The Bangor Daily News from Bangor, Maine • 1

Tuesday -ri 1 1 The CountyDown East Van Buren SAD 24 board favors laptops for teachers B2 Lubec Cash-flow woes plague ambulance service B3 I flPflMft. i i Pedro Martinez wins third Cy Young Award C4 EMSElEi Presidential election stalled in courts U.S. lists salmon as endangered 8 Maine rivers affected; environmentalists cheer By Susan Young Of the NEWS Staff The federal government Monday announced that wild Atlantic salmon in eight Maine rivers will be listed as an endangered species, a decision that set off a storm of protest from state and industry officials, but was praised by environmental groups. Gov. Angus King, who was informed of the listing decision by Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt Monday morning, said he was disappointed that the federal government moved ahead without definitive scientific answers about the fishs genetic makeup.

Last October, two federal fisheries agencies proposed listing the fish as endangered, saying it was on the brink of extinction. Since that time officials have held public hearings, collected public comments and reviewed scientific data. The debate has locked federal officials in a battle with the state over whether genetic analyses by scientists support the federal contention that the wild fish here are a distinct population segment. Gov King said he is counting on a study to be done soon by the National Academy of Sciences to prove they are not a distinct population. Because millions of salmon have been stocked in Maines -rivers for more than a century, King said it is ludicrous to consider any of them wild fish.

See Salmon, Page A2 Gov. Bush fails in attempt to stop Florida recount By Ron Fournier The Associated Press The fight for the White House tumbled into the courts Monday as a transfixed nation witnessed the historic entanglement of presidential politics and the judiciary. George W. Bush fought op two fronts to block recounts that threatened his 388-vote lead in Florida, while A1 Gore said neither man should prevail from a few votes cast in error. Bushs attorneys failed to win a court order barring manual recounts in Florida a state whose 25 electoral votes will almost certainly determine the nations 43rd president A federal judge rejected the Bush injunction request, and his team was deciding whether to appeal Separately the states top elections official a Republican who campaigned for Bush said she would end the recounting at 5 p.m.

Tuesday The process of counting and recounting the votes cast on Election Day must end, said Secretary of State Katherine Harris. Gore immediately appealed the ruling, making his first major legal push, and Bush joined the case on behalf of Harris. The vice president basically said we should ignore the law so he can overturn the results of this election, said Bush spokeswoman Karen Hughes. As new vote totals dribbled in from scattered counties and recounts were under consideration in other dose-voting states, Gore told reporters outside the White House, I would not want to win the presidency by a few votes cast in error or misinterpreted or not counted, and I dont think Governor Bush wants that either. Bush made no public appearances at his Texas ranch Monday He did answer reporters questions there on Saturday While time is important, it is even more important that every vote is counted and counted accurately the vice president said in his first remarks in five days on the improbably knotted race.

What is at stake is more important than who wins the presidency, he said. What is at stake is file integrity of our democracy Donald Middlebrooks, a federal judge appointed by President Clinton, predicted the struggle would continue past his rejection of the Republicans recount injunction request. I am not under an illusion I am the last word on this, he said, and I am rather grateful for that. I I I Bangor once used punch-hole ballots OSHA injury rules criticized GOP faults workplace protections ByGregToppo The Associated Press WASHINGTON Business groups and GOP law- makers said government rules proposed on Monday to protect workers from job-related injuries could cost 1 industry billions of dollars each yean The Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules take effect Jan. 16, days before a new administra- tion takes office, but businesses will have until October 1 to comply The rules are intended to protect against workplace injuries for more than 100 million workers who perform repetitive functions such as typing, working on an assembly line, sliding groceries past scanners or lifting heavy loads.

Industry groups said OSHAs standards are arbi- trary We dont think there is any scientific basis to say how many repetitions are too many how much weight is too much, said Stephen Bokat, senior vice president See Workplace, Page A2 He heard arguments in much the same terms the two sides have used in public statements since the Florida dispute flared in the hours after the polls closed last week. The process, to sum it up, is selective, standardless, subjective, unreliable and inherently biased, said GOP lawyer Theodore Olson. Olson said the recount by hand introduced elements of chance and partisan bias to what ought to be a simple and uniform process of checking Floridas extraordinarily close election result Democratic lawyer Bruce Rogow said the hand count was for better or worse democracy in See Election, Page A4 By Jeff Tuttle Of the NEWS Staff BANGOR Election officials here can sympathize with their harried counterparts in much of sunny Florida. But only to a point. Thats because Bangor learned its lesson with what some are calling the outdated punch-hole ballots, now being hand-counted and scrutinized in many Florida districts with the presidency itself hanging in the balance.

We do things right up here, Bangor City Clerk Gail Campbell joked Monday, referring to the citys use of an optical scan ballot, in which voters complete an arrow to indicate their choice. No partially punched holes. No problem. In 1986, however, Bangor like many other Maine cities and towns used the punch-hole style of ballot in which a voter uses a stylus to punch out a hole next to a candidates name. It was easy and the city had successfully used the automatic system for several years before that.

But after a 12-hour marathon of election workers studying faulty ballots, looking for tiny pinpricks in the cards, Bangor voters would no longer be punching those little holes. See Ballot, Page A4 Young experts ask for computer access State task force hears persuasive testimony from Kids for Laptops Dan McCMIan, 9, of Ellsworth talks to tha Legislative Task Force on Maine about technolo-gy in the classroom Monday at the University of Maine. The television behind him displays the four distance learning network sites participating by video link. (NEWS Photo by Anthony Robert La Penna) By Shawm OLaary Of the NEWS Staff ORONO A panel of adults considering ways to use a $50 million fund for technology in Maines schools heard from some expert witnesses Monday: four kids from Ellsworth and Old Town. Each came down squarely on the side of greater access, and each downplayed fears by adults that young people and their teachers couldnt handle the technology The adults are part of a task force set up earlier this year after Gov.

Angus King proposed setting aside an endowment to cover the costs of furnishing Maine's seventh- through 12th-graders with laptop computers. In a task force hearing Monday, 10-year-old Tom McClellan of Ellsworth said he and his friends take care of expensive video game devices, portable audio equipment, and even a few cell phones and pagers. And he appeared to take a tongue-in-cheek swipe at those who say the laptops would wind up-smeared with gum and flooded with soda: Ive never spilled anything on my keyboard, McClellan said, but I know my mom has spilled coffee on hers. Mondays testimony was made possible through a technological advancement that allowed the boys -to give their testimony in an Orono conference room while the task force studying the proposed Learning Technology Endowment was seated in a lecture hall in Gardiner See Laptops, Page A2 3 Postal commission OKs increase in stamp price to 34 cents By Randolph E. Schmid The Associated Press rise to 34 cents.

But the 22-cent cost of a second ounce of first-class approved the increase after months of hearings and deliberations. The new rates take effect, the already has interim oo mail will stay the same, as will the 20-cent postcard. The Postal Service had asked that the second-ounce rate be raised by 2 cents and the postcard by 1 cent. The post office board of governors will decide when the higher rates will go into effect Jan. 7 is said to be the likely date.

The Postal Rate Commission higher rate for a first-class stamp will bring in about $1 billion a year. The commission also raised the cost of mailing 1 pound of Priority Mail from $3.20 to $3.50. The last rate increase, which tacked a penny onto the cost of a first-class stamp, was Jan. 10, 1999. Because it takes so long to print the billions of stamps needed when Postal Service stamps in the works.

In the past, those changeover stamps carried letter designations, A through but that practice has been discontinued. The next first-class nondenomi-nated stamp is likely to go on sale before the end of the year to allow people to stock up for the change It See Postage, PageA2 WASHINGTON The cost of mailing a letter will be going up a penny, probably in January The independent Postal Rate Commission acted Monday on a request by the Postal Service for a rate increase to offset rising costs. Under the commissions action, the price of a first-class stamp will 2000 Bangor Publishing Co. Partodtaala postage paid al Bangor. Maine 04401 Publication number USPS 041000.