Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 3

Republicans seeking end to PACs Company donates land to WPTV to build tower CASPER Casper Two Way Radio Service Inc. has donated use of land on Casper Mountain to Wyoming Public Television so the WASHINGTON (AP) Senate Republicans unveiled their version of a campaign reform bill Tuesday, calling for an abolition of all political action committees but impos-, mg no limits on how much can-i didates can raise and spend. i "Republicans are tired of being accused of obstructing reform," 1 Sen, Mitch McConnell, the primary author of the package, said as Democrats continued to meet in private to put the finishing touches I on their campaign financing bill. McConnell accused Democrats of "trying to railroad" through Congress a bill with fixed spending limits "because it serves the partisan interests of the Democratic Party" by "curtailing Republican fundraising advantages." "The real problem in campaign finance is the source of political money, not how much spending is necessary," McConnell said. Leading Democrats responded with a willingness to consider the abolition of PACs whose con tributions in recent years have tended to benefit incumbent Democratic candidates over GOP challengers r-but only as a tradeoff to establishing fixed ceilings on spending.

"The most important factor in any reform proposal must be limits on spending," said Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine. Mitchell called the Republican package "disappointing" because it totally rejects such limits. "There's plenty of room for negotiations," said Oklahoma Sen. David Boren, the chief author of the Democratic bill, which Mitchell plans to bring to the Senate floor, possibly later this week but more likely next week. "We're perfectly willing to eliminate PACs, too," Boren said, "as long as it is within the framework of total, comprehensive reform, and that means overall spending limits.

Without that, you'll just have this continuing chase for money in other forms." In the last week, both party caucuses in the Senate have moved away from the concept of flexible spending ceilings proposed as a compromise in March by a panel of experts appointed by Mitchell and Republican Leader Bob Dole of Kansas. That proposal would have placed fixed limits on how much a candidate can solicit from individuals and PACs outside his or her state but no ceiling on small contributions from in-state residents. Democrats would still impose a ceiling on in-state contributions. Republicans, in their package, were willing to cut the current $1,000 limit an individual can give to a campaign to $500 for out-of-state donors but place no limit on the totals that can be raised by whatever means. The GOP package was outlined by Dole and McConnell as Democrats continued to disagree privately on what their package should contain.

i i I I. .1 'f Remains of Harvard student found near Boston after nine-year search fc It i fc mm? jL Hospital More bones were found after that. Confirmation that the remains were Webster's was made Monday. Authorities said the cause of death was "blunt trauma to the head," and that Webster was a homicide victim. "That is some measure of relief," George Webster said of the identification.

He said he and his wife, Terry, had long believed their daughter had been slain. Joan Webster was last seen at the airport on Nov. 28, 1981. The native of Glen Ridge, N.J., and Syracuse University graduate was headed back to the Harvard's School of Design after a Thanksgiving visit with her parents. Webster was a successful and active student who had made the dean's list at Syracuse.

She liked skiing, sailing, tennis and photography and had traveled Bruce Page, 32, and Martha Reynolds, 29, both of Wamsut-ter, smile after their wedding ceremony Tuesday at Wyoming Medical Center in Casper. Bruce, who recently underwent surgery for an ulcer, was diagnosed as having terminal pancreatic cancer. Group grades Wyoming's legal system among worst says police harassing him station can construct a communications tower and building to enhance its signal in the Casper area and extend the signal into northeast Wyotning, Central Wyoming College announced. WPTV engineers have been on the site with the contractor and core sample results will determine the tower base design, station manager Greg Ray said. Construction of the first half of the tower this summer will allow Casper College to insert its own local programming for telecourses and other outreach efforts, CWC said.

"This would give Casper viewers a full-service public television station," Ray said. Without the donation by Casper Two Way Radio, Ray said the station would "still be searching for a suitable location" on Casper Mountain. Since the company's land is situated adjacent to the current location of WPTV's equipment, the transfer will be easier, he i said. "Up to this point, KGWCVTV has graciously given us space on its tower and building," Ray said. "However, we needed to construct a separate tower." In addition to improving signal quality in Casper, the tower will be used as a microwave site to relay a signal to Sheridan and Campbell counties Three sentenced in district court CASPER Three people were sentenced in district court recently, according to the district attorney's office.

Steven Costalez, 19, pleaded guilty to five counts of first-degree arson. Judge Dan Spangler sentenced him to five to seven years in prison on the first count, involving a fire at Signe's restaurant Dec. 1, 1989. On the other four counts, Costalez will serve five years of supervised probation consecutive to the prison time served on the first count, on condition he pay restitution for all the fires, do community service, counseling, and pay $50 to the victims' compensation fund, according to the DA office. John Harper, 22, was sentenced by Judge Harry Leimback for grand larceny to 18 months of supervised probation, restitution payments to the victim, and a $50 payment to the victims' compensation fund.

Robert Brown, 19, was sentenced by Spangler to two years of supervised probation for two counts of burglary. Brown must successfully complete the Community Alternatives of Casper program, the New Directions program, pay restitution, do community service, undergo counseling, and pay $50 to the victims' fund. Two, arrested on forgery charges CASPER Casper police on Sunday arrested a man and a woman on charges of possession of forged documents, Lt. Jack Macy said Tuesday. Debra Herrera, 20, no address given, was first arrested at Target at Eastridge-Mall about 6 p.m.

Sunday on suspicion of shoplifting, Macy said. Herrera's boyfriend, Scott Glenn, 19, reportedly was disovered in the couple's car, "waiting for her to come out with the stuff she'd shoplifted so he could take it back in and exchange' it," Macy said. Because of the "suspicious circumstances," Macy said, police searched the car and found "a whole bunch of forged checks" from a business in Utah, Macy said. Police investigate heart machine theft CASPER Casper police are investigating the alleged theft of a heart monitoring machine from NewCart, a business that rents out health-care equipment, Lt. Jack Macy said Tuesday.

The machine, valued at $3,500, was supposed to have been returned to NewCare, 1126 E. Second, by March 31, Macy said, by a woman who allegedly had rented it for her sick child. The woman has since gone to prison on an earlier charge, Macy said, and the child was turned over to the Division of Public Assistance and Social Services for placement in a foster home. When NewCare contacted urA55, workers there reportedly knew nothing about what had become of the monitor, Macy said. BOSTON (AP)-Three n-psychics and a $50,000 reward didn't work.

In the end, it was a veterinarian walking her dog who found the bones of a Harvard stu-- dent who vanished in 1 98 1 The discovery of the remains of Joan Webster also renewed ques- tions about the role of the in-i, famous Leonard "The Quahog" a small-time hood doing time for another slaying. Paradiso never was charged in the case, in which Essex County District Attorney Kevin Burke said he "became a suspect almost immediately" after Webster disappeared from Logan International Airport. The case was revived after veterinarian Karen Wolf last month stumbled across part of a skull in woods in Hamilton, a wealthy community 25 miles north of Boston. Local man ByDANNEAL and TOM RE A Star-Tribune staff writers I CASPER A local man accused of possessing deadly weapons with unlawful intent says he is a student of the martial arts and had no intent to harm anyone. John Spillane, 41, said he has been the subject of police harassment because of his vocal refusal to cooperate with police investigators.

But Police Chief Fred Rainguet said Monday that officers acted in good faith and were justified in their actions. Police said last week that they stopped Spillane on April 22 for a traffic violation and arrested him after a records check showed an outstanding felony warrant for Spillane. But Spillane said the warrant should not have been outstanding. He said the felony warrant was for receiving stolen goods. The case has subsequently been reduced to a misdemeanor, to which he pleaded guilty on April 17, he said.

He said his attorney Harry Bondi Sullivan Continued from Al through the last four years dif-' ficult times successfully without any tax increase, whether it be con-strolling the growth of government, whether is be the pipeline project to California, whether it be tourism "marketing, or trying to coordinate and integrate the economic development programs," he said. "Those are all areas where I've I been involved in and lead. I don't purport to take all of the credit for any of those, because it's been a cooperative efforts with the with the people of Wyoming," Sullivan said. In Cheyenne, as Sullivan looked 'back on his record, he told a crowd "of supporters who gathered in his formal office in Cheyenne that "I i said four years ago I had no rabbits a hat. I had no magic wands." "There is no question that we've made sacrifices, that it's been a lot of hard work, and it's been difficult times in Wyoming.

But some of the 'dire predictions, the doom and that was predicted four years ago, has been averted," he "By hard work, by sacrifice in a of areas There is progress being made. It shows in the real numbers, it shows in the attitudes as you go throughout the state." In response to a question in widely, her parents said. The search for Webster turned up her wallet 300 feet from where 20-year-old Marie Ianuzzi's body was dumped in 1979 in Saugus. Saugus is 15 miles from where the bones were found. After Webster vanished, her family and friends offered a $50,000 reward.

Shortly after the disappearance, three psychics came forward, including one who said he envisioned her body was in a pond in Manchester, about five miles from where her bones were later found. "It was close," said Beverly Police Capt. Gordon Richards, who was among the investigators in 1982. In 1985, attention focused on Paradiso after a former cellmate alleged that the one-time fish merchant claimed involvement in killing Webster. said.

Rainguet said police officers were acting within the law when they stopped Spillane on the traffic violation, and were justified in searching Spillane's vehicle both for their own safety, once they saw the weapons, and because there was a warrant out for him. "I'm certainly not going to second guess their discretion," Rainguet said of the police officers. "I think they did the right thing," he said. During the time Spillane was ini-' tially in jail on the outstanding warrant, the officers were taking inventory of the weapons found in his vehicle and "building probable cause" on the weapons charge, Rainguet said. By the time of Spillane's first release, Rainguet said, "they had developed probable cause and felt they needed to make a second arrest." If the case comes to trial, it would be up to the district attorney to prove that Spillane's intent in carrying the weapons was unlawful, Rainguet said.

he said "I'm here because I think this institution reflects what's best about Wyoming, and that's its education system," Sullivan said. "We, like every place else in the country, are going to have to compete on what it is we can teach our children, and what it is we can deliver, and what kind of partnership we can develop between education and business." Asked about the importance of the abortion issue in the upcoming campaign, Sullivan called the issue "highly charged, highly emotional and sensitive." He said abortion is an issue that "gets stretched out of shape" in a political campaign. He said in Casper "my position will be the same as it has been since 1986. I'm basically pro-life. I will continue to be pro-hfe." In Rock Springs, Sullivan "wouldn't speculate" on whether or not he would have signed or vetoed the pro-life bill that passed the Idaho Legislature, restricting abortions to cases of rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother.

Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus, a pro-life Democrat like Sullivan, vetoed the measure. "I'd certainly do some of the things (Andrus) did," Sullivan said. "I'd try to get the best advice I could over the legality of the bill and its operation but I will not Dee GouldStar-Tribune wedding "Low and middle income consumers are denied access to the system because of complicated legal procedures, high costs and few options," HALT said. "What must be realized is that not one state system meets minimum expectations of public service.

They are all inadequate, most of them woefully so," HALT Education Director George Milko said. Wyoming, along with Nebraska and Mississippi, received 25 out of 100 possible points from the group. California finished first in the nation with a score of 74, Washington was second with 71, and Minnesota was third with 67. Milko said the report cards do not attempt to cover all aspects of the legal! system, but "only repre-sentativeielements." In the areas singled out by HALT, Wyoming scores poorly. Wyoming does not, for example, require consumer and insurance contracts to be written in language most people can understand.

HALT is apparently mistaken, however, in reporting that Wyoming does not have a small claims system. Davis of the Bar Association said such a system is in place. Wyoming got its highest score in the area of "lawyer-client relations." ditions sparked an ongoing lawsuit. There have been "major improvements, and we're not done, in many of the state institutions and in community-based care," he said. The state is committed to giving Training School residents "a life made as productive as we can do it" with "as little restraint and as much freedom" as we can Sullivan said.

In general, the state has done well in protecting its less fortunate citizens from the impacts of fiscal hard times, he said. "We can be proud that in the hard times we didn't react in a way that caused greater distress to the less fortunate, that reduced the care to the less fortunate," Sullivan said. He said the state will work to continue long-term discussions with Indian tribes over water rights. Sullivan also stopped in Powell to announce his re-election bid and in Gillette, where he planned to participate celebrations marking the anniversary of the Cam-Plex center. He said his campaign manager will be Richard Lindsey, his international trade officer, who will take a leave of absence to manage the campaign.

By MATT WINTERS Star-Tribune staff writer CASPER Wyoming's legal system is one of the worst in the nation, according to a report card issued by a national legal-reform consumer group. Wyoming finished in a three-way tie for last in terms of giving people opportunities to perform simple legal jobs themselves, providing legal services to the needy, and ensuring that legal consumers are well informed about lawyer's fees and competency, a group called HALT said. Wyoming Bar Association President Richard Davis Jr. of Sheridan said he had not seen the report but noted that Wyoming has taken steps to give people greater opportunities to do legal jobs themselves, for instance by allowing couples to obtain simple divorces without lawyers. HALT has 150,000 members and describes itself as organization of Americans for' Legal Reform," devoted to making the civil legal system "affordable, simple and fair." Its report card on state legal systems flunked 44 states and the District of Columbia.

Only two states received Cs and the rest got Ds. say what I will do with specific legislation." Sullivan said reorganization of state government will eventually mean "less diffuse responsibility" in the office of He noted that the 1990 Legislature removed the governor and treasurer from the state Investment Fund Committee, "something I supported a year ago, and they didn't do. Those are the right moves, and reorganization will help." Sullivan said one of Wyoming's strengths is its clean environment, "and we can't let it go." He said he will work to "get the Department of Environmental Quality back to the level that I think it should be, following cuts made by the Legislature." Sullivan at several of his stops emphasized his supports for state employees. "Nowhere do you find more dedicated state employees, who work harder, who do more for the less fortunate, than here," he said in Lander. He said "I have used it, this county, and the state employees in this county, as models of the kind of people we have working for the state." Lander also afforded the governor an opportunity to compliment efforts to improve conditions at the Training School, where con called Judge Stephen Davidson the nignt ot tne most recent arrest and the judge informed police the warrant was not active.

Spillane said that immediately after he was released when it was found the warrant was no longer outstanding, he was again arrested on the weapons charge, and spent the night in jail. The police reported finding a loaded derringer, two hunting knives, a spring-loaded nightstick, a second nightstick wrapped with lead wire and tape, and an axe handle in Spillane's truck. District Court Judge Dan Spang-ler later ordered Spillane released on the $1,000 bond that had been continued in the stolen goods case pending sentencing, Spillane said. "I bought some tires from some kids," Spillane said of the misdemeanor conviction. He has operated A-1 Used Tires for five years, he said.

"I'm not trying to weasel out of that. And I'm paying for it. I made a mistake." But he said that still does not justify the weapons charge. "I have no intent to harm anyone. I'm a student of self-defense," Spillane Mills, where he spoke to a large crowd of supporters and workers at Western Oil Tool Sullivan conceded that mistakes have been made in the state's economic development efforts.

"Sure, we've made mistakes. I've had four years and made a lot of decisions and some of 'em people agree with, some of 'em they don't. Some of 'em I agree and some of 'em I don't. But we've made changes in those programs and I think we have now a good, well integrated progam that we can be proud of," the Democratic incum-bent said. "I guess the sin would be if we hadn't made any mistakes, it would suggest we hadn't aimed high enough," he said.

Sullivan told reporters in Casper and Cheyenne he expects criticism in the campaign because he now has a track record. When he first ran four years ago, a little known lawyer from Casper, he had never held elected office and had no record to target. think anybody that follows Wyoming politics knows that any time you're a Democrat in Wyoming, you have a tough battle on your hands. I look forward to a good, exciting, enthusiastic and fun campaign," he said. At Western Wyoming College,.