Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • 1

Pentium III Intel's chip is new shot in warwith AMD. Ten for Texas The best movies about the Lone Star State Movies and More, El Cholesterol What you can do to guard your health Forecast High Low; 74 62 Chance of storms. Details, E3 Business, Dl 50 CENTS www.austin360.com FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1999 Austin board votes 8-1 for new school boundaries By Michele Kurtz American-Statesman Staff Ending nearly three decades of forced busing for integration, the Austin school board early Friday morning adopted a boundary plan designed to send more students to schools near their homes and accommodate nine new schools. The adoption of the controversial plan 8-1 at 12:35 a.m. capped more than a year of redrawing give schools more time to adjust and the district an extra year to boost resources for schools that have large numbers of students who live at or below the poverty leveL Originally, the bulk of changes were to take effect in 1999-2000 and the rest the following year.

But the district adjusted that schedule so that mainly only changes needed to bring new schools on line would occur this fall. attendance lines, making dozens of adjustments and hearing from hundreds of people in two recent weeks of rancorous town hall meetings. "I believe these were real hard decisions that this board and community had to make on boundaries," board Vice President Doyle Valdez said at the close of the nearly five-hour boundary debate. "I feel like as far as facilities go we have done a good job setting up our future. But we have alotofworktodostartingMonday to getthelevelof quality education that we want and our community expects." Board member Loretta Edelen voted against the plan.

She has opposed the plan's neighborhood schools concept since it was proposed in December. The board also voted 6-3 to delay implementing many of the boundary changes until 2000-01, to Some board members wanted to implement the changes more quickly, in part because they said the delay would make for more instability for students. In addition, six elementary schools this fall will have to add sixth grade, because the board decided to keep Martin Junior High a seventh-and eighth-grade school, rather than add sixth grade to it For the school board, adopting a boundary plan clears the way to focus on other pressing issues before the troubled district "I will be very glad to see this phase of it over," board member Ted Whatley said before the meeting Thursday. "We need to finish it and move on to the next business, such as finding a new superintendent" The plan has sparked angry See Austin, A9 ir to gto dlkssaQihi DtaB 1 -TnYvrrc cov fhM7 com mm ui ui oujr uiv jr OlA no remorse in killer, who left court cursing his victim's family i I s. 4 Belo adds KVUEto Texas TV holdings Owner of Morning News to buy Austin station amid plans for state news channel By Kim Tyson American-Statesman Staff Gannett Co.

Inc. has agreed to sell KVUE-TV Channel 24 to Dallas-based AH. Belo Corp. in a move that will give Belo a major link in its plan to build a 24-hour local news channelfprallofTexas. Under an agreement signed late Wednesday, Gannett will trade KVUE one of Austin's highest-rated television stations for a station owned by Belo in Sacramento, Calif.

Along with getting ownership of Sacramento's No. 2-rated station, KXTV-TV, Gannett would receive as much as $55 million for KVUE, according to Belo officials. The agreement is contingent on approval by the Federal Communications Commission and other regulatory officials. Belo also owns television stations in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio, and The Dallas Morning News, among other newspapers. "We have always wanted to get into the Austin market just because it not only is a good complement to what we already have, but it now gives us two-thirds of the homes in the state of Texas," said Jim Moroney, executive vice president of Belo, referring to the number of homes reached by Belo television stations.

On Jan. 1 Belo launched Texas Cable News, TXCN, to provide local news throughout Texas. Currently, the network is primarily carried in the Dallas-Fort Worth market and reaches about 650,000 subscribers. "Clearly if you're going to have a regional 24-hour news service in Texas, it obviously helps to have an Austin-based television station See Austin's, A7 By Denise Gamino American-Statesman Staff JASPER John William "Bill" King's last public act in Jasper was to curse the family of his murder victim as he was led away to become the only white person on death row in Texas for killing a black person. A Jasper County jury took just less than three hours Thursday to hand King a death sentence for the torture and killing of James Byrd who was dragged behind a pickup until his body was torn apart last June.

King, 24, didnot react when state District Judge Joe Bob Golden read the death sentence. King released a hand-written statement thatproclaimedhis innocence and declared he was "determined to die proudly." "I hope he is," said Joe Collins, the foreman and only black person on the jury of seven men and five women. "He's in a place where he's going to." Collins and another juror, Lequeta Flowers, spoke on behalf of the paneL They said the jury tried to find a redeeming quality in King but could only conclude that he was without remorse, full of hate and capable of killing again. "We looked for ways to not have to do what we did today, and they were not there," Flowers said. "You just can't nave this.

Society cannot accept this." As a smirking King left the courthouse, reporters asked him if he had a message for the Byrd family. He tossed off an obscenity. "It just sums up the total personality of this young man," said Mary Verrett, one of Byrd's six sisters. "He has no remorse, even in the face of death." Members of the Byrd family, who attended the entire eight-day trial, declined to address King in See King, A12 PatSullivanAP Above, James Byrd Sr. and his granddaughter, Renee Mullins, right, listen as John William 'Bill' King is sentenced to death Thursday for the murder of James Byrd Jr.

last summer. King at far left being escorted out of the Jasper courthouse said in a statement he is innocent but will 'die At left, jury foreman Joe Collins explains why the panel believes King should die. ft PatSullivarVAP David J. PhillipAP Clinton allegation Filling kids' health-care gap Ford rolls out an SUV too big for your garage program for the poor. So they forgo insurance andhope for the best, skipping the checkups and Jcb prcfilo cf uninsured Tcxss Job status of head of household Full-year worker, full time: 63 Nonworker 12 Despite saying her charges could be Impossible tor--prove, some feminist groups back Juanita Broaddrick's claim that President Clinton raped her 21 years ago, A6.

IZZJILMZ'-Zl BestBete Metro State, B8 Comics Classifieds Section Crossword Ufa Arts, F7 Deaths Metro A State, B3-4 Editorials Horoscope Ufa Arts, F7 Inside Une News, A2 lottery Metro A State, B8 Scoreboard Sports, C8 Stocks Business, D4 TV listings Ufa Arts, F3 s. Part-year worker, part time: 5 1 Part-year Texas governor, lawmakers haggle over where to draw family poverty line By Scott S. Greenberger American-Statesman Capitol Staff All the blood drained from the boy's face. He lay motionless on the couch, and the veins in his neck were "going about90 miles an hour." Gary Authenreith knew that his 5-year-old son Barry, who has a heart condition, was in trouble on that day last December. Authenreith works at a local engineering consulting firm that doesn't provide health insurance, and he couldn't afford his son's $75 medication that month.

Barry had been without the medicine for about two weeks. Luckily, the boy recovered after a weeklong stay at the hospital Now his father isn't sure how he'll pay those hefty medical bills. worker, full time: 14 i Full-year worker, part time: 6 Environmentalists are less enthusiastic. Expected to get only 12 miles per gallon, the Excursion will "guzzle enough gas to make Saddam Hussein smile," the Sierra Club warns. The environmental group dubbed the Excursion a "suburban assault vehicle." It ran a contest to give the SUV a name and advertising slogan.

The winner: "The Ford Valdez. Have you driven a tanker lately?" The Excursion poses a dilemma for Ford. The company's new chairman, William Clay Ford considers himself a "lifelong environmentalist" and has promised to make the world's No. 2 automaker the leader in developing clean vehicles I But Ford's financial success in recent years has resulted largely from meeting Americans' demand See Ford, A7 Despite pledge for cleaner cars, new entry gets 12 mpg From Staff and Wire Reports In the battle for the biggest sport-utility vehicle, Ford Motor Co. has made a monster.

Ford's 19-foot-long, 3.5-ton Excursion, to be unveiled to reporters in Michigan today, is nearly a foot longer than its biggest competition, the ChevroletGMC Suburban. In fact, it's so long and tall that it won't even fit In many garages. It won't be for sale until this fall, but already the Texas-sized SUV with nine seats, six doors and huge V-10 engine is making some local auto dealers drooL "People in Texas love great big things I think it'll sell like crazy," said Mike Baab, general manager of Taylor Ford Sales. sometimes tnemecucauons tnat could keep their kids healthy and prevent financially disastrous major illnesses. Texas' soon-to-be-launched Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) would use federal and state money to cover Texas children like Barry Authenreith who are in that gap.

But Gov. George W. Bush and state lawmakers are still wrangling over whether the program will cover people making up to twice the federal poverty level or only 150 percent of it The two sides agree on the amount of state money to launch the program an average $151 million a year, which would come' out of the state's tobacco settlement But like a family trying to stretch a household budget, they are struggling over how far that money will go. In essence, the See Texas, A8 i Source: Employs Benefit Bob CalzadaAA-S Research Institute 1999, Aurtn American-Statesman Many Texans face a similar predicament Almost 500,000 Texas children live in households that cant afford private health insur-. ance for their children but earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, the federal and state health-care I "I 7 Ksaosoaoz1.