Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 1

mmmmrmm iiui.m,n,iwi CASPER AREA Local Democrats expect politicized session A3 CASPER INSIDE G-year-old gv readies for dogslcd races C1 WYOMING Veneman: Bush to seek $G0 million for mad cow efforts B1 jpa ot Rf nC A taor TKitM Tl WYOMING'S STATEWIDE NEWSPAPER Maxf ield, Lummis say they want 'good By BILL LUCKETT Star-Tribune capital bureau CHEYENNE Efforts by three Republican state elected officials to increase their powers at the expense of Wyoming's Democratic governor are not motivated by partisan politics, two of them said Thursday. State Auditor Max Maxfield and State Treasurer Cynthia Lummis, held a press conference in the State Capitol Building to respond to It, Friday January 30, 2004 www.casperstartrlbune.net DAILY UPDATE A Sl'MMAKV OF TODAY'S NKW8 FROM STAKK AND WIRK KKI'OKTS ARTIST JEAN GOEDICKE DIED Thursday in Casper after a life of painting, traveling and enriching her community. She was 95. Goedicke, who was born in Lysite and received the Governor's Art Award GOEDICKE in 1994 for Outstanding Community Service, never married. "She was a liberated woman long before it was ever popular or it was even a term," said her niece-in-law, Judy Goedicke.

See A3 for the full story TWO MEN CHARGED IN UNRELATED homicide cases on the Wind River Indian Reservation made their initial appearances Wednesday in federal court, where they were informed of the charges and then bound over to U.S. District Court, according to court documents. Cyril Edward "Bucky" Martinez, 32, is charged with first degree murder in the stabbing death of Bryan Gene St. Clair on Jan. 23.

He is also charged with assault with a dangerous weapon for the alleged attack of his brother Pendleton Charles Martinez on the same day, according to the criminal complaint. Whitman Marco Niedo, 24, is charged with second degree murder in the stabbing death of Willis Al Shavehead on Jan. 24. See Bl for the full story AN EXPLOSION AT A WEAPONS CACHE killed seven U.S. soldiers and wounded three more Thursday, in one of the deadliest incidents since U.S.

forces deployed in Afghanistan. The U.S. Central Command also said an American soldier was missing. An Afghan interpreter also was wounded by the 3 p.m. explosion near the city of Ghazni, 60 miles southwest of the capital, Kabul.

The soldiers were working around a weapons cache when the blast happened. See A10 for the full story MEMBERS OF THE STAR VALLEY wrestling team have been subjected to a variety of arm-bars, ankle grabs, half-Nelsons and headlocks. The bizarre skin rash that has a hold on nearly 60 prep wrestlers in Utah, however, hasn't managed even a pinching grip on the Braves. Coach Eddie Clark, armed with a Barbasol-sized bottle of "99," made sure of that. "You rub it on it's a lather, like shaving cream," Clark said of the rash-nullifying ointment.

"We have kids checking each other daily, kids checking themselves, school nurses checking kids, coaches checking kids I've looked at more stupid little pimples in the last couple weeks than in my whole life." See Dl for the full story "partisan criticism" of their efforts to increase their powers. Maxfield, Lummis and Superintendent of Public Instruction Trent Blankenship have asked lawmakers to increase their authority on state boards and commissions, give them each in-house attorneys, and allow them to submit budget requests directly to the Legislature. The Legislature's Management Council recently voted 5-4 along party lines to sponsor legislation to increase the powers of the audi- In memoriam vision station KSTU reported that investigators reopened the case after new reports surfaced involving witnesses who allegedly implicated Woodward. The Bell County Sheriffs office refused to release information about the case, Lt. Dave Wical told the Associated Press on Thursday through a secretary.

But it appears their investigation triggered the events that led to the Amber Alert that was issued Tuesday night in Utah. Against the advice of Texas authorities who informed him of their investigation, Steven Miller, 41, of Killeen, Texas, drove to Utah for the daughter he had with Woodward, Jackson said. "He had dialogue with the main investigator down there. That investigator told him not to take the child and then to work through wjndV 111:48, Low: 18 Founded In 1891 not more power office of the attorney general, who is appointed solely by the governor, and the governor also hires the directors of the three commissions. Some Democrats, including state Sens.

Jayne Mockler, D-Cheyenne, and Keith Goodenough, D-Casper, have suggested the moves are politically motivated. Lummis said that is not the case. "Before that issue becomes frequently repeated, I just wanted to Plrase see GOVERNOR, A4 Sublette County tax case Exxon: Integrity of system at stake By JOAN BARRON Star-Tribune capital bureau CHEYENNE The integrity of the state's tax system is at stake in Sublette County's latest appeal of the Department of Revenue's tax valuation for ExxonMobil's natural gas LaBarge operation, company attorney Pat Day said Thursday. During closing arguments before the state Board of Equalization after nearly three weeks of hearings, Day said that the integrity of the state's contracts also is jeopardized if the state reneges on the tax settlement agreement between the state, Sublette County and Exxon, signed in 1989. Sublette County claims the Department of Revenue has been improperly applying the valuation methodology by ignoring the point of valuation and granting improper exemptions on ExxonMobil's oil and gas valuation from 1993 through 1999.

The Revenue Department has based its methodology on the settlement agreement in spite of new laws adopted by the Legislature in 1990, said John McKinley, attorney for Sublette County. "Exxon wants you to ignore the 1990 statutes and follow the 1988 (tax settlement agreement)," McKinley said Thursday. Day argued that Sublette County offered no proof that the settlement agreement failed to generate Please see EXXOiN.Al 6 Medicare costs to rise by one-third Deficit projected to hit all-time high By ALAN FRAM Associated Press writer WASHINGTON President Bush's new budget projects the Medicare overhaul he just signed will be one-third more costly than estimated and this year's federal deficit will surge past a half trillion dollars for the first time, administration and congressional officials said Thursday. The White House will estimate the cost of creating prescription drug benefits and revamping the mammoth health-care program for the elderly and disabled at $534 billion for the decade that ends in 2013, the officials said. The Please see BUDGET, A 1 6 inn wernor ODED BAIJLTYAP An Israeli woman reads from a prayer book in Jerusalem late Thursday next to a makeshift memorial site at the scene of a suicide bombing attack earlier in the day that killed 10 bus passengers.

SEE A5 FOR THE FULL STORY. ii management' changes, tor, treasurer, superintendent and secretary of state. Democrats opposed the measures. The bills would allow the four officials to hire their own attorneys for contract work, by-pass the governor with their budgets, and have appointment power over the directors of the Office of State Lands and Investments, the State Building Commission and the On- line Government Commission. Under current law, the officials get legal representation from the i us.

Rather than do that, he basically came and yanked the kid. Things could have and should have gone much smoother," Jackson said. Woodward called police in Harrisville, about 35 miles north of Salt Lake, Tuesday night to report that her ex-husband from Killeen, Texas, had taken their 5-year-old daughter, Stephanie Juliette Miller. Woodward said Steven Miller did not have custodial rights to the child. Police then issued an Amber Alert, which eventually led to Miller being arrested later that night in Rawlins, and the girl being placed in foster care in Wyoming.

Though the case involved a custodial dispute, an Amber Alert was Please see AMBER ALERT, A16 LARRY BWNUfAP calls on his regular home phone by to relay emergency calls to the 911 center Amber Alert case takes new, twist 911 calls to private home Mother comes under scrutiny By CHRISTIE L.HILL Associated Press writer SALT LAKE CITY A woman who triggered an Amber Alert after making frantic claims to police about the alleged abduction of her daughter is now being investigated in the death 13 years ago of another child, police said Thursday. Authorities in Bell County, Texas, are investigating Jane Woodward of Harrisville, Utah, in the death of one of her other children in 1991, Harrisville Police Chief Max Jackson said. The child's death was originally blamed on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, but Salt Lake City tele Error sends CHEYENNE (AP) A programming error by a telephone company caused some 911 emergency calls to be routed to the private home of a former police dispatcher. Robert Fida estimates he had more than a dozen calls at his home over a 40-minute period on Tuesday before they stopped. Fida said the first 911 call he received was from a woman reporting a disturbance.

"The phone rang, and I answered it like I normally would, 'Hello, Robert And the lady at the other end started telling me her emergency," he said. Fida, a sculptor, told the woman that he was sorry, but she had the wrong number. But after a few more calls came from those who said they were at different extensions in the same building, he knew that he had to do something. A former dispatcher with the Please see CALLS, Al 6 Subscribe to the Casper Star-Tribune INDEX Advisers B4 Movies B4 Casper Area A3 Obituaries 'B3 Casper Inside CI Opinion A12 Classified C4 Puzzles 05 Comics D6.C6 Sports D1 Encore! E1 Weather B6 Letters A13 World A5 Markets B5 Wyoming B1 THE GROUCH 7 wonder how marry doughnut shops he had to call to find the cops. 1 G1 7.

DDL mr 11 -Trifc When Robert Fida started receiving 911 mistake Tuesday he used his cell phone until the problem was fixed. today: 1-800442-6916. (307) or http:wwTV.casperstartribune.net .7 I.