Elko Daily Free Press from Elko, Nevada • 7

Monday, January 20, 1992 ELKO DAILY FREE PRESS, Elko, Nevada 7 NASA to begin search News Capsules -u for life in outer space Society, an international group of PASADENA Calif. (AP) NASA participate. Klein said Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers and scientists will start setting up a radio signal analyzer, computers and other equipment next week at Goldstone, in the Mojave Desert about 85 miles northeast of Los Angeles. Their counterparts at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, will do the same later this year at Arecibo. The Pasadena-based Planetary space exploration advocates co-founded by astronomer Carl Sagan, currently conducts the most sensitive search for alien radio signals.

It has found nothing so far. Steven Spielberg, director of the films "E.T., the Extra Terrestrial," and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," donated $100,000 to the project, which has been using antennas and signal analyzers at Harvard University's Oak Ridge Observatory in Massachusetts sinr 1985. Barry blasts judge, seeks resentencing watt turbines that would generate electricity. School bus fatality LAS VEGAS (AP) No charges will be filed in a school bus accident that took the life of a 5-year-old Overton girl, authorities said. The Clark County district attorney's office said the incident appeared to be simply a tragic accident Brandy Bundy was hit by the bus Tuesday after she got off in front of her home.

The other students had crossed the street in front of the bus, but Brandy apparently hesitated and followed them just as the bus was pulling out The driver, Nancy Giles, has been a school bus driver for 12 years. Park funding LAS VEGAS (AP) The state should explore ways to get recreational fees from off-road vehicle and motorcycle events and use the money to maintain Nevada's 23 state park areas, according to a state legislator. State Sen. Tom Hickey, chairman of a subcommittee studying the park system, said he thinks there are ways to make money to help fund the parks. "I dont think we've done a good enough job in recreation," Hickey said.

"We should look at the thousands that could be made." State parks chief Wayne Perock told the subcommittee Friday that the division's $5 million budget, which was cut $385,000 by Gov. Bob Miller, could recoup some of the money by increasing user fees for th parks. Perock said Nevada's per-car park fees, which account for 15 percent of the state parks operating budget, are $2 to $3 a car below that charged in neighboring states. Last year, the division's 23 management areas of 13 state parks, five recreation areas and five historic sites, drew a record 2.69 million visitors. Charging senior citizens discount rates instead of letting them visit parks for free was also suggested as a way of increasing revenues at the meeting.

is celebrating the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the New World in a special way with a $100 million project to look for aliens from outer space. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration will begin setting up equipment in the Mojave Desert next week to carry out the search, which will begin on Oct 12, Columbus Day. The holiday was picked because "it celebrates the spirit of exploration," said Michael Klein, manager of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's part of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, "What we are trying to understand is are we alone in the universe and what is our part in this Incredible universe?" Klein said Thursday. "I strongly believe someday we will make contact with other civilizations." More than 50 searches for space aliens have been conducted since 1960, scanning the heavens for radio signals generated by an intelligent civilization within our Milky Way galaxy and others. NASA's $100 million effort will be the most extensive.

It will scan the entire sky for a wide range of radio frequencies and conduct a highly sensitive search for radio signals from any planets that may exist around roughly 1,000 sun-like stars within 100 light years 588 trillion miles of Earth. "Circumstantial evidence suggests countless Earth-like planets exist in our galaxy," Klein said. "We hope someday we'll detect the existence of other intelligent civilizations from those planets." Scientists eventually will use sophisticated radio-signal analyzers and giant dish-shaped antennas already located at NASA's Deep Space Network tracking stations at Canberra, Australia, and Goldstone, Calif. The Cornell University-National Science Foundation Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Greenbank, W. also will Indonesia famine JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) Famine has claimed the lives or 119 people in a remote village in Indonesia's easternmost province, according to news reports.

The daily Jakarta Post said the famine began in the village of Sulimo in April at the start of the rainy session, and the remoteness of the mountainous area in Irian Jaya province prevented administrators from monitoring the situation. Sulimo is in the regency of Jaya wi-jaya, a jungle area accessible only by small aircraft The village is 2,220 miles east of Jakarta. J.B. Wenas, the regent of Jayawi-jaya, was quoted as saying that the famine has been halted by air drops of food supplies. Katarina Witt LOS ANGELES (AP) A man has been indicted on charges he sent obscene and threatening letters to champion figure skater Katarina Witt Harry Veltman was charged Friday and his arraignment was set for Tuesday.

He faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted. Veltman has been jailed without bail since his arrest Dec. 26. Miss Witt performed the following day at an ice show at the Forum in Inglewood. A judge earlier this month found Veltman, 47, who has a history of mental problems, competent to stand trial and act as his own attorney.

Veltman sent five letters to Miss Witt between November 1990 and July 1991. He has said the letters were intended only to convince the two-time Olympic gold medalist to marry him. All five were obscene and some contained graphic sexual descriptions, prosecutors say. In others, Veltman threatened to kill himself and said: "You would rather die than live without me!" Airlines WASHINGTON (AP) If travelers are finding it harder to get where they want to go and when by air, it's because airlines are flying fewer miles and scheduling fewer departures, according to federal officials. U.S.

air carriers flew an estimated 4.52 billion scheduled miles last year, a decrease of about 204 million miles from 1990, the Federal Aviation Administration said Friday. Scheduled departures fell about 243,000 from 1990 to 7.5 million last year. Commuter airlines flew an estimated 370 million miles and had about 2.7 million departures in 1991, the FAA said. That was a decrease from 444 million miles flown and 3.1 million departures in 1990. Eight commuter airline accidents accounted for 77 deaths in 1990, the highest ever for the industry in a single year, the National Transportation Safety Board said.

Four fatal accidents involving large commercial scheduled aircraft killed 50 people last year. There were 84 accidents and 69 deaths involving U.S. air taxis last year, the safety board said. That compares to 107 accidents and 50 fatali ties the year before. In general aviation, the safety board reported 2,143 accidents and 746 deaths in 1991.

It said that is the lowest number of accidents since it began compiling general aviation records in the 1900s. In 1990 there were 2,187 general aviation accidents and a record low 745 fatalities. Pilot sentenced WASHINGTON (AP) A communications lawyer with a mysterious gunshot wound piloting a plane that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 1989 now faces nearly 18 years in prison. Thomas Root was sentenced in U.S. District Court here Friday to an additional 33 months in prison on his guilty pleas to charges of falsifying FM radio station applications before the Federal Communications Commission.

Root already faced a 15-year sentence after pleading no contest to an earlier 342-count indictment Meanwhile, he is cooperating with authorities in their investigation of a company accused of illegally taking millions of dollars from persons seeking FCC licenses for FM radio stations. Root gained national attention in July 1989 when military planes were sent up to follow his Cessna 210 as it flew from Washington down the East Coast before plunging into the Atlantic Ocean near the Bahamas. Military pilots said he was slumped over as the plane flew southward, and he was found to have suffered a gunshot wound when he was pulled from the ocean. The National Transportation Safety Board report on the flight cast strong doubts on Root's suggestion that the gun he kept in the plane had accidentally fired. Red Rock dam LAS VEGAS (AP) A Utah company seeking to build a hydroelectric power plant near Red Rock Canyon has moved its proposed site atop Blue Diamond Hill one mile to the south, a company consultant said.

Terry J. Hickman, a consultant for Blue Diamond North Pumped Storage Power, said the move was prompted by concerns by local officials who objected to the plant's location near the national conservation area. Hickman said the economics aren't quite as good on the new site, but said if it means approval of the plant, then it's worth the move. Hickman said a meeting has been scheduled for Monday at the Nevada State Museum Historical Society at Lorenzi Park to discuss the new site with the Friends of Nevada Wilderness. The new location is on Bureau of Land Management property near a gypsum mine.

The proposed $100 million plant would use 1,300 acre-feet water that would be pumped to the top of Blue Diamond Hill during non-peak hours when electricity is less expensive. During peak demand hours, the water would be unleashed into a large pipe, allowing it to flow 1,400 feet downhill, driving two 100-mega- by bias." Kurland also argued that Barry should have been given credit for accepting responsibility for his actions. Judge David B. Sen telle noted that when Barry was convicted in August 1990 on the single count he proclaimed it a vindication. "There ought to be some sort of straight-face test here" on the acceptance of responsibility issue, Sen-telle said.

Prosecutor Elizabeth Trosman said Jackson did not abuse his discretion, adding, "There simply is no appearance of bias or prejudice that would warrant his disqualification." Barry was moved to a low-security facility in Loretto, earlier this month after two inmates contended that a woman performed oral sex on him Dec. 29 in a visiting room at the minimum-security prison at Petersburg, Va. On Thursday, Barry's attorneys filed a $5.5 million suit in Richmond, federal court against six federal prison officials, saying they damaged his good name and his political future by wrongly concluding the oral sex incident took place. Jackson sentenced Barry last September after a previous six-month term was thrown out by an appeals court. The former mayor is due to be released April 23.

WASHINGTON (AP) Former Mayor Marion Barry should be resentenced by a different judge on his cocaine conviction because his trial judge made comments suggesting bias, Barry's lawyer told a federal appeals court Friday. Attorney Adam H. Kurland said U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, in handing down the six-month sentence last September, may have been penalizing Barry out of anger at the jury in the case. In October 1990, Jackson told a Harvard University audience that he had never seen a stronger government case, that some jurors did not tell the truth during jury selection and that some were determined to acquit regardless of the facts.

Barry was convicted of one misdemeanor possession count among 14 charges. Kurland said Jackson's comments left the impression that "the judge, who has indicated a fixed opinion might give a harsher sentence than might have been given" otherwise. Some members of the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit appeared skeptical. The judge could have imposed a stiffer sentence under federal sentencing guidelines, Judge James L.

Buckley noted. He added, "That is not a description of somebody seized I i I i 'SRfc fi ra srs? ni-n1 kx. Vb 1 3 I 'vf JiUt Woman suing county after social workers took her daughter The mother was charged Jan. 13, IUI if Z''" nf! ijgaH)Wr. SYRACUSE, N.Y.

(AP) A woman was charged with child abuse and neglect after a help line volunteer turned her in for asking a normal question about breast feeding. De-nise Perrigo lost her daughter, Cheri-lyn, for nearly a year while social workers and judges decided the family's fate. Now, she has the nearly 4-year-old child back and plans to sue Onondaga County. Robert Stone, the Onondaga County social services commissioner, said he was prevented by law from discussing Perrigo's case. Perrigo's trouble began in January 1991, when she called a local referral service, the Volunteer Center, to get the telephone number for La Leche League, an international breastfeeding advocacy group.

Perrigo, 28, said she wanted to know if it was normal to have feelings of sexual arousal during breast feeding. The volunteer who answered the call turned Perrigo over to a rape crisis center, which called a child abuse hotline. 1991, with endangering the child and sexually abusing the girl by breast feeding her at the age of nearly 3. Perrigo spent the night in jail, but was released the next day when the charges were dismissed. La Leche League officials were outraged.

Betty Wagner, a co-founder of the Franklin Park, league, said sexual arousal while nursing is normal. Some children are breast fed until age 4 or 5. The World Health Organization and the U.S. surgeon general recommend children be nursed through their second year. "It was a comedy of errors, except it wasnt funny because once they realized a mistake was made, they still wouldn't turn back," said Perrigo, who lives in Lafayette, a small town eight miles south of Syracuse.

Cherilyn was returned to her mother Jan. 6. The girl lived with a foster family for the early part of last year but had been living with Perrigo's parents since late August She's working to help millions of people live longer. training program, she has taught us the benefits of low-fat menus." Says Clark County Health District Nutritionist Jeanne Palmer, "You have to think about the impact all these low-fat meals has on our 800,000 residents and 18 million yearly visitors. This program is saving Carolyn Leontos, nutrition specialist for the University of Nevada, Renos Cooperative Extension in Las Vegas, is on a mission: to persuade local chefs that low-fat, "heart-healthy" restaurant meals can be delicious.

She picked the right city. Las Vegas serves more meals per capita than any place else in America. One hotelcasino property alone serves 15,000 meals a day. Leontos' program, Las Vegas LEAN (Low Fat Eating for America Now), is one of 10 projects funded by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, and the only restaurant-based project.

It is a national model. "Diets high in fat have been linked to increased risks of heart disease and cancer," she says. "In our chef education programs, we set a trend by offering meals that are low in fat and taste great." Gustav E. Mauler, director of food services at the Mirage, says Leontos' programs are making a difference. "Carolyn inspired us to cook healthier meals," he says.

Through her on-site Let us help you keep your furnace in good working order this winter. Call us at 738-6184 YOUR AUTHORIZED COLEMAN FURNACE DEALER A 1 HEATING SI Support the Uniivnity of Nevada, Reno. Contribute to the tlOS million Century Campaign. Call I-80O-622-48S7 for information. EI AUTHORIZED PARTS CENTER 545 Court Dean Becker, Owner, 738-6184.