The Herald-Palladium du lieu suivant : Benton Harbor, Michigan • 1

1 ALEX LITTLE WANTS A LOT BABY GIRL DIES AS CONJOINED TWINS SEPARATED Second sister cliiKjn to life Page 3A LIONS' ROSS CALLS IT QUITS Gary Moeller takes over head coach post Page 6B i A' 1 1 BH Commission defers to lawyers on city manager pact Page 1 77ze Newspaper for Southwest Michigan' 50 cents Tuesday, November 7, 2000 MDOT: No plans to blow up Whirlpool Bridge By SCOTT AIKEN H-P Staff Writer I -ii A fi J. (. ,4 JwJtf i -t, 1 1 Ui I p- Ji the hundreds of tons of concrete will be broken into chunks with mechanical hammers. The chunks will then be broken into smaller pieces to make, handling easier. v.

The bridge demolition is being done by Hardman Construction which is working with Kalin Construction on the M-63 improvement Ramos said the work will start any day. I lardman plans to use a crusher at the site to recycle concrete from the old bridge and use it as fill material, he See BRIDGE, page 2A Transportation. Instead, crews will chip away at the concrete and steel structure with heavy equipment, bringing it down over a period of 4-6 weeks. Kalin Construction Co. of Sodus is general contractor for the $16 million project, On Friday, M-63 closed and traffic was shifted to detour routes.

Martin said MDOT is attempting to quell rumors that explosive charges' will be set off to raze the bridge. Several people have gone so far as to ask for the time of the event, she said. Lucio Ramos, resident engineer at MDOT's Transportation Service Center near Coloma, said ST. JOSEPH Despite rumors to the contrary, there are no plans to use explosives to blow up the Michigan 63 bridge north of the St. Joseph River, according to state transportation officials.

Circulating rumors contend that a "big boom" will level the 1 "Whirlpool" bridge, being torn down as part of a two-year M-63 renovation project. "Bift that is not going to happen," said Julie Martin, spokesman for the Michigan Department of WHIRLPOOL BRIDGE: Will be domolished conventionally 1 4' iy ha FDA wants cold, diet drugs pulled from shelves Voter -taroiuit Jheavy By WILLIAM F. AST III, LYNN STEVENS and CAROL KNAPP H-P Staff Writers By DAVID HO Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON A number of major drug store chains are pulling dozens ol'over-the-counler cold remedies and diet pills from their shelves after the government warned that an ingredient could cause hemorrhagic strokes, especially in young women, The Food and Drug I'd PPA warning Consumers confused governments warning to avoid a common over-the-counter drug Ingredient can 8lm-. ply check the labels, as all drugs must list their Ingredients. look for phenylpropanolamine, also called PPA.

The Food and Drug Administration advised consumers not to use PPA-contalnlng products, PPA Is In dozens of products such as the diet pills Dexatrim and Acutrim. But particularly for cold remedies, there are many formulas of each brand name, and every formula doesn't contain PPA. The FDA Is answering PPA questions toll-free at 1-888-INFO-FDA. A direct line, though It Is not toll-free, Is Administration issued an unusually strong warning Monday, telling Americans to immediately quit usipg drugs'conta'inirtg' phenylpropanolamine, or PPA, which is found Dexatrim, Tavist-D and dozens of other over-the-counter medicines. The agency, which intends to ban the ingredient, asked manufacturers voluntarily to stop selling PPA-containing drugs immediately and to replucc the ingredient with a safer alternative.

Rite Aid, with 3,800 drug stores in 30 states and the District of Columbia, soon will begin posting warning signs and removing products with PPA, spokeswoman Jody Cook said. "We would advise our customers to check with the pharmacist about the alternatives," she said. CVS Pharmacy, which Anyone hoping to cast their vote before they went to work this morning had to get to the polls early very early. Although the polls didn't open until 7 a.m., people had lined up outside Precincts I and 2 at the St. Joseph Public Library by 6:30 a.m.

Some people found even that wasn't early enough. "I didn't vote," one man said as he hurried off Shortly after 7 a.m. "I'm Coming At the Lincoln Township Mall, the process of signing in and casting ballots had obviously taken longer than some people had anticipated. Voters by 7:30 a.m. were hurrying off to work and said they were too rushed to answer a reporter's questions.

Some actually trotted to their cars. It was a scene repeated all over Southwest Michigan as a too- close-to-call presidential election spurred heavy turnout. State Rep. Charles LaSata, R-St. Joseph, holding one of his own campaign sips, was standing at the bustling Cleveland Avenue-John Beers Road intersection opposite Lakeshore High School in Lincoln Township.

"I'm amazed af the traffic," LaSata said as he waved to passir motorists. "It sounds like the turnout is real! going to be heavy." LaSata is running for re-election in the, 79th District agains Democratic write-in -candidate Scott Elliott. At Precinct I in Lincoln Township, some 100 people had already voted 7:30 a.m., election worker Margaret Schaus said. Election' worker Ginny DeFord said some people actually showed up by 6:15 a.m., though they didn't stay. Nearly 40 people were lined up at the St.

Joseph Public Library when the polls opened at 7 a.m., election worker Tom Cooper said. They've been waiting since 6:30" a.m., he said. "I've never seen this many people at the library period, voting or not voting," former county commissioner Gloria Gillespie said after casting her ballot. "I was here at about six minutes to 7, and there was already a line of about 22 people." Asked for her Gillespie said; "I know America is going to come out ahead." Most voters outside the library in St. Joseph said they had cast their ballots against the school voucher and "Let Local Votes Count" ballot proposals.

But they See TURNOUT, page 2A H-P photo by John Madid Karsten at Maud Preston Palenske rm, UPTON VOTES: U.S. Rep. Fred Upton turns in hi3 ballot today to poll ft-Memorial Library in St. Joseph. Upton is seeking re-election today to his eighth Narrow choice, costly race and an electoral puzzle By MIKE FEINSILBER Associated Press Writer has 4,100 stores, and Wal- af green with 3,200 stores, made similar announcements.

Dr. Charles Ganley, the FDA's nonprescription drugs chief, said buyers should be alert for PPA in the ingredient list of nonprescription cold relievers both brand names and generic or store brands and instead choose decongestant pills with, the safe alternative pscudocphedrinc-or use nasal sprays. Over-the-counter alternatives do not exist for diet pills, however, so dieters will have to consult doctors about pre-. scription-only alternatives, (ianley said. Whitehall-Robins I Icalthtare quit shipping PPA-containing Dimetapptn Monday.

New liquid jlimetapp formulas lacking PPA will head for store shelves next week, with pill versions to follow. Also, some stores arc selling PPA-containing versions of its Robitussin-C'l- product, and some arc selling a new non-PPA formula, in boxes flagged with a yellow band. SmithKlinc Beccham Consumer I lealthcarc said people should not use its PPA-containing Contac 12-hour Cold Capsules, but five other Contac versions contain the safe pscudoephedrine. See FDA, page 2A Austin, Texas, and making calls to West Coast radio stations to urge voters to turn out. He also was calling voters in Michigan, Oregon, Florida, Iowa and Wisconsin After some pre-dawn campaigning in Florida, Gore was voting in Carthage, Tenn.

The earl icst results came in moments after midnight Tuesday from two New Hampshire towns. In Dixville Notch, tht result was Bush, 2 1, Gore 5, Ralph Nader I. In nearby Hart's Location, it was Bush 17, and Gore 13, with one vote for a write-in candidate. Before that Election Day ritual, the candidates barnstormed the country one last time. Bush hit four states Tennessee, Wisconsin, Iowa and Arkansas that voted for President Clinton and Gore in 1992 and 1996, but which polls suggest could go Republican.

"My spirits arc high. I feet great he told an audience after returning to Austin just after midnight. For his part, Gore engaged in marathon campaigning through crucial Iowa, Missouri, Michigan and Florida, where he said the star-studded crowd of tens thousands that greeted him in Miami's fashionable South Beach left him with "no doubt whatsoever" of a win there. "Florida is the place where the future is being born," Gore said. Behind them was the most expensive election in history $3 billion on presidential and congressional races, about $30 for every vote cast but See ELECTION, page 2A WASHINGTON America was electing a president today in what bid to be the closest election in 40 years, choosing between Republican George W.

Bush's promise to be a "uniter not a divider" and Democrat Al Gore's claim that he alone has the experience to Tight for you and win." Voters also were choosing a new Congress. Exhausted by the" effort, the candidates Bush, the governor of Texas and son of a president, and Gore, the vice president, for eight years a presidential understudy surrendered their fate to the voters and made ready to join millions of their fellow citizens at the polls. Bush was casting his ballot in 4- INSIDE Entertainment 5A 5B Obituaries "XT 1 rv Ann Landers Business 6A fmYfiT arZr? rriT I SW Michigan 1B-3B 6B-8B Classifieds Comics I 83 Television. 8A WorldNational NIYIII Editorials www.hiBraIdpalladium.com irit; tlt rir Mostly cloudy. Low around kostlyUwuuy clo j-jy, Hn in lovcr 50s.

L-50645U490S5J 0.