The Billings Gazette from Billings, Montana • 1

mm Tuesday, March 30, 1993 108th year, No. 332 Billings, Montana 59101 COPYRIGHT W3 BUNSS GAZETTE GUIDE yfe iboFfcim sDinDk by iron Moss A Investigators call if arson MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) Fire officials estimated damage at $250,000 Monday in an arson fire that destroyed a Missoula women's clinic that has been the target of repeated anti-abortion protests. City Fire Marshal Ron Harding said the fire at the Blue Mountain Women's Clinic was set at two different places inside the building, and Fire Chief Chuck Gibson said some type of fuel apparently was used to make the fire more destructive. "There are clear indications that the fire was set on purpose," Gibson said.

"I think it's safe to say this fire was caused by someone who wanted this particular facility closed down. It was a very hot-burning fire, which is an indication of an accelerant being used." He estimated damage at $230,000. Missoula police asked the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms for assistance in the investigation. The fire at the clinic was reported at 3:50 a.m. and was brought under control by seven units from the Missoula Fire Department.

The building was empty, and no one was injured. Investigators said they had no indication of who might have set the fire, and they declined to speculate on whether it was related to the clinic's role as an abortion provider. The clinic, which provides a full range of health-care services, is the only facility in Missoula that provides abortions. Investigators said that a liquid fuel was used inside the building to accelerate the spread of the fire, and evidence indicated fuel also was present on the sidewalk and (More on Clinic, Page 7A) Travel Guest Guide is here There are plenty of events to watch and places to see in south central Montana, northern Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park. Learn more about them in the Travel and Guest Guide.

It's inside today's Gazette. 'J 4 a SPORTS 1993 NCAA Associated Presi Damage to the clinic is estimated at $250,000. Firefighters say it was caused by arson. usticG of flhe pooco ackman, enies misconduct HI Tomei win supporting awards Rosebud County: Polley pleads innocent f. sythe states that Polley failed to deposit fines, penalties and forfeitures on a timely basis over the 12-month period from April 1992 through March 1993.

Polley was charged for each month he allegedly failed to deposit the fines on time. State law requires every justice of the peace to deposit fees with the county treasurer by the fifth day of the following month. Forsythe said Polley was behind in deposits about five to six months, but that, to Forsyte's knowledge, no money was missing. He said the charges were based on an audit. The maximum penalty for the offense is six months in jail or a fine of $500 or both for each count.

Officials found guilty of official misconduct are removed from office. llilifli llllii By JILL SUNDBY Of the Gazette Staff Rosebud County Justice of the Peace David Polley pleaded innocent Monday to 12 misdemeanor counts of official misconduct for allegedly failing to deposit court fees on time. He appeared before District Judge Richard Phillips of Sidney at the Rosebud County Courthouse. District Judge Joe Hegel who usually hears Forsyth cases, disqualified himself because he works closely with Polley. In the information, a court document dated March 17, Rosebud County Attorney John For- By CARRIE RICKEY Knight-Rldder News Service At 65, Oscar shows no signs of retiring, though some may be wondering about his sense of timing.

"Oscar Salutes Women and the Movies" was the theme of the 65th annual Academy Awards, held Monday night at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles this, even though women on both sides of the camera were largely irrelevant in Hollywood during 1992 and academy members had to scramble to find five performances worthy of nomination in the best-actress category. As academy president Robert Rehme conceded in his introduction, if the 36 women nominated this year a record didn't yet represent equality, at least they represented progress. (More on Oscars, Page 7A) Rye will return to KULR State senator: He won't seek re-election cans, and I will again make every effort to see that KULR-8's newscasts consist strictly of facts rather than my personal opinions." Hi Not available at presstime Powerhouses survive tourney With three No. 1 seeds Kentucky, Michigan, and North Carolina and a No. 2 seed Kansas making the NCAA's Final Four, this could be one of the best-ever finishes to the men's college season.

SPORTS1 No tickets left for Atlanta The other Final Four features NCAA women's teams, which play In Atlanta. The games will be sold out as fans watch Vanderbilt, Texas Tech, Iowa and Ohio State. SPORTS4D Blyleven makes pitch for Twins The pressure is mounting on Bert Blyleven, 42, as he tries to stay on the mound. SPORTS3C IT Rye, 49, joined the Billings TV station in the summer of 1980 after serving as press secretary for then-Rep. Ron Marlenee, R-Mont.

In a phone interview Monday afternoon, Rye said he may have over-compensated for the perceived bias. "I think so, I may have over did it," he said. "And editorializing is Not available at presstime tiDSm Emma Thompson "Howard's End" Not available at presstime Marisa Tomei 'My Cousin Vinny" By JIM GRANSBERY Of the Gazette Staff After a three-year hiatus from the news anchor's chair, Sen. Dave Rye, R-Billings, announced Monday he will return to television broadcasting and will not run for re-election in 1994. "Effective at the end of the current legislative session, I will return to the anchor position of KULR-8 News," Rye said in a press release Monday morning.

The Montana Legislature, now in session in Helena, should adjourn no later than April 23. Rye added Monday afternoon he would not resign his seat, Senate District 47. "I will serve out the term," he said. "It is now more governmental rather than political, so there won't be the problems of equal time." He promised to be politically neutral in the anchor's chair. "A major condition of news employment is, as it should be, political neutrality," Rye said.

"I was always very proud that the few complaints of bias in reporting during my previous decade at KULR-8 all seemed to come from Republi Here's how Christene Meyers, the Gazette's entertainment editor, did with her picks. Several of the winners had not been announced by the early press run. BEST PICTURE: She picked "Unforgiven." BEST DIRECTOR: Clint Eastwood. BEST ACTESSS: Emma Thompson. The winner: Emma Thompson.

fflEEST ACTOR: AlTacino. EI BEST SUPPOSING ACTSESS: Judy Davis. The actual winner was Marisa Tomei. a EEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Gene Hackman. The winner: Gene Hackman.

Friday's Enjoy will include the winners of the Oscar contest. INSIDE not allowed nor should it DAVE RYE be." back to television "For the benefit of those to whom it might matter, I am- announcing that I will not be a candidate for re-election to the Montana Senate in 1994," Rye said in his press release. Rye said if the Legislature was called into special session before January 1995, "I would go." "There is a proviso," he said. "If I sensed they (constituents) wanted me to resign, I would. But a Republican would replace me." (More on Rye, Page 7A) Four sections Gene Hackman "Unforgiven." CityState 1B Movies 3D Classified 5C Neighbors 1C Comics 5A Opinion 4A Deaths 2B People 2A Landers 5A Sports 1D Living 4S TV 6A Markets 2C Weather 8A Thieves who took Hopi idols say they're living under a curse OUTSIDE Tuesday, partly cloudy with some early morning valley fog.

Highs in the 40s to 50s. Lows 25 to 35. Highs Wednesday 45 to 55. Weatherllne For time, temperature and 24-hour forecast, call 256-9999. discovered we all had the same experience." Hinton said he decided he was cursed and the only way to save himself was to confess.

But he didn't know the name of the man who'd bought them. The investigation stalled for seven years, until Pyle's name came up in an unrelated investigation. Without tipping him to how weak their case was, prosecutors offered to drop prosecution if Hinton cooperated and Pyle agreed to go to the Hopi reservation in 1991 to tell the tribe the taalawtumsi were gone. "Any phrases I could use to de-scribe the guilt would not be enough," Hinton said. "To collectors I say, 'Set aside your greed for a while.

It's not art you're collecting. It's life. It's their Hinton says he began suffering kidney, liver and gall bladder failure a few months after stealing the idols. Morris was nearly killed in a motorcycle accident and lost the use of an arm and a leg. The tribe turned to the FBI for help in 1979.

The FBI didn't get a break until two men were caught by tribal police digging for pottery in a Hopi ruin. One of them led tribal leaders to the idol that had been left behind. In 1981, Hinton, fresh from a prison term for an unrelated burglary, made one last pot-hunting trip to the reservation and got separated from his friends. "I saw lights, heard all kinds of strange sounds," Hinton said. "I was a blubbering idiot by the next morning.

When we found each other, we "I fall asleep, and at 2 a.m., I hear little wind chimes," said Jimmy Lee Hinton, one of the two men who took the idols. "Kachinas (Hopi masked gods) appear in my dreams. The taalawtumsi are out there, somewhere." Some Hopis refuse to believe the idols were destroyed. 'Come and rescue us. Come and get us, the idols cry, according to Hopi artist and silversmith Roy Talahaftewa.

"They are out there waiting for us. They are still with us." The manhood ceremony normally conducted every four years resumed in November after 15 years so 63 men, some of them in their 30s, finally earned the right to call themselves Hopis and use their adult names. The idols, 3-foot-long clublike figurines carved from cottonwood, represent the Corn Maiden, a kind of Hopi Mother Earth; her husband and daughter; and Dawn Woman. Corn Maiden's child was recovered. Hinton, 36, and fellow pothunter Randall Doyle Morris, 35, who made money for years by illegally collecting and selling rare Indian pottery and other artifacts, admitted stealing the taalawtumsi Eugene Pyle, 44, a former Pay-son rancher who now lives in Oakland, says he bought the idols for $1,600, then chopped them up and burned them in late 1980 or 1981 because he thought the FBI was closing in.

Assistant U.S Attorney Rosyln Moore-Silver said they didn't have enough evidence to prosecute. PHOENIX (AP) Two men who stole carved wooden idols central to the Hopi Indian rite-of-passage ceremony say they regret the acts and believe they're living under a curse. The centuries-old idols, viewed by the tribe as living deities, were stolen from a cave in 1978. The theft prevented a generation of young males from participating in a ceremony marking their entry into manhood, The Arizona Republic reported recently. The Hopis have reluctantly accepted the explanation and apology of a rancher who says he bought and then burned the idols, called taa-lawtumsi, because he thought he was about to be caught.

But he and the admitted thieves say they're still haunted by their acts 15 years later. Billings Is one of 10 places chosen as an All-America City by the National Civic League In 1992. Billings I txttxi I Ai-MofcaCty I ywj To subscribe to The Billings Gazette, call 657-1293 or 1 -00-762-6397.