The Kansas City Star from Kansas City, Missouri • 1

-w I ft: A CENTURY OF JIGGLES Jell-0 is 100 years old and as colorful and versatile as ever Food Section TAPPING TRUTH FOR HUMOR Bill gift of comedy will be on display tonight in KC FYI Section 16 The Kansas City Star METROPOLITAN EDITION A 50 WEDNESDAY February 19 1997 Educators assess claim of fourth-grade illiteracy 1YIEIR0 is probably the most important Sharon Freden aasistant commissioner of the Kansas Board of Education on reading nCMon estimate of 40 percent may be close but they differ on plan By JAKE THOMPSON ISIu Ill 1 1 ll nnnrl 1 waanmyion WJiniponosni NATO- Russian brigade urged proposal aimed at allaying discontent over expansion So she like many teachers welcomes new national goal: that by the year 2000 all fourth-graders should be able to read To reach that goal he wants to mobilize 1 million volunteer tutors to read with young children In fact in an effort to promote this idea first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton will read to children today at Mercy Hospital during her visit to Kansas City But many question the $245 billion solution and the basis for the idea: a single federal study showing that 40 percent of fourth-graders flunk basic reading In Missouri that number was 38 percent Kansas did not participate in the study US Rep Peter Hoekstra a Minnesota Republican See EDUCATORS A-7 Col 1 ftftlDE STAR Mamie Long doesn't think President Clinton is too far off Mien he warns that 40 percent of fourth-graders read Looking at her third-grade class at Franklin Elementary School in Kansas City she counts that many who stare blankly at her assignments frustration level goes Long said Tuesday kind of hard to give them independent work If they read it a lost DUildng the grads JL -LU Wlul CRNVlH Kansas City aeons bet-tar than die national average in seven of 10 criteria in a study grading America SO largest cities in child well-being C-l From Star Nows Services Game of skill? You bet And KC casinos are taking aim at the masters of blackjack By RICK ALM A ufl owt wrntf An upcoming trip by a troubled teen has created a surge of misdirected outrage columnist Barbara Shelly saya C-l IWo cities are vOP vMIQNIBIOS Summit and it runners i I Innn ri gnr 1a I considers locations tor its new corporate headquarters B-l During stormy gambling debates of 1994 riverboat casino companies argued that blackjack is a game of skill Three years later a few are complaining that some blackjack players out there are too skillful and the boats need protection from them They are the long a thorn in the gaming side And now casinos are feeling that pain At least one of these mentally agile gamblers has been harmed from a casino simply for being too good But card counter Robert Cherry 49 of Kansas City may have the last laugh Has complaint to state gaming regulators could result in the sanctioning of the practice in Missouri Cherry modestly describes himself as an apprentice card counter He won big yet But the printing plant worker says learning after an estimated 100000 hands played over the last two years at casinos in Missouri Illinois and Kansas At least Cherry was learning until a pit boss at North Kansas City Casino A Hotel tagged him as a card counter said 1 could play any other game but blackjack Cherry said had been in and winning a couple of days before They just decided it SeeCASM0tA-10Col1 BRUSSELS Belgium NATO and Russia should start work immediately on setting up a joint military brigade Secretary of State Madeleine Albright suggested Tuesday in a fresh bid to ease Russian concerns about NATO enlargement But she maintained a tough line on expansion insisting that entry negotiations with potential new NATO members in Central and Eastern Europe would be completed by the end of this year Russian leaders have given strong warnings in recent weeks that the admission of former Warsaw Pact countries to NATO would constitute a threat to security On her first visit to the Brussels headquarters of the 16-member NATO alliance Albright set a brisk timetable for the enlargement process due to be launched at a Madrid summit in July goal should be to complete membership negotiations by the end of this year so we can sign accession instruments at our meeting in she told foreign ministers from NATO member countries She said this would allow time for enlargement to be debated and ratified by the national parliaments of the 16 existing members in 1998 NATO has said it hopes to admit some new members widely expected to include Poland Hungary and the Czech Republic and possibly Slovenia and Romania by April 1999 Attempting to ease Russian worries Albright on Tuesday reiterated previous suggestions of involving Russian officers in the planning of some NATO-led See JOINT A-5 Col 1 Liberty Memorial gets boost Anonymous donor offers $2 million pledge as catalyst for restoration By STEVE PENN SUII Writer Brainy battle on tile Web The Kansas City Area Development Council fight for the use of the name on fife Internet B-l DaaSngwHh tftroke Volunteers offer support SutiokB patients some-doses serving as role mod-cli throughout the rehabilitation C-l KEVIN ANDERSONmw Star The card counting debate iwZtrT Counters use many but basically the plhyer knows when aces and 10-point cards are most likely to be dealt I MR Card counting Isn't cheating "(Casinos) offer a gam of skill but If I play It skiltfully going to throw me out on the Arnold Snyder publisher of Blackjack Forum WIMT CASINOS MY: Counters erase the house edge and cost them money 1 don't think any business the public believes should have an unprofitable relationship with its Harrah's General Manager Jay Sevigny HOW CASINOS FMHT BACK: In states like New Jersey where casinos must legally tolerate counters several techniques are used to frustrate them But those countermeasures tend to slow down the game and can irritate ordinary players That may be Missouri's fate tn 4 6 10 12 2 4 0 8 WEDNESDAY AM WEQNE80AY PM COOLER The body electric NASCAR noise steers Gardner away from track Opinion NUto federal regulations I to keep cigarettes and smokeless tobacco out of file hands of children are welcome tools ImHm rU Departments VeL 117 No 1SS 8 sections By JIM SULLINGER and REGINA AKERS Stair Writon Advtos An anonymous donor has pledged $2 million to jump-start efforts to restore the Liberty Memorial Monument and Museum the first large donation the project has received Kansas City park board Chairman Ollii Gates confirmed Tuesday that prominent in Kansas had made the pledge But Gates other board members and Park Department staff did not identify the donor more than a Gates said at City Hall the truth There has been a lead donation given by a prominent Sheila Kemper Dietrich a park board a nmissioner said the pledge would require matching donations challenge grant has been given to start this effort Dietrich said been trying to get into a position to create a fund-raising Gates said the board had met with city officials and residents over the last few months The board would soon like to select members of a committee that will lead the fund-raising effort is the beginning of our Gates said wonderful donation was made to us unexpectedly and The Liberty Memorial Monument and Museum was closed in 1994 after an engineering study discovered that the underground support beams and terrace were unsafe The renovation and expansion would cost more than $40 million and could involve transforming the hollpw space under the deck iqto an underground 1 Automottvu 04 fri Jg rood TV Ml rmr- Gardner was ready to shell out millions in tax breaks to lure a world-class auto speedway until this weekend when city leaders got within earshot of the Daytona 500 Now the leaders of the Johnson County town of 4000 have said to heck with it and have withdrawn their city from consideration increasing the chances that Platte County will eventually acquire the track if the developer decides to locate in the Kansas City area It came down to racket and traffic congestion like a big giant said John Ballou the state representative who was part of the delegaton that went to the track in Florida constantly got traffic and the noise from the traffic was worse than the The Gardner City Council decided Monday night to drop out of the bidding only days after city officials and others visited Daytona International Speedway in eastern Florida The officials were in Daytona Set GARDNER A4 Col 1 PWto dfubP ak ftspt The Country Plaza Kansas City WENDY YANOmw Star In an experiment Tuesday at the National Science Center's mobile unit outside the Middle School of the Arts Southeast Academy eighth-grader Bianca Hunter acted as a conductor for electricity in the air lighting fluorescent bulbs The mobile center base 4 In Georgia Is touring several states 1 A V-'THP'.