The Missoulian from Missoula, Montana • 1

-r Weather Sports MOSTLY CLOUDY with scattered showers and a few afternoon and early evening thundershowers. High 727Low 46Precip. 40 PLAYOFFS Page D1 if ft trgy mil WJ)f nria Friday J1 fit WL I jr VT 5S? Energy Tax Montanans have problem with energy tax, poll says But outlook appears dim for conservative challenge V' V- World RIGHT TO DIE A woman suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease made a final plea for the right to die with dignity, asking the Canadian Supreme Court on Thursday to allow her a doctor-assisted suicide. A6 HELENA (AP) Montanans think President Clinton's proposed energy tax would hurt the state's economy and cost them too much money, according to a poll released Thursday. The poll, conducted for an alliance of business and manufacturing companies that include sectors of the oil industry, found that 61 percent of those polled opposed the tax, while only 37 percent were in favor.

Nearly eight of every 10 of those polls said they believed the tax would fall more heavily on low- and middle-income people than on the affluent, and 58 percent said it would slow economic growth and cost American jobs. Nine of every 10 polled said government spending should be cut instead of having a new energy tax applied. "Montanans are heavily dependent on energy especially energy derived from oil for their livelihoods," said Jannelle Fallan, executive director of the Montana Petroleum Association. "Our major industries, from mining to agriculture, consume great amounts of energy," she said. "And because this is a very rural state, most of us drive con (See POLL, Page A-10) Democrats said the new proposal would hurt the poor and would be defeated.

"It's basically a $40 billion shift away from wealthy Americans right onto people just above the poverty line, the elderly and the working poor," Clinton said of the proposal, which Sens. John Danforth, and David Bo-ren, introduced with two other senators. "I don't support that. I think that's a mistake." Despite conservative complaints in both chambers that the president's plan is top-heavy with (See SENATORS, Page A-10) WASHINGTON (AP) A bipartisan group of four senators pledged Thursday to fight to replace President Clinton's proposed taxes on energy and some rich people with cuts in benefits like Social Security, but House and Senate leaders predicted his package would pass almost intact. The White House and top congressional Democrats moved swiftly against the latest challenge to Clinton's budget-cutting plan.

They attacked the maverick senators' alternative in a series of news conferences in hopes of preventing it from snowballing into a major political menace. The president and leading Vi 1 1 a Are you for or against President Clinton's 'MT proposed energy tax? The telephone poll was conducted for the Affordable Energy Alliance in early May by The Prescott Group Inc. It questioned SOI Montana residents age 18 or older. Poll results carried a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points. "We are not setting a precedent," Schweber said.

"Every time sewer is laid in the Missoula Valley, people should not look to this board for money." Board member Bill Burnett, who represents the Missoula Conservation District, said he has a "real concern with mixing the public and private economies. The Water Quality District is a public entity. We are spending money on private sewer hookups." Burnett was the only board member who voted against the fit I 37 61 I i fon AGAINST I PRESIDENT ON TRIAL Venezuela's Supreme Court on Thursday authorized an embezzlement trial against President Carlos Andres Perez, who promised to abide by the law and predicted his name would be cleared. A6 In the FIRED STAFF A day after firing its travel office staff, the White House said Thursday a Hollywood friend of President Clinton's had complained recently that colleagues in the air charter business weren't being allowed to bid on White House trips. A9 MOTOR VOTER President Clinton signed into Jaw Thursday a landmark measure requiring states to ease voting registration, ending a hard-fought battle by Democrats and advocates for young, disabled and minority Americans.

A9 Dow UP 23.25 HIGH 3,539.88 LOW 3,475.39 CLOSE 3,523.28 Market Report D6 In MONUMENTAL ACHIEVEMENT Ray Hunter has been the backbone of an effort to build a memorial honoring his son, John, and the three other Montanans killed in four U.S. military involvements since 1 983. His dream becomes a reality on Memorial Day, when the one-ton monument is dedicated at Rose Park. B1 pi lllllllnm.H-iiliil Wafer board doubles Linda Vista sewer fund ri Hice day for a spray BRENT ROSS used the sunshine Thursday afternoon to wash down one of the delivery vans at a downtown business. Friday's weather should be much the same with sunshine and showers.

THOMAS BAUERMlssoulian district wiltcost about $10,000 per home in most of the unscwered neighborhoods. The connection will run another $3,000. The Water Quality District grant will provide $1,500 rebates for some homeowners. At its meeting last month, the water board approved a one-year, $50,000 grant for the Linda Vista sewer project. That decision put the board at odds with a recom (See SEWER, Page A-10) "They were doing a lot of posturing and laughing and bragging," Stone-Manning said.

"It was clear that they had really done this." From that moment forward, Stone-Manning said, her life was turned upside down. "I took the letter and thought about what to do for a few days," she said. "If I didn't mail it, I was afraid someone would get hurt. If I gave it back to Spiccr, though, I was afraid he wouldn't mail it." Ultimately, she said, she took the letter to the UM library and, using one of the university's typewriters, retyped the letter, correcting misspellings and removing some of the expletives. "I retyped it because my fingerprints were all over the original and I was scared," she said.

"What I really feel, though, is that I reported a crime, although anonymously." The letter prompted federal law enforcement officials to search a home on Sherwood Street in Missoula where several Earth First activists lived. In the fall of 1989, prosecutors subpoenaed seven Missoula residents, including Stone-Manning, to appear before a grand jury to provide physical (See TESTIMONY, Page A-10) Woman trades her testimony for immunity in spiking case Valley." Linda Vista is a special case, said board chairman Phil Schweber. Missoula County and its Board of Health are on orders from the state to close all septic systems and create a sewer district in the Linda Vista subdivisions closest to Miller Creek Road. Individual and community water wells in Linda Vista are being polluted by sewage. Nitrate pollution in some wells exceeds the federal drinking water limit, putting the public health at risk.

AuoclalM prs SEN. BOB PACKWOOD, works in his Capitol Hill office Thursday. That panel has authority to recommend punishment, including expulsion, if it finds a senator violated Senate rules or standards. Packwood said he was pleased with Thursday's vote "both for myself and for the Senate. "The last thing the Senate wants to do is get into the practice of conducting autopsies on 32 elections every two years if the loser claims the winner told a lie," the Oregon Republican said in an interview with The Associated Press.

if 1111 -v Of" 'i I fS Sm" 1 By SHERRY DEVLIN of the Missoulian The Missoula Valley Water Quality District Board on Thursday doubled the amount of money to $100,000 it will provide to defray the cost of sewering older Linda Vista subdivisions, hoping to convince homeowners to quickly connect to the main. But board members cautioned that the newly formed district is not interested in "hat-passing for the sewering of the Missoula Packwood can stay, panel says WASHINGTON (AP) -The Senate Rules Committee threw out a complaint seeking the ouster of Sen. Bob Packwood on sex harassment allegations Thursday, arguing members had no authority to unseat him. Packwood praised his colleagues' decision, but a lawyer for the group that brought the complaint said it showed the Senate was "out of touch with the American people." The panel voted 16-0 to reject a petition contending Packwood lied to voters about the allegations during last year's campaign and therefore was guilty of election fraud and should be ousted. The separate Ethics Committee still is investigating accusations that Packwood made unwanted sexual advances toward more than 20 women who worked for him or with him during his 24-year Senate career and tried to silence some by threatening to expose details of their personal lives.

appropriation. The $100,000, spread over two years and coupled with another $100,000 from the state, will be used to provide rebates to homeowners in the most-polluted neighborhoods once they connect to the sewer main. Missoula County can create a special improvement district to bring sewer mains to Linda Vista, but homeowners must privately finance the connection from their home to the main. The rural special improvement 6n nce he was in jail, I was safe. It was time to come forward.

It was my Tracy Stone-Manning Stone-Manning said Blount, who calls himself "Spiccr," handed her a letter addressed to the U.S. Forest Service and said, "Read this." In oftentimes-foul language, the letter declared that 500 pounds of spikes had been pounded into trees at the Post Office timber sale, on the Clearwater National Forest in Idaho. It warned the Forest Service not to try to cut the trees. Tree spiking is a form of environmental terrorism designed to block timber sales. Because they can shatter saws, tree spikes are dangerous both to loggers felling timber and to sawmill workers.

Blount asked Stone-Manning to mail the letter, she said. "He said, 'Would you mail I asked, 'Why won't And he said, 'I don't have a tM.Jiinirli.li.rrTtl.ii.ll.,ll..,i.l., YOU'RE SO What makes a Missoula person a Missoula person? Sandals in the winter? Parkas in the spring? E5 I Advice C2 Around Missoula B3 Classified C3 Comics B6 Markets D6 Movies Obituaries B3 Television C2 Opinion By SHERRY DEVLIN of the Missoulian A Missoula conservationist has been given immunity from prosecution in exchange for her testimony against two men accused of pounding bridge spikes into trees on Idaho's Clearwater National Forest four years ago. Tracy Stone-Manning, executive director of the Five Valleys Land Trust, said she came forward with information in February after former Missoula resident John P. Blount was arrested and charged with tree spiking. U.S.

Attorney Maurice Ellsworth granted Stone-Manning limited immunity in exchange for her testimony, in March before a grand jury in Boise, Idaho, and at a trial now set for June 7 in either Spokane or Moscow, Idaho. Following her grand jury testimony, the indictment against Blount was amended and expanded, and similar charges were filed against former Missoula resident Jeffrey C. Fairchild. In an interview with the Missoulian, Stone-Manning said she was approached by Blount and Fairchild in the spring of 1989, as she was walking up the steps of Rankin Hall at the University of Montana. She was an environmental studies student at the time.

A) Missoula Valley AIR QUALITY GOOD Update 728-AIRE.