Sun-News from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina • 7

NATIONWORLD Monday July 24 1995 The Sun News Myrtle Beach SC Canine funds benefit Washington cemetery Border ambushes threaten trains Last year bandits stole more than $1 million worth of cargo in NM valley In five to 10 minutes they can stop a train break into the rail cars and toss the goods out Once over the border Ollie Ollie Oxen Free Capt TOM MONSEN Southern Pacific Railroad Polico desert fress from the 18th through the 0th centuries veterans from the Revolutkmaty to Vietnam ware and the first female presidential candidate to receive votes According to Hanley the cemetery association has 800 dues-paying members 130 or so of whom have organized an informal canine corps The presence of dogs with a canine rush hour occurring in the early morning and evening has eliminated vandalism he says and made it "the safest garden in the In the capital of the world's biggest-spending government the cemetery seems like an anomaly It receives no funding from Congress the city the National Park Service or any other governmental entity Still there's an outside chance Congress may look more kindly on the cemetery Last November a black granite monument was placed in the cemetery by the family of the late House Speaker Thomas O'Neill of Massachusetts who died in 1991 and was buried on Cape Cod The memorial has yet to be dedicated but association member Jim Oliver hopes the occasion will call attention to the plight I le blames that on the met that the place not well-known or by legislators as is the grander 500-acre federally supported Arlington National Cemetery in nearby Virginia The US Department of Veterans Affairs regularly sends workers to mow and trim the small section of Congressional Cemetery in which rows of grim sandstone monuments known as cenotaphs commemorate members of Congress buried patrols on its side of the rail That agreement which would avoid a 12-foot steel wall originally advocated by the Border Patrol is I under consideration in Washington authorities said the long run Mexico is tak- ing the big view of trade under NAFTA (the North American Free Trade said Rich Cambell director of strategic analysis for Southern Pacific which counts Mexico as its fastest-growing market NAFTA to be successful overland transportation has to be safe reliable and not subject to diversion" Yet the fence proposal has inflamed residents of the colonia'7 which is a regional magnet for squatters known as (parachutists) who seem to drop out of the sky in search of rent-free housing or a reasonable chance of crossing the border illegally been asking Mexican authorities for years for better police protection in this community said 32-year-old colonia spokesman Cesar dc la Cruz happens? They offer to help protect the assets of a US company But my own house has been robbed four times! When the colonia residents look north they see a lonely Southern Pacific switching station recently surrounded by thick wooden barriers and razor wire and staffed around the clock by Pinkerton security guards who call the place Anapra" When the guards look south they see what one described as spectacle of In a surreal game of survival the unarmed guards hired to radio for law enforcement assistance at the first sign of trouble on the rail hand out purified water and food to villagers who drop by each day to ask questions about life in America By Louis Sahacun LOS ANGELES TIMES SUNLAND PARK NM In a throwback to the Wild West freight trains thundering through this parched valley are being swarmed by bandits who plunder their cargoes then flee back across the Mextcan -border which in some places is only 10 paces from the tracks The thieves stage their raids from a nearby squatters camp a cluster of cardboard and wood shanties where 40000 people live without running water sewers or law enforcement It is known as Colon ia Anapra But to Mexican authorities it is Boca de the wolfs mouth In what has become a disturbing routine the well-organized team of about 60 armed bandits trips a train's brake system pitches freight from televisions to tennis shoes overboard then hauls the loot across the border to hired help in cars and trucks They have tried to disable trains towing as many as 100 cars by pulling sprites from the tracks heaping scrap metal on the rails qrjamming switch boxes with rocks They even have slathered the green lenses of signal lights with red paint to confuse engineers five to 10 minutes they can stop a train break into the rail cars and toss the goods said Southern Pacific Railroad Police Capt Tom Monsen they're over the border it's Ollie Ollie Oxen Last year nearly 100 Southern Pacific trains all ferrying freight between Los Angeles and New Orleans were robbed here With more than I milium in cargo stolen railroad officials say the Sunland Park region ranks thud be By Gian or CHICAGO TRIBUNE WASHINGTON To survive decades of neglect and decay a national landmark has gone to the dogs From dawn to dusk they romp and run alone its paths and driveways in a landscape of picturesque tombstones and monuments Some 70000 people are buried in what the arched gate identifies as the Congressional Cemetery but is more aptly described on one worn monument as city of silence" To help overcome a perennial lack of money for upkeep the cemetery's superintendent John Hanley deckled three years ago to let dog owners and their pets Use the cemetery if the owners made a $100 annual contribution to the Association for the Preservation of the Historic Congressional Cemetery plus an extra $5 for each family pooch This privilege however requires owners to keep their pets from running wild and disturbing visitors Out of respect for the notable gravesites pet owners are also advised to come equipped with a pooper scooper Opening the cemetery to dogs "upset a tew folks at first but it seemed to be the sensible thing to do" says Hanley who can often be seen mowing and raking the 32-acre grounds some of those buried here the dogs have been the only visitors in the last 100 Located 20 blocks east of the Capitol near Pennsylvania Avenue the nondenominational cemetery claims a variety of historic Americans unmatched anywhere else: a signer of the Declaration of Independence and vice president 79 members of Con- Universal see the Keystone Cops? It's like that watching law enforcement try to catch these said a Pinkerton security guard who monitors the rail switching station here Residents of the colonia fear the bandits who are part of a vast nether world economy in a place where the only law is survival watch these train robberies but we say anything or the bandits will come after said Juan Hernandez Castro1 standing beside a cardboard shanty he bought for $200 Sunland Park authorities said the bandits recruit desperate youths from the camp paying them? 50 to $75 to help steal cargo which is then fenced in New Mexico Texas Juarez and the Mexican interior Juarez Municipal Police Chief Jose Luis Holguin insists that US side has exaggerated the criminal allegations at Anapra allegations that now have gone all the way to the Central Government in Mexico City through diplomatic But with losses mounting US and railroad olficials are demanding aetkm through leverage gained by trade agreements and America's financial aid to its crisis-tom neighbor Mexican authorities this month agreed to let the Border Patrol build a chain-link fence along 13 miles of track that curves past the colonia Mexico ulso will provide 24-hour banking on on the horizon Dr Dan Ervin MD of Strand Ear Nose Throat Facial Surgery PC is pleased to announce the affiliation of Dr Daniel Rosner MD and the Opening of Our Surfside Office In The South Strand Diagnostic Center 1120 Glenns Bay Rd Suite 121 Surfiside Beach SC Now Accepting New Patients We participate in Blue Cross State Blue Cross PPC HMO Blue Companion hind the Los Angeles and Chicago areas in theft In April the heists took an ominous turn when 30 robbers shot at authorities who roared up on both sides of the border No one was injured in the incident that resulted in the arrests of eight men by Mexican authorities The rest escaped into the rugged canyons of nearby Mount Cristo Rey with a haul of televisions Train robbers plague nearly every rail line and yard in the natkm What is unusual about the problem here is that trains are being hit at the border and US officials and rail police cannot chase the thieves into Mexico Train robberies began to soar in this area 18 months ago when the US Border Patrol cracked down on illegal immigration and cross-border crime at the nexus of several rail lines in FJ Paso Texas The bandits moved their operation about five miles west just across the border from the colonia which has swollen in recent months with desperate people reeling from latest economic ensis Authorities in both countries are casting about for solutkms They come easily given the poverty in the colonia tnc reluctance of financially pressed Mexican police in nearby Juarez Mexico to patrol the area and a thicket of restrictions on US enforcement in a place where the bonier is an invisible line in the appeal about gender The long-legged teen-ager is the first female to become a cartoon superhero in her own right-in contrast to say Supcigiri or the female Morphin Rangers who were copied from male stars Japan and all over the world women are assuming more and more positrons of power in soci- noted Bandai's Yamashina want to be discriminated against as soft or gentle they want to grow up to be tough and forceful And Sailor Miron is a role model for that type of girl" The creator of Pretty Warrior Sailor Moon is a young Japanese woman of that type When she finished college in 1990 Naoko Takcuchi landed a decent but thoroughly non-sensutkmal job on a hospital staff Yet she dreamed of going out on her own In 1992 Nakayoshi magazine a fat monthly coOectkm of serial comics accepted Takcuchi's proposal for a new series based on a somewhat klutzy school girl who turns into a superhero in each episode to save the world from evil The Sailor Miron comic eventually blossomed into an animated Tv show a pair of movies and hundreds of licensed products The weekly cartoon show is now on the air in several Asian countries France Italy and Spain Takeuchi 27 now a rich and famous serial-comic artist has become a paradigm of Japan's growing corps of young indeperi-dent and successful kyareeah aoman the Japanese pronuncia-tion of Florida Universal did murket studies and watched Barney parades at Universal round ne is exactly right for that segment of our guests We have never nod anything specifically for children that young' Like Gasper the Friendly Ghost was to kids who grew up in the 1950s Barney represents the opposite of a more vkilent fearful bogey man are big frightening creatures that Barney orings down to size and translates into something that is not scary not something to be afraid of but something Rothe sard To mothers like Theresa Thyne whose daughters Maggie 4 and Isabel 22 months who played for an hour in Burney's Park last week the $30 to $50 they'll pay may be well worth the cost cause the first wave of Sailor Moon toys will be brought to you by the same folks who turned the Power Rangers into a $400 million-per-year retail phenomenon: Bandai Corp Japan's biggest toy maker And Bandai has no reluctance about stating its goal for the junior high heroine with the long rlden oraids said undai president Makoto Yamashina Sailor Moon can be as important in the lives of American girls as the Power Rangers are for America's major toy retailers from natkmal giant Toys Us to the local mom and pop stores seem to agree are really encouraged by the initial orders" said Trish Stewart of Bandai America Inc dislrihutkm for the Sailor Moon line is considerably better than it was for Power Rangers at this time in 1993 when Power Rangers was also brand With their movie in natkmal release and their McDonald's tie-in and their boifo weekly TV ratings the Power Rangers may look unbeatable at the momcnL But don't count out Sailor Muon In Japan at least the eighlh-ade adventurer long ago passed ler male rivals in the teeny-bop- frr superhero trade Sailor Moon shows books and movies here draw much bigger audiences than the Rangers" the current Japanese version of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers show Sailor Moon toys bring in more than $250 million per year in Japan Bandai says five limes the level of Power Ranger sales The promoters of Sailor Moon think they know why It's all Superhero By TR Raid THE WASHINGTON POST TOKYO You may think moms and dads of America that the comings and goings of a 14-ycar-old Japanese eighth-grader named Usagi Tsukino have nothing at all to do with you You may think that UsagTs loyal friends Ami and Rei her darling kitten Luna and her goldcn-homed pet unicorn have no relationship to your life But if you think that moms and dads you're likely to be proven seriously wrong very soon As tens of millions of fervid young fans already know Usagi Tsukino is the secret identity of the mighty female superhero Pretty Warrior Sailor Moon a cartoon and comic-book star of immense popularity in Asia and much of Europe About six weeks from now Sailor Moon and her all-girl squad of teen-age justice Tighten will fire up their power crystals and invade the American TV market with their own Saturday-morning cartoon show The predictable raft of Sailor Moon books dolls toys T-shirts toothbrushes and other tie-ins will follow with the find shiploads of licensed goods appearing in US stores well in time for the Christmas rush For an has had long line hopes of snatching up a toy any toy bearing a likeness of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers this may all sound distressingly familiar That's hardly surprising be study found Barney delivered an average of 100 identifiable educa-tional messages well above other children's shows like Mr Rogers and Sesame Street Barney teaches numbers words colors and concepts like love respect patriotism le is such a good alternative to the violence in cartoons and other television" said Dee IXe Turner an Orlando mom who allows her daughter Allic 2 to watch television only an hour a day is loving accepting of all people tolerant of all families he teaches good family 1 le is the undisputed king of kids' programming in the competitive 2-to 3-year-old market sukl Dana Goldberg IMIS spokesperson Introduced just three years ago Burney's 134 market snare tops Power Rungcrs with 116 Sesame Street with 95 Annmumucs with By Phi Lons KNIGHT-RIDDER ORLANDO Fla Universal Studios Florida has landed another huge dinosaur but not for its brood occupying its popular Jurassic Park attraction It is Barney the Pied Piper of the training pants set and he's carving a new niche in Florida's tourism business The 6-foot 4-inch icon of toddler TV is the feature character in a new attraction thought to be the first ever to target tnc 12-month to 5-yearold audience are going after a market that has been lamely said Dan Sarel professor of marketing at the University of Miami is huge potential the risk is minimal and the outcome is likely to be Barney is the Public Broadcasting Service star that grossed $1 billion in sales to kids last year says Forbes magazine 1 1 is likeness is on everything from pencils to bedspreads Jessica Reif entertainment analyst in Merrill New York headquarters calls Universal's move an interesting thrust toward a different market We know how much impact kids that age on decisions about which theme park to visit Disney is the big draw of tourists to Orlando and it falls to the likes of Universal Sea World and other attractions to lure visitors out of the Mimic Kingdom Universal is banking on a simple marketing principle: When Barney debuts in nationwide TV advertising mix it may become tough for families with young children to vocation in Orlando without taking the littlest ones to see Barney or at least without hearing about iL' Once in the Barney den at Universal guests are entertained by a pre-show starring a new Barney colleague Mr Peekaboo the bumbling scientist Then they step through a curtain of rain to meet the saurian star in a thcalcHn-thc-round mode to look like a park A circle of trees twinkle with tiny lights The sky and season change magically from night to day and from summer to fall to winter to spring Added effects: min and wind falling leaves and falling snow Rising dramatically in the middle of the room comes Barney himself After the show children enter an innovative interactive play area with trees with wooden xylophone notes hanging from their limbs tree stumps that arc really bongo drums a crawl-through sand castle stepping stones that emit cartoon sounds and a play train with an intercom from locomotive to caboose In an age of concern over Power Rangers and increasingly dark cartoon fore Barney is all goodness and light In a typical 30-minute IV segment a Yule University I I i MAIN OFFICE 913 Medical Circle Myrtle Beach SC 29572 (803) 449-8358 JULY Mirrors SURFSIDE OFFICE So Strand Diagnostic Center 1 120 Glenns Bay Rd Suite 121 Surfside Beach SC 29575 (803)215-1068 SALE Arch LAMPS Desk LAMPS Floor LAMPS Piano LAMPS Picture LAMPS Brass LAMPS Wooden LAMPS Glass LAMPS Ceramic LAMPS Halogen LAMPS Accent LAMPS Table LAMPS Traditional LAMPS Table LAMPS I a it ii i i i ul hi 1 1 A Ut A I tl ft 82 and Mr Rogers with 79 Burney's audience share of 134 means that 22 millkm of the 16 millkin 2- to 5-ycar-olds watching TV when the rating was done were tuned into Barney Barney's videos have sold 30 mil-Ikm conics A dozen of the top 100 best-selling videos in 1994 were Barney movies and seven of the top dozen best-selling videos in 1993 were according to VidcoScan magazine But nobody hod yet used Barney to lure kids to a theme park Tom Williams watched his own children then 2 and 5 become Barney funs after the debut in 1993 also saw other people's kids reacting and I thought to myself: got to do something with Burney sukl Williams chief operating officer of Universal Stuukrs 1 MYRTLE BEACH LIGHTING Hwy 17 By-Pa aa at Backgats of MBAFB Mon-FfL Bat 293-7117 I I 1.