Santa Cruz Sentinel from Santa Cruz, California • Page 1

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IM1 St. I. www.santacruzsentinel.com I I Jl Butch Voms catch phrase 'Get it up, get it on, get down. HIWipHj MWH'H'l I'll If (Jrisinal Firefighter charged in Arizona wildfire Part-timer admits setting blaze so he'd get work ft Blue Angel Planes Butch Voris flew By NICK MADIGAN with CHARLIE LEDUFF THE NEW YORK TIMES SHOW LOW, Ariz. A part-time firefighter was charged on Sunday with deliberately setting the Rodeo wildfire, which combined with another blaze a week ago to become the largest in Arizona's history.

Prosecutors said that he stalled the fire hop ing to make money fighting it. The firefighter, Leonard Gregg, 29, was arraigned Sunday morning in federal court in Flagstaff on charges of setting two fires on June 18 near his home in Cibecue, on the Fort Apache Indian reservation. One of them was the Rodeo fire, which on June 23 merged with the F-6F Hellcat yajU--J- F-9F Panther rfmffi 'C Tx 1 GREGG Chediski fire to form a blaze that has devastated vast swaths of timberland, destroyed at least 423 homes and forced the evacuation of about 32,000 people. "Can 1 say I'm sorry for what I did?" Gregg asked U.S. Magistrate Stephen Verkamp, who interrupted him before he could incriminate himself further.

If convicted of the two charges, Gregg faces up to 10 years in prison and $500,000 in fines. A federal prosecutor, Paul K. Charlton, told a news conference here that a grand jury could bring more charges against Gregg, who is in custody. "There is evidence that he started the fire so as to earn money as a contract firefighter," Charlton said. In the federal courthouse in Flagstaff on Sunday, as smoke drifted overhead from the wildfires 90 miles to the south, the handcuffed suspect was led into court wealing black jeans and a black T-shirt.

Gregg, who is single and has a Please see WILDFIRES on BACK PAGE Bill LovejoySentinel photos Butch Voris, top and above, flew the Grumann F-6F Hellcat, above left, and the Grumann F-8F Bearcat, above right as the first captain of the Blue Angels flight team. F-4F Wildcat By JOE ROSENHEIM Sentinel cone span den I Former Santa Cruz resident Butch Voris recalls his days as first captain of the elite flight team "I got hit and was losing oil pressure, but I was able to land OK. I was bleeding from the instrument panel behind me, which got blown up." After the war, the Navy wanted a promotional and recruitment tool for peacetime. In 1946, the Blue Angels were formed, with Voris appointed team captain by the secretary of the Navy. Fly ing in their propeller-driven F-6F Hellcat fighters, the team quickly made a name for itself.

Voris had his own reason for joining. "I had a single reason I wanted to beat the Army Air Corps," which later became the Air Force, he said. "It's like the Army-Navy (football) game." For the record, the Air Force's Thun-derbirds aerobatic unit has never beaten the Blue Angels in an air show and, for that matter, neither has anybody else. "We've never lost," Voris said. "And Please see VORIS on BACK PAGE sized from swelling.

One can't help but laugh a little at the freak injury, after all that Voris has been through and survived in his remarkable life. As the very First Blue Angel, Voris performed hundreds of air shows with the Navy's precision flying team, including one in which he survived a collision that killed the other plane's pilot. He was also a prominent Navy fighter ace during World War II, shooting down eight planes in his carrier-based F-4F Wildcat and being hit once, only to land safely but shaken. "We were overwhelmed in numbers," Voris said, recounting the latter event, which took place during the Battle of Santa Cruz, an October 1942 naval engagement in which Japan was unable to dislodge American forces off Guadalcanal in the South Pacific. MONTEREY Butch Voris has all the marks of a tough guy except tattoos, which to him merely present a tough guy facade, anyway.

"I'm not a tattoo type," he says. Even at 82, the Santa Cruz High School graduate strikes an imposing figure. He's big, he's bald, he's got body scars and a piercing stare. He's also got a tough name. He offers his left hand for a handshake, prompting one to think the appendage customarily used was injured in the line of duty.

That's not the case, though. His right hand is indeed hurt, only the injury occurred while lifting a box, Voris explains. He lifts his hand, and it's Mickey Mouse- U.S. building up forces in Qatari desert Persian Gulf air base could launch offensive against Iraq By ROBERT BURNS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS AL-UDEID AIR BASE, Qatar If President Bush ordered airstrikes on Iraq, this vast, remote and little-publicized base in the central Persian Gulf would be a critical hub for U.S. Assembly tries to approve new budget, tax hikes Inside: warplanes and their aerial pipeline of bombs and supplies.

I Pakistan The government of appeals for public help in catching Qatar is spending millions of dollars to expand al-Udeid. Over the past months, the U.S. military 'dangerous quietly has moved muni religious terrorist' Osama bin Laden. PAGE A5 tions, equipment and communications gear to the IN DEPTH Amelia Earhart mystery continues 65 years later By RON STATON THE ASSOCIATED PRESS HONOLULU Elgen Long believes Amelia Earhart remains in her plane on the Pacific Ocean floor after running out of gas. Ric Gillespie thinks she landed on an island and died a castaway.

Tod Swindell theorizes she survived a crash landing in the Marshall Islands, was captured by the Japanese and secretly repatriated, living as a New Jersey housewife. Sixty-five years after her disappearance at age 39, the missing pilot remains one of America's great mysteries and the subject of continuing searches of the Pacific and research and debate. The tomboy who became an icon with her short tou-Please see EARHART on Page A10 base from Saudi Arabia, the control center for Republicans, opposed it. The budget and a $3.6 billion tax increase needed to help balance it were approved by the 40-seat Senate on Saturday night as a lone Republican, Sen. Maurice Johannessen of Redding, joined all 26 Senate Democrats to vote for the bills.

But Assembly Republicans refused to budge, complaining bitterly about the tax increases and contending that the state could erase a $23.6 billion budget deficit with more cuts. "You Democrats have had your imperial way with this state the last 3' years," said Assemblyman Rod Pacheco, R-Riverside. "In exchange for citizens giving you this great unchecked control over their lives you repay them with this worthless trash." Assemblyman Tony Strickland, R-Please see BUDGET on BACK PAGE By STEVE LAWRENCE THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SACRAMENTO -California will begin a new fiscal year today without a state budget, the 14th time that has happened in the last 25 years. A new spending plan fell five votes short Sunday night in the Assembly as Republicans warned about a looming "fiscal train wreck" and Democrats accused the GOP of holding up the budget to try to defeat Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in November.

"That's what all this has been about: embarrassing the governor," said Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles. "Holding up this budget is not about fiscal policy; it's not about protecting taxpayers." The budget needed at least 54 votes, a two-thirds majority, to pass the 80-Seat house. It got 49, all from Democrats. Twenty-six lawmakers, all American air operations in the gulf for more than a decade. About 3,300 American troops are in Qatar, mostly at al-Udeid.

The base is an isolated outpost amid a flat, seemingly endless stretch of scrubby desert about 20 miles from Doha, Qatar's capital. Signs of an American military buildup are unmistakable: A tent city has sprouted, along with huge, air-conditioned warehouses and miles of security barriers that attest to the U.S. military's Please see QATAR on Pag A10 Associated Press file Sixty-five years after the incident, Amelia Earhart's disappearance remains one of America's great mysteries and the subject of continuing research and debate. INDEX WEATHER today Mostly sunny and hot with a few clouds early in the An eye for advertising Many of 'Minority Report's' futuristic visions, including a holographic greeter at the Gap and animated cereal boxes, could become real using technology being developed today. PERSONAL TECH, PAGE A6 Brazil wins fifth World Cup championship The Brazilians shut up the critics in a most convincing way Sunday, winning an unprecedented fifth World Cup title with a 2-0 victory against Germany.

SPORTS, PAGE Bt OpinionAll Personal TechA6 SportsBl State newsA3 StyleA8 Ann LandersA9 ClassifiedB6 ComlcsB5 CrosswordB5 Local newsA2 lottervAlO SM sfM SfNl Soo Sco Sr-. day. Highs in the mld-70s; lows in the 50s BACK PAGE National newsA4 TV listlngsA9 ObituariesAlO World newsAS ill ni '-'t'ilimmitHtfi'W riHihrlA, tin Tyi iV g'r' r- i.