The Independent-Record from Helena, Montana • 11

AD8DHLMD MONTANA Malpractice Doctors to ask Legislature to limit amount of awards Essex Inn Amtrak flag stop ESSEX (AP) Amtrak has decided to make the Izaak Walton Inn in this small community on southwest corner of Glacier National Park a regular "flag stop," inn owner Larry Vielleux said Monday. If passengers are waiting on the newly constructed platform along the Burlington Northern mainline behind the inn, Amtrak trains will stop to pick them up, he said. Those riding on the passenger train will be able to buy tickets with Essex as their destination, he said. Although the inn was built by the Great Northern Railway as a railroad hotel in 1939, passengers have not been able to board or leave Amtrak trains there regularly since 1971. "It's a dream come true," Vil-leux said.

"Our faith has been renewed in government and big business while working with Amtrak and Burlington Northern. A small group of dedicated citizens MILES CITY (AP) Montana doctors, faced with the soaring cost of malpractice insurance, plan to seek help from the Legislature, a spokesman said. Dr. Edwin Stickney of Miles City, president of the Montana Medical Association, said Monday the state's doctors are planning to ask the 1987 Legislature to limit the cost of malpractice actions. The association will recommend changes in state law governing malpractice damage suits, with a cap of some kind on malpractice damage settlements, a sliding scale for attorneys' fees and permision to inform juries of any insurance payments already made as a result of injuries.

The MMA has formed a committee to prepare the recommen dation, Stickney said. Malpractice insurance for obstetricians has risen 400 percent in last four years and will rise another 34 percent next year, Stickney said. Under current laws, a child has until age 19 to discover a problem caused by delivery and an additional two years to find the doctor and get medical records after that. Stickney said many doctors are losing money before they ever get into the delivery room, and many obstetricians have been forced to give up their practices. He noted that one southeastern Montana's leading obstetricians, Dr.

Randall Rauh of Miles City, announced last week that he is quitting his practice as of July 1 because of the high cost of malpractice insurance. shop on Bozeman's main street In a short time he had all but five Resorts feel insurance pinch YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) Facing higher bills for liability insurance coverage, ski resort operators are boosting lift ticket prices, emphasizing safety and even considering self-insurance. The pinch also has hit at least one ice-skating rink in Washington, and legislators are being asked to consider changes in insurance laws. Insurance rates at Washington resorts have jumped an average of 70 percent, said Mel Borger-son, president of the Pacific Northwest Ski Area Association.

As a result a dollar has been added to the price of a lift ticket at White Pass, says bookkeeper Kimberly Robison. The liability insurance crisis that has hit doctors and day-care operators has also hit the Yaki ma Ice Arena, boosting the cost of skating 25 cents, said co-owner Gini Richardson. Washington lawmakers are being asked to examine insurance woes after the Legislature convenes in January. A spokesman for state insurance commissioner Richard Marquardt said Friday the office was preparing legislative recommendations, based on hearings by the Legislative Task Force on Insurance Availability and Affordability. The recommendations are to be revealed next week in meetings with lawmakers in Seattle and Spokane.

Among the possibilities discussed by the task force have been "assigned risk pools" for some coverage and limits on the amount of damages juries can award in civil suits. a HOMESEEKER Clinton Gaffrey, on Veterans Day to find homes for sold at $5 apiece. Briefs Forsyth trial delayed again KALISPELL (AP) A district judge has again delayed the Jerry Forsyth murder trial here, this time because of "procedural" requests by Forsyth's attorney. Flathead County District Judge Michael Keedy scheduled the trial to resume on Thursday. The 15 jurors from Toole County hearing the case returned to the Shelby area for a long holiday weekend and won't return until Thursday, Keedy said.

Forsyth is accused of deliberate homicide in connection with the 1979 shooting death of his wife, Karen, at the Kali-spell bowling alley they operated. He was convicted by a Flathead County jury in 1980, but the conviction was overturned on appeal, and Forsyth's second trial, held in Poison, ended in a hung jury. 30 aftershocks rumble in Montana BUTTE (AP) Southwest ern Montana has had some 30 mild afterschocks following a series of earthquakes over the weekend in the Hebgen Lake area, a scientist says. Mike Stickney, head of the Earthquake Studies Depart ment at Montana Tech. said Monday his seismographs recorded 30 aftershocks measur ing 3.0 or greater on the Richt-er Scale.

The strongest earthauake over the weekend occurred at 4:38 a.m. Saturday and measured 5.0 on the Richter scale There was one report of a bro ken mirror but mo other aam age and no injuries. Wisconsin who was Northern's president for the past seven years. Bar tray tossing is big in Belt BELT (AP) It may not rival Frisbee throwing or even hula hoops, but residents of this central Montana community have come up with a new sport bar tray tossing. They even are trying to register their first world championship contest with the Guinness Book of World Records, just in case the idea takes off.

The bar tray tossing contest was the idea of Pinky Nelson, who wanted to know how far people could throw a standard, regulation bar tray without drinks. The answer was 92 feet, 2 inches, at least until Lon Bowman's pending "world record" is eclipsed by another tray thrower in next year's contest. Butte race was all elevens BUTTE (AP) It started at the 11th minute after the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, and fittingly, the temperature was 11 degrees and the wind was blowing at 11 mph. Montana's oldest and usually coldest cross-country race went off without a hitch Monday, and 42 hardy souls made it to the finish line at the Butte American Legion Hall for the 49th annual Butte Veteran's Day Race. Montana State University runner Matt Rothermel of Bo-zeman won the five-mile race with a time of 27:58, while Heather LaFontaine won the 2Vi-mile race for youngsters with a time of 18:15.

bundled against the cold, set up 1 1 of these mixed breed puppies. The earthquakes were centered near the area of the 1959 Yellowstone quake that blocked the Madison River and killed 28 people. Defeated Dillon councilman quits DILLON (AP) Dillon City Councilman Dan Carpita, who was defeated in last week's election, has resigned. City officials agreed with Carpita's suggestion that he resign in order to let his successor, Lloyd Winden, take his place on the council early. Winden defeated Carpita by 12 votes.

Northern Montana College a 'gem' HAVRE (AP) Northern Montana University President William Merwin says his college in Havre is an undiscovered "gem" that will play a major role throughout this century in the economic development of northern Montana. Mervin said Northern will remain the state's premier center for vocational-technical education, and it will focus on training students in technical trades. The' college also will focus on retraining workers who lose their jobs because of technological changes and will continue to be an integral part of the Hi-Line community, he said in an interview. "The people here have this incredible sense of ownership," he said. "This is their college.

They are intensely loyal." Merwin, 45, is the sixth president since Northern opened in 1929. He took office Sept. 1 and succeeded James Erick-son, his onetime mentor in a bridge on U.S. Highway 2 east of Kalispell into the icy Stillwater River. The patrol said he drowned, but his death is being counted as a traffic fatality.

can achieve their dreams. Villeux said he spent three years negotiating with politicians and officials of Amtrak and BN. Because there had been no public transportation from the nearest regular Amtrak stop in West Glacier, guests at the Izaak Walton Inn who traveled by Amtrak had to rent a car in West Glacier or arrange to be picked up there by the inn. Last February, the inn was designated as a special Amtrak stop for groups of five or more. However, there was no easy way for passengers to buy group tickets, Vielleux said.

Since the 1970s, the inn has been operated as a private hotel, catering to railroad enthusiasts, cross-country skiers, Glacier Park visitors and eagle watchers. Bear plants could begin next summer MISSOULA (AP) A federal grizzly bear researcher says limited grizzly bear transplants into a northwestern Montana wilderness could begin as early as next summer if proposed legislation is approved. Chris Servheen, coordinator of the Grizzly Bear Recovery Project for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Missoula, said an amendment to an Interior Department appropriations bill would clear the way for experimental transplants in the Cabine-t-Yaak Ecosystem. Servheen said the transplant augmentation plan probably could be completed by late winter if the funds are released by the end of this year, and he said some transplants could begin next summer, depending on environmental assessments and public comment.

"We're talking about two or three bears as a test," he emphasized. Work on the transplant plan was halted last year by an amendment introduced by Sen. James McClure, R-Idaho. But McClure and Sen. Max Baucus, have since reached agreement on a new approach that would allow the experiment to continue.

The two senators plan to introduce a new amendment, and Baucus' press secretary, John Flink, said last week that passage is likely. McClure's press secretary, H.D. Palmer, said McClure did not intend to block planning last year but only wanted to insure public involvement. The Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem in extreme northwest Montana has habitat suitable for up to 70 grizzly bears, but less than 10 are known to live there, researchers say. The area is one of six ecosystems in the Lower 48 states and four in Montana with grizzlies.

Transplants probably would come from the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, the area around Glacier National Park, where researchers say grizzlies seem to be thriving. Learn to apply wallcovering easily with professional results! Ask Sherwin-Williams for details. HELENA STORE 316 Last Chance Gulch 442-2300 THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14th 7:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. Call to reserve space in class Traffic victim drowned in river Register Nov. 6 thru Nov.

21, 1985 WHITEFISH (AP) Authorities have identified the man who was found dead in a river near Kalispell Monday as James A. Miscampbell, 26, of Whitefish. The Montana Highway Patrol said Miscampbell's van went off Wish Upon a Star at Capital Hill Mall, where all your wishes come true. teiKllrll Just register your children, ages 3-8, and include their "wished for" gift from any mall store. The 1985 Wish Child will be drawn on November 23rd during our 2:00 Holiday Fashion Show.

As CHM's 1985 Wish Child, your child not only gets their wish fulfilled, but: (CTA Assort" ynV ment rfflw) Never SsmC Tasted TlTTJ.S Better Two To Tango Bird curator Lori Collard leaps after a rare African crane in an effort to take it to its new California home at Marine Land. Humans have mastered more difficult maneuvers than this one with cranes. Dr. George Archibald learned the whooping crane's mating dance to encourage a crane born in captivity to reproduce. Over the years, Archibald's leaping and flapping, along with artificial insemination, helped the crane "Tex" produce several eggs and one healthy chick.

DO YOU KNOW What endangered bird recently lost much of its habitat in California's brush fires? MONDAY'S ANSWER American troop strength in Vietnam peaked while Lyndon Johnson was President. 1 1.12-Ho Knowledge Unlimitrd. Inc. 1HH5 Serves as the offical hosthostess during the Christmas season Pidfts tn thft mall with Santa Claus when he arrives of Honor at Santa's breakfast is the Gi jest annul Hji I Corner of Lyndale Main i 1 i 4 Or',.