The Billings Gazette from Billings, Montana • 1

SPORTS BILLINGS FORECAST SV 'sun Cotton Bowl DH UJ LI Kf COLD 1 Classic Lots of For a wrap-up of all the college bowl action see sports PAGE1D (W sunshine and chilly weather. I cL2P 17 a 1 rQ TUESDAY January 3, 1995 For your area forecast, see back page of section BOWL 109th year, No. 239 1995 Billings Gazette, a Lee Newspaper, 401 N. Broadway, Billings, Montana 59101. THE WEATHER SOURCE: (406)657-1333 COMING TO HELENA Ml i) ELENA (AP) The 54th Legislature ooened at I noon today, ending a long dry spell for Montana Re- MS 5 7 I i frivt 41 -V LEGISLATIVE SESSION Education The state superintendent of schools wants more money for special education and technology.

Page 1B. Spending There's a $300 million difference between what the legislative fiscal analysts says will be spent and what the governor proposes. Page 1B. The world has changed a lot since they last controlled the Legislature and the governor's office at the same time. It was 1953 and Republicans including Gov.

Hugo Aronson were swept into power on the coattails of war hero Dwight Eisenhower. That was the year Montana got its first TV station, communist leader Joseph Stalin and legendary athlete Jim Thorpe died, and the Korean War ended. Ernest Hemingway won a Pulitzer Prize for "The Old Man and the Sea," Marilyn Monroe got her first starring role in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and a future president named Bill Clinton was 6 years old. Two generations later, the GOP is back at the helm. Republicans took 25 seats in the Legislature away from Democrats to create majorities, safe even from parliamentary shenanigans.

The GOP has a 31-19 edge in the Senate and a 67-33 margin in the House. The House and Senate convened at midday, highlighted by the swearing in of all 100 representatives and 28 senators elected in the November election. House Speaker John Mercer, R-Polson, told the opening session that this session launches an era of change. He said Montanans want less government and more individual freedom, and that is the goal of the GOP-controlled Legislature. Gone-, he said, is a decade of "never-ending financial crisis paralyzed in partisan gridlock." Lawmakers must restore public confidence in government by reducing its size, remodeling the health care system, reducing dependence on welfare, toughening criminal laws and decreasing state control over education.

Mercer said. Associated Press Sens. J.D. Lynch, D-Butte, left, and Larry Tveit, R-Fairview, foreground, face the Montana Army National Guard color guard as it enters the Montana Senate chamber Monday. INAUGURATION IN WYOMING triist Greringer promises renewe House Minority Leader Ray Peck, D-Havre, called for a "progressive partnership" between Democrats and Republicans in carrying out a common task.

"Let us all, individually, become true protectors of the common good of the citizens of Montana," he said. In the other chamber of the Legislature, Senate President Bob Brown, R-Whitefish, said government "has failed to keep pace with the rate of change. Understandably, people are anxious and frustrated with government." He pledged to undertake reforms and said he is committed to "a spirit of good faith and bipartisanship." temperatures of 17 degrees to travel to the Ca- Geringer targeted six areas where he said pitol. cooperative efforts would "get government uennger, a tormer legislator, said that with working again: the help of lawmakers, state agencies and the private sector, he would work to improve state CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) Gov.

Jim Geringer vowed to "reconnect" Wyoming residents to state government Monday as he became the first Republican in 20 years to take over the governor's office. Geringer and four other top elected officials were sworn into office in a ceremony that lasted a little more than one hour and was watched by about 1,200 people who braved States' rights. Education. The economy. Telecommunications.

Health care. Government accountability. government relations with residents. "One clear message I heard as we -traveled around the state this fall was that people feel unsettled about government and detached from policy decisions," he said. PLAYING WITH WORDS MOUNTING CASUALTIES Russian offensive in trouble CHILLY OUTSIDE CHILI 9 TTT3 FIRING INTO AIR Falling bullet kills tourist NEW ORLEANS (AP) Nobody knows who killed Amy Silberman maybe not even the killer.

But there are plenty of suspects in the death of the Boston tourist killed by a bullet that dropped from the sky and pierced her skull on New Year's eve. "Everyone that fired a weapon on New Year's Eve is a suspect everyone that fired a weapon." Superintendent of Police Richard Pennington said Monday. Silberman. 31. was in the French Quarter's Jackson Square near the Mississippi River at about 11:40 p.m.

Saturday, awaiting the New Year's fireworks display. Suddenly she fell down. She was taken unconscious to a hospital, where an X-ray showed the bullet in her head. She died Sunday morning. Police were left with the task of finding somebody, somewhere who was taking potshots at the clouds.

Pennington appealed to the public for help in finding anyone who fired a gun around the time Silberman was shot. By FEN MONTAIGNE and INGA SAFFRON Knight-Ridder News Service KHASAVYURT, Russia In what is becoming an increasing embarrassment to the Russian military and a source of pride to the tiny Chechen republic, rebel fighters Monday continued to push back Russian troops from the center of Chechnya's capital city. Grozny. Evidence mounted that the Chechens had dealt a stinging setback to Russian troops, who began a final assault on Grozny on New Year's Eve but now seem at a loss as to how to revive their stalled offensive. The Russian military announced Sunday that it controlled the center of the city around the presidential palace, but Western reporters who reached the capital Monday found hundreds of rebels inside the palace and in full control of the adjoining streets.

Gutted Russian tanks littered the center of Grozny, the charred bodies of crew members lying in and around them. There was a lull in fighting after Sunday's intense battles, though (More on Russia, Page 8A) I. Associated Press Chechen fighters search for Russian snipers Monday. Although the Russians have more firepower and more reinforcements, the Chechens have prevented the capture of Grozny. J.

DEATH STAR? 1 I y. Scientists study effect of exploding star Four sections CityState 1B Movies 3B I Classified 2C Neighbors 1C Comics 3C Opinion 4A Deaths 7A Sports ID Landers 3C TV 4C Living 4B Weather 8A radiation to thin the ozone for many years, he said. "Intense ionizing radiation in the upper atmosphere would break up molecules of oxygen and nitrogen and enable them to capture the ozone," said Schramm. That supernovae may have caused mass extinction is not a new idea, but the mathematical model created by Schramm and his coauthor, John Ellis of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the first to suggest that such exploding stars could destroy the ozone layer. stroy the ozone layer, said David N.

Schramm, an astrophysicist at the University of Chicago. Recent research suggests that if the ozone layer were wiped out, ultraviolet radiation from the sun could soak the unprotected Earth and kill plants, Schramm said. This, in turn, would break the food chain leading to mass extinctions, said Schramm, coauthor of a study appearing Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. An exploding star about 185 trillion miles away would create enough gamma They say it could have caused mass extinction WASHINGTON (AP) A mass extinction on Earth 225 million years ago may have been caused by an exploding star that zapped the planet with radiation and stripped away the protective ozone layer, a scientist says. An explosion of a supernova within 30 light years of Earth would bathe the planet's upper atmosphere with powerful gamma and cosmic ray radiation, setting off a chemical reaction that would de Gazette photo by Urty Mayer With chilly weather in store for Billings, Lisa Morales places lettering on a sign advertising chili at Taco John's at Main Street and Lake Elmo Drive in Billings Heights Monday.

It'll warm up a little, but it won't climb back up to those pre-Christmas 40s and 50s. ii i.