The Sacramento Bee from Sacramento, California • 1

FRIDAY TICKET Joe Baltake Buried treasure Viewers of all ages will dig the weird but wonderful SPORTS Cl UlATLE BIO Skies clearing 714? Sore point Kings struggle with free throws which could make or break a dream season 2003 The Sacramento Bee Volume 291 No 108 -d met chase I ln fJ FOUNDED 1857 "I Time wMmto Final edition 50 cents FRIDAY April 182003 Acting on a tip US forces seize a half brother in Baghdad irD 0 ET Capitol staffers get pay raises The Assembly hikes came as the budget crisis loomed large overnight patrol in one of the roughest neighborhoods and exchanged fire at one point with suspected looters Soldiers thwarted a Baghdad bank robbery over the protests of some Iraqis eager to share in the loot and Marines sought to calm tensions in Mosul after shooting 1 7 Iraqis to death in clashes the previous two days war is not Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned at the Pen- WAR page A19 In northern Iraq there were grim hints about life and death under Saddam Kurds brought American officials to what they said was a large area of unmarked graves around Kirkuk a region where thousands of Kurdish men disappeared in the 1980s With the worst of the fighting apparently all but over Americans struggled through another day of trying to restore security and vital services for Iraqi civilians in Baghdad Marines went on an BEE NEWS SERVICES BAGHDAD Iraq With still no sign of Saddam Hussein American forces acting on an Iraqi tip seized another of his half brothers in a commando raid Thursday The capture of Barzan Ibrahim Hasan underscores US and British efforts in pursuing the scattered members of a fractured regime" said Brig Gen Vincent Brooks at US Central Command in Doha Qatar Barzan Ibrahim Hasan a half brother of Saddam Hussein may have Information about weapons and finances officials say War with IRAQ By Jim Sanders BEE CAPITOL BUREAU Eighty of the California highest-paid staffers received salary increases while legislators grappled during the past year with the worst budget crisis in state history Pay increases were given to more than a third of the 220 administrators consultants and other top staffers who earn at least $70000 and have been on the Assembly payroll for at least one year according to an analysis by The Bee of staff rosters Eighteen of the salary increases went to top aides of the Democratic Caucus led by Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson who has ultimate authority over all Assembly spending Despite the pay increases members have vowed to reduce their overall spending by about $6 million this year through cutbacks in food travel postage furniture and other expenditures Salary increases for Assembly staffers have tended to be about 5 percent the past year though nearly two dozen exceeded that The highest 476 percent went to Glenn Tapio legislative director to Assemblyman John Dutra D-Fremont whose salary skyrocketed from $52416 to $77412 Dutra also gave a 25 percent pay hike to his chief of staff Penny Stanley jumping her pay from $101256 to $126252 To pay staffers top dollar Dutra said he cuts corners by not driving a state car and not using a state cell phone or credit card have no regrets and no apologies to Dutra said think false economy to underpay (staffers) These are dedicated people who do a tremendous job for the people of Dutra and other members receive $264000 annually to run their offices as they see fit The Senate by comparison has approved less than a half-dozen pay raises during the past year Shortly before that however April 1 2002 all Senate employees received a 5 percent across-the-board pay hike Assembly staffers have not received a blanket cost-of-living increase for nearly three years and PAY page A25 Looting hampers postwar efforts Damage from the fighting seemingly pales in comparison By Bob Drogin and Warren Vieth LOS ANGELES TIMES WASHINGTON The spree of looting and destruction across Iraq is hampering Bush administration efforts to revive the economy to search for chemical and biological weapons and to hunt for Saddam Hussein and his top lieutenants US officials said Thursday They said nei-ther the Pentagon nor the US intelli- For more gence community information: had anticipated For breaking or planned for the news on the scale and ferocity war of the postwar For world rampage which appears to have caused far more jraq damage in some areas than the war itself Officials have only begun to gauge the effects But as an example the looting of many oil production facilities field offices and warehouses is expected to delay efforts to restore the flow of crude oil that provides virtually all of revenue government and industry experts said Similarly the removal or destruction of sensitive documents from national and regional offices of spy services and secret police agencies has complicated efforts to hunt down mem- LOOTING page A18 make news peared: She is 5-foot-10 she is blond she is the seasoned mother of five She was on welfare and had dropped out of Hiram Johnson High School She mingled with a rough crowd and Sacramento police say she worked as a prostitute said her grandmother was still a person and she was MISSING backpage A28 funds and coordinates transportation planning for El Dorado Sutter Yuba Yolo Placer and Sacramento counties West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon said the new voting structure would give a louder voice to suburban cities even though it would mean the board will grow from 19 to 29 members CITIES page A24 Analysis Messy aftermath of war makes it hard for Iraqis and leaders to build civilian trust Page A22 The Bush administration awards San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp the major contract to rebuild Iraq worth up to $680 million over 1 8 months PageDl Feuds in Saddam Hussein's family have meant detention and even death for his brothers sons or cousins and kinship is no guarantee of safety now PageA20 il Of many missing few Next week first pilots will have guns aboard Kurdish family above is among the throngs of people taking a tour Thursday of Kirkuk Castle in Kirkuk Iraq The site which was turned into a military stronghold by Saddam Hussein in 1991is now open to the public after the fall of regime The site a symbol of Kurdish history and achievement includes a variety of structures such as mosques left housing and shops Associated PressKevin Frayer So when the bodies of an adult female and an infant boy washed ashore in Richmond earlier this week family thinking of Laci Peterson just been so said Pam Innen aunt In so many ways Evans bears little resemblance to the petite dark-haired Modesto woman who was eight months pregnant on Dec 24 when she disap the six-county region no longer has to share votes or seats on the regional board Though SACOG has approved the plan three-fourths of all the city councils and boards of supervisors must agree to it If that happens each city and county would have at least one vote on the board that distributes state and federal transposition ByMS Enkoji BEE STAFF WRITER a missing pregnant woman eight months pregnant and hardly anyone knows her name On an uncomfortably warm May night in 2001 26-year-old Angelina Evans took a walk from the Sacramento motel where she was staying and never came back 1 4 INSIDE THE BEE B6 Weight-loss guru Robert Atkins dies Diet iconoclast Dr Robert Atkins died Thursday of head injuries from a fall on an icy sidewalk in New York He was 72 Critics dismissed his high-protein low-carbohydrate advice as faddish but to millions of weight-watchers he was the man who put red meat eggs and cheese back on their dinner plates Complete Index page A2 7 "12499 50505 7 Regional agency may reshuffle power By Philip Shenon NEW YORK TIMES GLYNCO Ga After a graduation ceremony this weekend a group of pilots from several of the largest airlines will return home with a special gift from the federal government: 40-caliber semiautomatic handguns that beginning next week they can carry into the cockpits of their planes The 46 pilots most of them grayhaired veterans of the airline industry who volunteered to travel to southern Georgia this week for the first federal training class for armed pilots say they cannot wait to get back into the sky this time armed to protect their passengers from the threat of terrorist hijackers he cockpit door is opened you really know going to be on the other said one of the pilots in training here in the Fed- PILOTS back page A28 By Cameron Jahn BEE STAFF WRITER After years of debate suburban cities across the region are on the verge of getting what they want a seat at the table The city and county of Sacramento agreed Thursday to give up some of their power on the Sacramento Area Council of Governments so that every other city in Getty ImagesGaty Wilcox Volunteer pilots in the first federal training class practice Thursday After graduation they can be armed in their cockpits.