The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 1

Blue Jays overtake Red Sox, 8-7 Page 37 I I Willie Mays, a baseball living legend Page 37 VOLUME 246 NU 34 A.C. DEUCEY 72 pages 3 5 cents Wednesday: Parity Thursday: Mostly sunny; 92 High tide: 9 a ml, 9:12 p.m. Full report Pac 68 50 cent at nreun1 beyond mile ha Hoelaa WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 1994 Mw tiumeiwoe coild add $50m. ears to 2y Failure to test Fort Point Channel bottom sends a crucial link back to Square 1 EAST BOSTON Underground road upon completion of project Harbor the problem could push the cost of the nation's largest public works un-deitaking to more than $8 billion, and could stall opening of a dh-ecj route to the hew airpqit tunne for Mass. Pike, traffic until the-year 2002.

r''4. a Wlnie. is too, early t9 assign and state officials say they are pressing the private team of BechtelParsons Brinkerhoff, is responsible for about SO percent, of preliminary de-' sign as well as overall management of the project, to explain why thorough testing of the soils was not completed. y-J The testing of soils which is 1 done by boring holes in the eaith to get a reading of the stability of the subsurface materials is a crucial as-, pect of preliminary design because if the grounds deemed unstable it can drastically $ffeet engineering, excavation, and Construction. Bechtel's original estimate to ARTERY, Page 10 '''Ptkd-Fort Point fxi' Channel crossing South Boston Haul Road SOUTH BOSTON GLOBE STAFF MAP Jim bemate FORECAST Weld.

gives welfare wim federal and state officials' as well as private contractor say they now-must do the testing an(t possibly redesign the Fort Point crossr ing. -v yv -j With more infonnation, project nianageiH ho)e they'll find solutions that will control xtentially taggerT ing cost -increases more, than 10 times the original estimate and decays at a cracial intei-section of the overall highway project. But for now, federal officials fear A UNIVERSAL 1 Liberals join conservatives to uphold veto By Peter J. Howe CI-OliK STAFF The Massachusetts welfare reform debate took an astonishing turn yesterday when two liberals joined forces with Republicans and conservative Democrats in the Senate to provide just enough votes to sustain Gov. Weld's veto of the Legislature's reform plan.

The vote, which Weld had all but predicted he would lose, derailed efforts to change the state's welfare system and threw the fate of future welfare refoirn into uncertainty. It also roiled the Senate with charges that senators had lied and switched votes for a host of political purposes. Two leading Senate liberals, Sens. Dianne Wilkerson (D-South End) and Lois G. Pines (D-Newton), By Charles M.Sennott STAFF i The Central AiteryThird Harbor Tunnel project could be facing up to $500 million in increased costs and a two-year delay in completing the Fort Point Channel connection between the tunnel and the' Massachusetts Turnpike, federal officials say.

Because of insufficient testing of the stability of soils beneath the channel 'during preliminaiy design. Mitchell airs health plan that covers 95 Compromise gets Clinton's praise By Peter G.Gosselin GI.01SF. STAFF WASHINGTON Senate Democratic leader George Mitchell of Maine offered a compromise health care plan yesterday that aims to insure 95 percent of Americans by the end of this decade without requiring employer contributions. The measure falls short of President Clinton's original goal of insurance coverage for all. Nonetheless, Clinton and his congressional allies quickly rallied around the proposal as the best that they are likely to get out of the generally conservative Senate this year.

In a statement issued minutes after Mitchell unveiled his bill, Clinton said the proposal "achieves what the American people want health coverage that can never be taken away." With the release of Mitchell's bill and of a separate and substantially different measure by House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri last Friday, Democrats now have the proposals that they hope will bracket the remainder of the health-care debate and ensure that whatever finally becomes law HEALTH CARE, Page 6 Altman offers apology, says he's innocent ByBobHohler GLOBE STAFF WASHINGTON Deputy 'Treasury Secretary Roger C. Altman, his' job perhaps in jeopardy over fallout from the Whitewater affair, apologized yesterday to angry members iof the Senate Banking Committee for having given them incomplete testimony about the case, and acknowledged making several questionable decisions in connection with it. "I realize that, in retrospect, my testimony of Feb. 24 may appear too narrow or perhaps incomplete," he told the committee. "I regret that perception and apologize for it." But Altman, under intense bipartisan criticism, firmly denied wrongdoing and said he "vehemently" rejected Republican assertions that he had passed "inside information" on the Whitewater investigation to White House officials.

"My conduct was proper," said Altman, who has emerged as a pivotal figure in congressional inquiries into the Clinton adminstration's handling of the Whitewater matters. In a confrontational session, Republican lawmakers suggested that Altman, an appointee andongtime friend of President Clinton, withheld testimony from the Senate panel arid WHITEWATER, Page 8 Battlegrounds Tables turned: Weld and allies snooker Senate President Bulger and his aides. Analysis, Page 58. Probe launched: Records indicate 548 people get welfare benefits from both Massachusetts and New York. Page 17.

joined with Republicans and conservative Democrats in the 26-14 vote. The vote was one shy of the 27 needed to ovenide Weld's veto and make the legislative plan law. Senate President William M. Bulger and his leadership team were stunned by the vote, as they stared disbelievingly at the Senate clerk's tally. The official vote was not announced until several minutes later.

Ironically, while the other sena-WELFARE, Page 58 Channel 4 and Channel 4's NBC programs will start showing up on 7. The scenario announced yesterday was the latest in a series of television-station defections and reaffiliations engineered by the nation's four big networks in recent weeks. But Boston's station swap will affect viewers here more straightforwardly than recent reaffiliation deals elsewhere. Seinfeld and Jay Leno will trade channels with David Let-terman and Dan and Connie. There is also the possibility that New England Patriots football games will begin the season on NBC, Page 8 Boston's TV shuffle will put NBC on Ch.

7 dm Beneath a photo of Jupiter, theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking outlines his view of life on Earth over the next few centimes to hundreds of computer aficionados in Boston for the annual Macworld Expo. Page 17. An Apple analyst, mean wh He, gave exhibitors a learning on the company 's prospects. Page gold in nuclear waste By Frederic M. Biddle CI.OIIK STAFF WHDH-TV (Ch.

7) yesterday said it will become an NBC-affiliated station, ending the greatest cliffhanger in local broadcast history. In the 2.1 million television households from Cape Cod to the Rhode Island border to central New Hampshire that watch WHDH and current NBC affiliate WBZ (Ch. 4), a swap of decades-old station identities will result. Sometime between the end of this month and January 1995, Channel 7's current CBS programs will start appearing on Inside food: The accidental grocers War's fallout: Serbia threatens to cut Jts ties to Bosnian Serbs if they do not approve the peace plan. Page 2.

A nicotine finding: A panel of US scientific advisers declares the chemical an addictive drug. Page 3. Not buying It: Some members of the younger generations of consumers find Madison Avenue talking down to them. LivingArts, Page 61. GLOBE PHOTO MICHAEL ROBlNSON-CHAVEZ is working on the project they call the MescaleroUtility Fuel Storage Initiative.

The Mescalero are already more prosperous than most tribes, but because tourism is unpredictable, she said, "We need something that is goingjo takecare of our children in the years to come." Under the Mescalero plan, which could take effect in 2002, the tribe would set aside 32 acres of the 720-square-mile reservation for above-ground storage of radioactive fuel packed in concrete and steel casks, although design is incomplete. The Mescaleros are offering the land for 40 years, allowing the federal government time to find a permanent waste site. APACHES, Page 10 FEATURES CLASSIFIED AskTheGlohe 70 Classified 20-24' Business 25 44-52 Comics 70-71 Autos 44 Deaths 12-13 Help Wanted 22 Editorials 14 Professional 32 Horoscope 70 Real Estate 21 LivingArts 61 Apartments 21 1 Lottery 18 Comm'VInd'l 21 MetroRegion 17 Market Basket 20 Sports 37 YachtsBoats 43 TVRadio 68-69 Learning 58 Globe Newspaper Co. Tribe sees By Scott Allen Cil.OIlK STAFF If LYM0UTH In the old Jp Westerns, it was always tVip PHVJih-v tVuit Minn tn the rescue. This time, it just may be the Indians.

The Mescalero Apaches, direct descendants of the legendary chief Geronimo, are making a bid to store at their resen ation high-level radio. active waste from the PilgiinipHCie-ar power plant and 32 otWreac-tors. After decadesjfalled waste schemes, thenrorlosal for a 40-year storage sitem the New Mexico de- Lserfcould at least temporarily solve the most vexing problem facing the nuclear incRstry. Apaches push N.M. reservation as storage site And representatives of the Mes-ealeros, in Massachusetts to promote the no one should thinJrthey'd be getting a raw deal.

Tne waste site, which could bring in $15 million to $25 million a year to the tribe, would be a profitable complement to the casino, ski resort and bingo hall the Mesca-leros have already built, they said. "We are a business-minded tribe. We feel this type of venture could be profitable for us," said Jennifer Sundaymjrm-Byers, a Mescalero who 3 23 3 3 94772.