Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 1

i CASPER 2T, V- t5 Rodeo lii Kaycee will go onBl Iowa town delates privacy issu(7A2 WYOMING'S STATEWIDE NEWSPAPER FOUNDED IN 1891 nrt i El Tiivri "nnri 1 F4. ff First day of school Senate debates Bush's Primary winners top Wyo spenders Election pumps $1.37 million into Wyoming economy By BILL LUCKETT Star-Tribune capital bureau 1 7 'v 1 1 it I I I 1 I I rV li -1 plan SARAH BETH BARNETTSUi-Trlbun Charles Bahr hugs his little girl, Harmoni, goodbye on her first day of kindergarten at Verda James Elementary on Tuesday morning. By CURT ANDERSON Associated Press writer WASHINGTON The Senate kicked off a contentious debate Tuesday on President Bush's blueprint for a Homeland Security Department, with Democrats flatly rejecting White House demands for greater management flexibility over the agency's estimated employees. The White House responded with a statement repeating Bush's vow to veto the Senate measure, largely over the worker dispute. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle called Bush's proposal "a power grab of unprecedented magnitude" that would undermine the nonpolitical government civil service system and threaten labor union rights and protections for Please see SECURITY, A 12 Fire crews save homes in Kemmerer By JEFF GEARINO ey're bac Summer break over for Natrona County students CHEYENNE Winners in Wyoming's gubernatorial primary election raised and spent more money than their respective opponents.

Republican nominee Eli Be-bout raised and spent more than anybody else in the race, according to reports filed with the secretary of state's office. The "Bebout for Governor" committee reported receiving $372,827 from Jan. 1 to Aug. 20 while spending $450,447 in that time. On the Democratic side, nominee Dave Freudenthal's committee, "Folks for Freudenthal," reported $246,798 in receipts and $236,126 in expenditures from Oct.

29, 2001, to Aug. 29, 2002. Freudenthal said he expects Bebout to maintain his fund-raising advantage through the general election campaign. "I'm not intimidated by it, but I don't underestimate its impact," Freudenthal said. Bebout said he is unsure whether he will raise the most in the general election.

"We're going to work hard at all aspects of the campaign. We're going to need sufficient funds to get our message to all the people of Wyoming," he said. Libertarian Dave Dawson will also appear on the general election ballot for governor. Because Libertarians choose their candidates at a convention rather than in a primary, no campaign finance information for Dawson is on file. Republican runner-up Ray Hunkins followed Bebout with $305,585 in receipts and $300,478 in expenses, while third-place' Please see WINNERS, A12 Southwest Wyoming bureau -4 introduced Alina to another girl who had just moved to Casper from Colorado.

"It's kind of exciting to get to go to a new school and meet new people," said Alina, who transferred to Verda James from Paradise Valley. She said she is looking forward to a great year at least until gym class. "1 hate running. I'm good at it, but I hate running," Alina said. Recess is her favorite part of the day, she added.

Alina isn't alone in her sentiment. A classmate, 10-year-old Danny Sienkiewicz, shyly said he also thinks recess is the best part of school. Math is another of his favorites, he said. Zane Knight, 9, boldly named Please see SCHOOL, A12 the district's associate superintendent of business services. The prediction reflects a decrease of about 125 students compared to enrollment figures on the first day one year added.

But some students are enrolled in more than one school, and others may have moved out of the district during the summer, Hopkins said. The district typically uses enrollment figures from the 10th day of school -Sept. 16 before looking lor trends, Hopkins added. Verda James, on Casper's east side, expects about 450 students this year. A teacher for 26 years, Mrs.

Page knows just how to handle first-timers at the school and personally By HOLLY STROTHER Stra-Tribune staff writer Nine-year-old Alina Pederson and her dad worked their way through the crowded halls to Mrs. Page's fourth-grade classroom at Verda James Elementary School on Tuesday morning. This was Alina's first day at a new school, and she gave Mrs. Page a bright smile as her father led her in the sunshine-filled classroom. On one table were name tags, with different American Indian tribes for each student.

Alina took hers and chose a desk near Mrs. Page's. About 11,800 students were expected to start school Tuesday in Natrona County, said Steve Hopkins, KEMMERER Fire crews worked night and day Tuesday to save threatened summer and vacation homes that were evacuated this weekend along Commissary Ridge near South Fork Mountain in southwest Wyoming, fire command officials said. Firelines were completed in the northwest, west and southwest perimeter of the fire burning north of Kemmerer in Lincoln County, officials said. Structure protection efforts throughout Monday night and all day Tuesday -including spraying fire retardant foam on some houses and burnout operations Please see FIRE, A 12 Chinese appeal germ warfare case Blair rallying support for U.S.

attack on Iraq Pressure against military action grows By ED JOHNSON Associated Press writer LONDON Saddam Hussein poses a grave threat to the world and must be 1 r. 6, stopped, Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday, bucking the tide of public sentiment and trying to rally international sup 9 War II. But it rejected their demands for compensation. The plaintiffs, all Chinese citizens, sued the Japanese government in 1997, saying they were injured or lost relatives in wartime germ attacks. They demanded an apology and $84,000 each in compensation.

Plaintiffs said Tuesday they had appealed to a higher court last week, but they didn't know when the case might be heard. "Japan's own interest is in resolving this issue, in owning up to its responsibilities and compensating victims," Wang Xuan, a representative of the plaintiffs, said at a news conference. The plaintiffs claimed at least 2,100 Chinese perished in outbreaks of cholera, dysentery, anthrax and typhoid that were allegedly mass produced by the Imperial Army's notorious Unit 731. The court heard testimony from aging witnesses flown in from China. Historians say the unit, which was based in the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin, may have killed as many as 250,000 people in experiments.

Please see WARFARE, A9 Plaintiffs seeking compensation from Japan By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN Associated Press writer BEIJING People in Xu Wanzhi's village were puzzled when a lone Japanese plane soared overhead early in World War II such aircraft usually flew in threes. In the days that followed, 16 people died, including Xu's parents and three siblings. The plane was dropping grain and cotton carrying fleas infected with bubonic plague, Japan later acknowledged. Xu, then 3 years old, was left to be raised by his blind grandfather. "It was a massive catastrophe for our family.

Everyone suffered so much," said Xu, now 65. In a historic decision last week, a Tokyo court handed 180 plaintiffs, including Xu, a partial victory, acknowledging for the first time Japan's use of biological weapons in World BLAIR defiance of U.N. demands that any return of inspectors be "unconditional." Blair signaled his strong support for Washington's stance on Iraq, and risked mounting criticism from the British public and from within the ranks of his governing Labor Party. The Bush administration has said it wants to overthrow Saddam, but hasn't decided what action to take. "This is not just an issue for the U.S.

It is an issue for Britain and the wider world. America should not have to face this issue alone," Blair told a news conference in northern England. Britain is seen as the United States' strongest ally if there is a war against Iraq. In recent days there has been increasing international pressure on Washington not to act against Saddam without U.N. approval.

A chorus of European leaders, including French President Jacques Chirac and Please see BLAIR, A9 port for U.S.- led action against Iraq. Russia, however, insisted it would veto any measure for military action against Baghdad that is put before the U.N. Security Council. It urged Saddam to readmit U.N. weapons inspectors to avert the threat of war.

Iraq said Tuesday it's ready to discuss the return of inspectors, but only in the context of ending sanctions and restoring Iraqi sovereignty over all its territory, in GREG BAKER AP Tan Jialin, 65, holds a placard describing how his father, H.H. Tang, gathered medical evidence of Japanese biological warfare in Beijing, China, on Tuesday. Today The grouch urn Enjoy! We love our peanut butter, with jelly, banana, honey avocado? For Americans of all ages, it's the creme de la creme of sandwich spreadsCl Markets, A8 Movies, A7 Obituaries. B3 Opinion, A10 Sports, Dl Weather, B4 World, A5 Wyoming, Bl Inside: Advisers, A7 Casper Area, A3 Classified, C3 Comics, A6, 05 Crossword, C5 Enjoy, CI Letters, All Each first day of scliool was an exciting memory for me -all seven of them. 0H 6 08276 42749 Mara with fatt; ootkmlHy wind 9047 Wyoming's statewide newspaper.

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