Corpus Christi Caller-Times from Corpus Christi, Texas • 1

Telephone THURSDAY Jams feud settled Interactive candy 1 Disabled golfer wins cart rights Low 70s low 50s weatfiei tide B8 target His-panics Nagano coverage Weather question from: Carolina Sha-taan age 8 Duval jailer accused of bringing beer to inmates B1 Copyist 1808 CrtwTkm PutthMng Compny More than 199940 daily readers Fifty cents February 12 1998 Flour Bluff toy 4 shoots Mils hrotlier 7 Child found loaded handgun in house and pulled trigger home he said appears (the 4-year-old) did what he sqjd he Torres said knows he has done something wrong I know if he knows the consequences Police have asked Child's Protective Services to assist the family with counseling for the 4-year-old Torres said Police confiscated the gun in ByNOVEUMSoMMEBS CaHer-Hmes v-lbachers and neighbors of a 7-y ear-old boy fatally shot by his 4-year-old brother early Wednesday grieved the loss of a child they described as loving and gregarious -'Some wondered how the 4-year-old and his 5-year-old sister will adjust to life without their protective brother Charles Lee and one neighbor said she hoped the 4- Police said it was not clear where the gun was in the house but it was within the reach and it was loaded The 4-year-old apparently found it near where he had been sleeping Torres said cocked it he was curious and he walked to the room where to talk with them about death Laursen said Charles woke up about 7:15 am and was sitting on his bed at the home in the 300 block of Knickerbocker Street when his 4-year-old brother shot him with a high-caliber handgun said police Capt David Torres year-old remember shooting his brother in the face One distraught teacher at Flour Bluff Primary School where Charles was a first-grader went home too upset to teach said Pam Laursen principal at the school School officials sent letters home with students asking their parents his brother Torres said Charles was taken to Spohn Memorial Hospital in critical condition He died a short time later mother Jennifer Lee 35 was asleep when the shooting took place Torres said and was awakened by the gun blast Lee's 5-year-old daughter also was at ISH00TNGA13 Qu UICK EAD Critics: An A always an A Independent counsel for Babbitt URJAMMED: The battle over which radio station KZFM955 or its new competitor KZJM-FM1023 can use the word or in its promos has all but ended with a temporary injunction granted by Judge Mike Westergren that restricts use of the word on KZJM to only eight times a day Page B4 1 1 BJKSYHlEFIRfc Afire Wednesday morning destroyed alCingsville home and firefighters said a fire hydrant that work caused a delay of about 10 minutes in putting out the fire Page B1 Smith sells his TV i affiliates South Carolina firm buys KRIS KDF KAJA ORTIZ PROMOTED: Rep Solomon Ortiz D-Corpus Christi got a new assignment Wednesday on the House National Security Committee that will give him more influence on military depot policy and mine warfare issues Fsge B1 Parents call grading in CCISD unequal By Heather Howard Caller-Times With the idea that an A at one school should be an A at another the Corpus Christi Independent School District three years ago introduced new academic standards and grading policies aimed at creating consistency But some parents and school officials say such equity hasn't been achieved and are worried that inconsistencies in grading are causing drastic differences in failure rates on different campuses At the end of the second nine weeks of the fall 1997 semester the percentage of students with a failing grade in at least one class varied as much as 20 points between some campuses According to CCISD figures 59 percent of Moody students had At least one failing grade at the end of the second nine weeks more than lVi times the 38 percent failure rate at Carroll At King 56 percent of students were failing in at least one class at the end of the second nine weeks compared with 48 percent at Miller and 40 percent at Ray according to CCISD figures know what else it could be" school board President Dorothy Adkins said we all have the same academic standards that are set in concrete but have such variation (in failure rates) a great variance has to be in the But CCISD staff -say such variations arc common and that the district is more consistent with its grading and curriculum than ever before are district parameters for grading said Sandra Lanicr-Lerma director of instruction and operations one time we had each class with its own grading guidelines and very little NeasssasMADESAIO ByGLASnwFOED Cilcr-ltma Longtime local television station owner Frank Smith Jr has sold the NBC Fox and Tfelemundo network affiliates to the South Carolina-based Evening Post Publishing No immedtalB changes plann8dllA12 Co company officials announced Thursday The media company which publishes the Evening Post in Charleston and owns nine other television stations bought the stations for an undisclosed sum from Gulf Coast Broadcasting Co and Miramar Broadcasting Co Corpus Christi was the last market in the nation where all three of the major network affiliates -ABC CBS and NBC were locally owned The Evening' Post does not plan any changes to the stations said Andy Anderson president and chief executive officer-of Evening Post Publishing Co Smith 72 owner and general manager of the three stations said he decided to sell because his health prevented him from doing imMHWAIZ I I -ii- FMM FIGHT Nueces County officials will continue their fight to avoid rehiring two high-ranking officers fired by Sheriff Larry Olivarez when he Olivarez took office last -yearVtageBl 4 'DUVAL JAUR: A Duval County jailer is accused of allowing inmates to sell mari- uana on the streets and drink ieer that an inmate supplied by umping a wall and escaping PageBl Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt (right) shown with Miccosukee Tribal Chairman Billy Cypress during an Everglades tour on Wednesday expiessed disappointment after learning that Attorney General Janet Reno requested an Independent counsel to investigate Babbitt's role in rejection of an application for an Indian casino in Wisconsin StoryA4 Good Morning Aim Landers B5 Focus on Women Congress to take up Iraq resolution Some lawmakers are nervous that plans for gulf attack are too vague TCI to increase cable rates by about 5 percent in June CaHef-nmes Interactive More than 1 600000 hits per month The Iraqi leader he said let the weapons inspectors back with full and free access to all suspect The State Department dismissed an Iraqi proposal to open eight presidential complexes for what Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf said could be an inch-bv-inch search have yet to hear about a concrete Iraqi offer to reverse course and allow the UN inspectors the access to do their jota" spokesman James Rubin said latest Please sea IMQA11 Rom stiff sad wire reports Tele-Communications Inc which serves Corpus -Christi will increase its monthly cable television rates by an average of 5 percent to 55 percent nationwide in June citing the higher costs of the new NFL football TV contract and other programming -For Corpus Christi customers the increase will be the fourth in four years 1 Locally the current monthly price for basic cable service is $1104 expanded basic service costs $2907 service includes channels 2 through 23 and expanded service covers 24 through 58 and 95 and 96 Premium channels such as HBO and Showtime carry an additional charge Last year citing increased costs and inflation TCI Cablevision of Texas Inc increased rates about three percent for basic and expanded cable television service In 19 TCI increased its rates by 106 percent In 1995 TCI increased rates Ptoses see TCVA1I In Washington lawmakers were also nervous about whether the planned US air strikes if launched will succeed in pushing Iraq to comply with international arms inspections President Clinton sent his senior foreign policy team to Capitol Hill Wednesday to seek a congressional show of support in a nonbinding resolution backing the use of force against Iraq ull hone we can avoid the use of force' Clinton said let's face it in the end that is up to Saddam Hussein" V- By John Diamond Astoclalul Press WASHINGTON As the Clinton administration pressed Congress to support a possible attack on Iraq the US commander in the Persian said Wednesday he'll be ready for an air strike a week or so" Iraqi President Saddam Hussein should be Marine Corps Gen Anthony Zinni the overall commander of US forces in the oil-rich gulf region told reporters there.