The Tribune from Scranton, Pennsylvania • 1

GIVEN THE BOOT AH Comets lose District II playoffs on penalty kick 1 'KIDNAPPED' A CALL TO ARMS JA Scientists debate- fEg) why T-Rex had teeny-tiny arms yJjt Assante stars in TV remake 'Pi CI Bl PTH in FRIDAY NOVEMBER 3, 1995 40 REGIONAL SCRANTON, PA 4 inos 1 hnjaac IT Dim it 1 Jk rr MS5! IP One child who was on a hijacked school bus is rushed to the hospital by police and EMT personnel. dtebti a ASSOCIATED PRESS Sang suddenly appeared, shoved the children, the mother and the driver onto the bus and got on behind them, witnesses said. Speaking in Spanish, he told Chapman to drive. An unidentified person who witnessed the hijacking called police.m. Hostage negotiators talked with Sang, trying to figure out what he wanted.

First he said he wanted to go to the Internal Revenue Service office, but negotiators refused. Sang then said he wanted to go to Joe's Stone Crab restaurant. The bus stopped in front of the restaurant, near an alley. A Metro-Dade special response team rushed the bus and shot Sang dead while he was still inside the bus, near the doorway, Fernandez said. Police spokesmen said Thursday they did not know what Sang did to cause officers to fire.

tup By Ardy Friadberg FORT LAUDERDALE SUN-SENTINEL WRITER MIAMI Catalino "Nick" Sang went to church and prayed early Thursday morning, then hysterically told his minister he was distraught, worried about -his job and seriously in debt. Two hours later, Sang lay dead in a Miami Beach alley where he was dragged after being shot in a barrage of police gunfire. In those fateful hours, Sang, 42, hijacked a Dade County, Fla. school bus carrying 13 frightened special education children and led police on a 15-mile chase to Joe's Stone Crab restaurant on Miami Beach. Sang had worked at the popular restaurant for seven years before quitting on Wednesday night.

None of the children was seriously hurt. The bus driver, acclaimed as a heroine, and an aide also escaped injury. The children were returned to Blue Lakes Elementary School for emotional reunions with their parents. Sang, who was born in the Dominican Republic and legally entered the United States in 1983 is a Chinese specialty cook, was a likeable man and a good waiter, according to Robert Moorehead, general manager of Joe's restaurant. "He walked off the floor and quit Wednesday," Moorehead said.

"He was not fired. He said he could not take the pressure anymore." Moorehead said he had no idea why Sang led the caravan of more than 50 police cars to Joe's front door. Late Thursday, Metro-Dade police said they knew of no clear Tf A parent leaves Blue Lake Elementary School in Miami, with his two school bus that was hijacked by a man who was later killed by police. Candidates' spending reaches more than $750,000 Two candidates file expense statements ASSOCIATED PRESS daughters. The girls were on a his campaign another $35,000.

The new Minora money was not a suprise because it was widely known he was planning a last-minute media blitz. The new' plus a $16,000 balance listed in his last report, boost his spending to more than $360,000. Pieski's new loan increases his funds to more than $400,000. Please see Judge, Page Aid reason why Sang had commandeered the bus. Sang began the day with prayers at the Alpha Omega Church, a nondenominational church in South Miami, Metro-Dade police director Fred Taylor said.

Taylor said Sang was upset over a large debt he owed to the Internal Revenue Service, other financial difficulties and an unspecified problem on his job. "He was distraught, he was yelling," Taylor said. "1 don't know one (motive) that might have set him off. It might have been all of them." The drama began at 8:15 a.m., as the school bus moved along it3 usual route. Driver Alicia Chapman stopped to pick up several handicapped children on the way to Blue Lakes Elementary.

The driver was helping a physically impaired child onto the bus and a mother was behind them helping her child on when nearly two-thirds said Republicans were more interested in balancing the budget than reforming Medicare. It is unsurprising, then, that Democrats are pushing the issue here in Florida and in other areas wh'ere they hope to roll back some of last year's Republican gains. "A bunch of malarkey," is how Maine retiree Doug Crute described the GOP Medicare plan when freshman Republican Rep. Jim Longley Jr. tried to explain it to constituents recently.

"I voted for you last time, but as far as I am concerned, you're a one-termer." Republicans say such hostility has been rare, and that on a district-by-district basis, backlash against the Medicare plan has been less than anticipated. opponent, than $12,000 in Dr. Charles candidate for $2,680, leaving Joseph coroner, lent His principal committee the previously reported he has spent more his largely self-financed campaign. P. Stefonetti, the Republican coroner, who reports expenditures of him a balance of $2,220 to spend.

Brennan, the incumbent Democratic his campaign $5,000 in September. expense has been paying the county $5,000 it has been assessing Two candidates for county offices who missed Friday's deadline for reports also filed their expense statements during the week. They are: Vincent Wiercinski, the Democratic candidate for controller, who lists spending of $5,554, including gave to the county Democratic Committee to participate in its $35,000 campaign on behalf of the county ticket. His major contribution was $5,000, which he gave himself. Norbert P.

Kosciuk, Wiercinski's Republican With elderly wary of GOP, Democrats look for gains By fUy Flanagan TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER Financial reports filed Thursday by the two candidates for Lackawanna County judge show the total campaign money spent during the year has increased to more than $750,000. The biggest influx of cash was to the campaign of Republican Attorney Carmen Minora, who listed $86,500 in donations since Woman's hoping to By Frank Scholi TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER Ann LaManna keeps hoping for the break that will lead her to her daughter. LaManna, who moved with her husband, Frank, from Scranton to Philadelphia in 1983, hopes the NBC-TV show "Unsolved Mysteries" might do just that She had other leads as to the whereabouts of her daughter Renee, 37. who disappeared from Ocean City, N.J., In January 1994. The LaM annas pursued the leads with everything at their disposal only to run Into dead ends.

While residing in Scranton, the LaManna family operated LaManna's restaurant In West WMMM filing a report for the period through Oct. 23. That puts his spending more in line with that of his Democratic opponent. Attorney John E.V. Pieski, who reported he lent family find her rx RENEE UMANNA Missing since 1994 Side.

Ann LaManna was a music teacher at South Scranton Junior High School and Central High School before moving on to the Perm State Worthington Campus, where she taught humanities for 13 years. Frank LaManna worked with the Lackawanna County Bureau of Parks and Recreation. The LaMannas moved to Philadelphia in 1963 and later Pleat see Ml mIib, Page A10 3 uuisiue Milder, showers possible Details on D10 fc Inside AJTtOtOCy.CI HOMETOWN BRIDGE CJ LOTTERY A2 BUSINESS B7 MOVIES CI CLASSIFIED- D1 COMICS CS OPINION A4 DEAR ABBY C2 TV LISTINGS CI By John King ASSOCIATED PBESS WRITER MELBOURNE. Fla. Retiree Jackie Cave is a loyal Republican who cringes at the GOP plan to squeeze $270 billion in savings from the Medicare program.

"It is frightening, confusing, she says. Don Woomer, another Republican retiree, disagrees but admits he's got his work cut out trying to make that case to friends. "What President Clinton and the Democrats are doing is all dema-goguery but it is working," Woomer says. His personal polling is backed up by national data suggesting older Americans are particularly wary, if not outright opposed, to the Republican Medicare plans. In an Associated Press poll released Thursday, for example, 36 percent of all respondents volunteered Medicare when aked if there were any programs they worried about being cut.

Fifty-six percent of those over age 55 said they were worried about Medicare. This sentiment is a major reason Clinton has gained political ground in the budget fight with Congress. In the AP poll, 41 percent of those surveyed generally put more trust In Clinton to make hard budget choices, and 36 percent put more trust in congressional Republicans. Interviews with two dozen Florida retirees this week underscore the delicate nature of Medicare politics: While most conceded the health program was in financial distress and many deemed It inefficient. oapaMl.

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