House seat Dole campaigns in Wyoming for Thomas By SCOTT FARRIS and MATT WINTERS Star-Tribune staff writers with wire reports CHEYENNE Polls show Republican Craig Thomas either even with or slightly ahead of Democrat John Vinich with less than a week left in their race for Wyoming's at-large seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, according to party officials. In Washington D.C., officials with the Democratic and Republi can campaign committees told The Associated Press their information was based on recent tracking polls. While Howard Schloss, a spokesman for the National Democratic Campaign Committee, said their polling showed the race about "dead even," he added that movement in the race appeared to be "a little bit away from us." Republican polling showed Thomas holding a small lead over Vinich, according to the National Republican Campaign Committee. Neither committee released any 1 Thomas, Vinich spar over Wyo public lands in second debate Republican congressional candidate Craig Thomas of Casper, left, exchanges a friendly handshake with Democratic rival John Vinich of Hudson before the start of a live televised statewide debate Thursday night.

Looking on is KTWO-TV production crew member Jane Berry, Related stories, A3, A16 wrote a few years ago for the WREA newsletter in which he favored a plan to convert Bureau of Land Management lands in Wyoming to either private ownership or state management. Thomas told Vinich he should read his entire editorial on the subject. He earlier had said, "I'm fed up, John, with you misreading my editorials." Thomas said it is vital to Wyoming's economy to have multiple-use of federal lands for agriculture, mineral development and tourism since 50 percent of the land in Wyoming and 70 percent of the minerals belong to the federal government. "I think we should do some exchange of lands. 1 think we should do some sales of private lands with federal lands to block up these lands and make their management EPA recommends testing for radon gas in schools By ANDREW MELNYKOVYCH Star-Tribune Washington bureau WASHINGTON High radon levels in classrooms in several states, including Wyoming, have prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to recommend that schools test for the cancer-causing gas.

EPA Administrator William Reilly said Thursday that the agency's survey, while very preliminary, suggests that radon contamination in schools may be a significant problem. The agency is urging schools to test all frequently-used basement and ground-level rooms. The EPA recommendation is based on tests of 3,000 classrooms in 130 schools in 16 states. The survey included tests of 68 schoolrooms in three schools in Wyoming. The Wyoming schools, which are not listed by name in the EPA report, are located in Wright, Gillette, and Dubois.

Please see RADON, A 16 V1 Before the storm Utah hoping fusion studies will increase its economy SALT LAKE CITY (NYT) It may not have anything to do with nuclear physics, but scientists claiming a historic breakthrough in fusion research here have produced one measurable reaction: they have jolted the state's political and business leadership into overdrive. In the last four weeks, Utah legislators, state officials, members of Congress and newspaper editorialists have rushed to describe the table-top fusion experiments at the University of Utah as a once-in-a-century scientific discovery that might mean wealth, fame and glory for the state. "If this thing is what they think it is," Gov. Norman Bangerter told reporters, "it's better than the gold rush." Many scientists around the country remain skeptical about the fin-Please see FUSION, A16 Casper Area A3 Churches A9 Classifieds B10-16 Comics B3 Community B6-7 Crossword A7 Landers, Omarr A7 Letters Al 1-15 Markets B4 Movies B9 Obituaries, Diary B2 Opinion A10 Sports A4-6 Wyoming Bl Old Grouch I can sympathize with anybody who's having gas problems. RESULTS SOLD THE FIRST DAY! Duane Timberman sold a Phil Lynne one-horse trailer the first day his classified ad appeared under 1 53-Livestock Trailers.

If you have items you no longer need, get them out of your hair by advertising them inexpensively in the Star-Tribune Classifieds. (You only pay for the days your ad appears the newspaper Let us help you write your ad! Just call 266-0555 or Wyoming toll free. 1-800-442-6916. figures or any detail about the polls. The poll results "delighted" the Thomas campaign, Thomas spokesman Liz Brimmer said.

But she noted that the Thomas campaign itself has not conducted any polling of its own. The Vinich staff also had not seen the poll results, but campaign manager Rodger McDaniel said "my reading of it is that it's just pretty even, neck and neck." Campaigning in Wvoming for Please see CAMPAIGN, A16 more efficient," Thomas said. In rebuttal, Vinich said Thomas' privatization idea "scares me" and he pledged to fight to see that public lands stay in the hands of the people. The two candidates, in the last week of campaigning before the April 26 special congressional election, also disagreed on federal regulation of the insurance industry. Thomas said any regulation of the insurance industry should be at the state, rather than the federal level because it is a competitive industry.

Vinich, however, said the insurance industry poses problems that require more than state regulation. "I think two basic major industries that go totally unregulated are baseball and the insurance industry," Vinich said. He said it's time the government stepped in and worked with the states so people can get affordable insurance. Please see DEBATE, A 16 Unity Missionary Baptist Church and the Emmanuel Gospel Crusade Ministries. "I do not know that person nor do I want to dignify his views," Jackson said of Johnson's candidacy.

Asked whether marches and protests should be used to force Johnson from the state, Jackson said, "I offer no strategic response." Instead, Jackson said that all Please see ACKSON, A16 Official says company not blocking gas access Zbigniew BdakSiar-Tribune Trailblazer and Coastal lines, O'Connell said. A resolution could be in sight, however, under a new Trailblazer proposal filed with federal regulators late last month, O'Connell said. Coastal is reviewing that proposal now to determine whether it can set a pattern for its own line, he said. While the Coastal and Trailblazer lines are underused right now, charges that they are being deliberately operated that way is "taking a short-term situation and turning it into longterm situation, and that's just not the case," O'Connell said. "We want to fully utilize the Coastal system in Wyoming, no question," he said.

The problem right now is how federal regulators will allow charges on the pipelines to be assessed on the Trailblazer and Coastal lines, he said. The com-Please see PIPELINE, A16 would ask Sullivan to support an increase in -the state's standard of need the income level below which people qualify for welfare assistance. At a press conference held before he addressed about 1 ,200 people at Cheyenne's Civic Center, Jackson declined to detail whnt he planned to talk to Sullivan about, saying the meeting as "private." Jackson, however, praised Sullivan for issuing an executive order By JOAN BARRON Star-Tribune staff writer CASPER Republican Craig Thomas and Democrat John Vinich agreed Thursday night on the multiple-use concept for public lands but differed sharply on whether all those lands should remain in the public domain. During the second television debate for the two major congressional candidates, Vinich predicted that if public lands are released, they ill wind up in the hands of the big insurance companies and foreign investors. If that happens, Vinich said, the people of Wyoming won't be able to hunt and fish on the public lands.

But Thomas said that the government should consider trades and sales of some public lands to provide better access to them. Vinich had referred to an editorial Thomas, the manager of the Wyoming Rural Electric Association, Navy trying to find cause of explosion aboard Iowa WASHINGTON (AP) The bodies of 47 sailors killed in the gun explosion on the Iowa arrived in the United States on Thursday as the Navy tried to figure out what caused the battleship's turret to blow up. None of the guns in the no. 2 turret had been fired before the explosion killed t-be seamen, Navy officials said. They discarded a theory that the blast had been sparked by red-hot debris left in the gun's breech by earlier rounds.

The Navy organized a board of inquiry and placed a moratorium on firing 16-inch guns, found only on the Iowa and its three sister battleships, the New Jersey, the Wisconsin and the Missouri. The Iowa was headed back to its home port at Norfolk, while the bodies of the dead were flown to the military mortuary at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and families of the battleship's 1,600 crewmen waited to learn whether their relatives were among the dead. At the White House, chief of staff John Sununu announced President Bush will attend a memorial service Monday for the victims in Norfolk. Wyo politics earlier this week that declared next Jan. 15 as a state holiday honoring slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

Sullivan's action brought him "great joy," Jackson said, and offered a "great contrast" to former Arizona Gov. Evan Meacham, who was impeached partly because he rescinded that state's holiday honoring King. The 1989 Legislature did not approve legislation creating a state A By ANNE MacKINNON Star-Tribune capitol bureau CHEYENNE A spokesman for the Coastal Corp. Thursday said his company is not blocking the access of Wyoming natural gas to midwestern U.S. markets.

Comments earlier this week from an independent oil producer critical of Wyoming's willingness to negotiate a subsidized loan to a Coastal subsidiary for a gas pipeline to California prompted the company's response. Coastal would "love to have gas moving" on its pipeline in Wyoming that connects southwest Wyoming gas production to the Trailblazer line that can carry such gas to midcontinent markets, Coastal spokesman Ken O'Connell said Thursday. But regulatory problems are currently tying up efforts to improve rate and shipping conditions on the Cheyenne stop Rev. Jessie Jackson gestures during a press conference at Cheyenne Civic Center Thursday as state Sen. Elizabeth Byrd.

D-Laramie, listens. Jackson stays clear of during Cheyenne visit holiday honoring King. Jackson was questioned about his views on next week's special congressional election in Wyoming, but he declined to endorse Democratic candidate John Vinich by name, nor did he condemn independent candidate William Daniel Johnson who believes all non-whites should be deported. "I'm not here for that purpose," said Jackson, who was in Cheyenne to help raise funds for Cheyenne's By SCOTT FARRIS Star-Tribune capital bureau CHEYENNE-Civil rights leader and Democratic presidential candidate Rev. Jesse Jackson was in Cheyenne Thursday, but steered clear of local politics, and did not directly condemn a white separatist congressional candidate.

Jackson was also scheduled to meet with Gov. Mike Sullivan, and Jackson supporters said Jackson.