Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 1

W0 mm .35 CENTS 25 CENTS Home Delivered Vol. 68, No. 29 Final MONDAY, 1 AUGUST 29, 1994 ONE OF AMERICA'S GREAT NEWSPAPERS CnAsic) Uo seek STEELERS Downsizing fM'M Ji! i rli' -v, "I 4 -t Classes start as strike averted Mt. Lebanon teachers agree to report today; arbitration requested By Gary Rotstein Post-Gazette Staff Writer Mt Lebanon teachers will report to work without a new contract today, postponing a possible strike for 40 to 60 days while their dispute with the school district goes to arbitration. The 354-member Mt.

Lebanon Education Association had threatened to strike today if no settlement were reached in the impasse in one of Western Pennsylvania's premier school districts, with its teachers among the best paid. Teachers union President Mark McCloskey reported about 10:15 p.m., after more than nine hours of on-and-off negotiations with school board representatives yesterday, that the 1994-95 school year would begin as planned. "We felt the third-party process with an arbitrator might allow this to be resolved," he said. "We are trying to use every method possible to avoid a strike." He said the union leadership had "agonized" about the issue of whether to work without a contract, but believed that in doing so it was displaying more commitment to the students and the community than the school board had in rejecting a proposed settlement last night SEE STRIKE, PAGE A-2 Lazarus ushers out Home's era The Steelers cut Reggie Barnes, Randy Cuthbertand Elbert Ellis, among others, to reach the 53-man limit. Sports, Page D-1 TODAY Weather Becoming partly sunny and less humid High 78, low 63.PageA-2 'eers pinned back The college football season opens and the West Virginia Mountaineers wish it hadn't as they are pounded by No.

4 Nebraska, 31-0. Sports, Page D-1 Tragic end An ill Port Vue man, who apparently feared his death would leave his retarded daughter with no one to care for her, killed her and himself. The Region, Page B-l Going lor broker An SEC probe finds most brokers honest and capable, but says most investment firms are failing to weed out those who habitually defraud investors. Find out how to select a broker and how to recognize misconduct in Personal Business, Page B-8 Teeing Hup Tiger Woods, 18, becomes the youngest U.S. Amateur winner, Martha Nause wins the final women's major of the season, Jose Maria Olaza-bal homers at the World Series of golf, and John Daly gets into a fight with the 62-year-old father of fellow golfer Jeffrey Roth.

Sports, Page D-1 Getting ahead More than 2,000 people took the GED test in Pittsburgh last year. For many of them, it was the first, and most difficult, step toward finding a better job or getting into college. Magazine, Page C-l Longtime foes trying to cool rhetoric, slow refugee flood Reuters News Service WASHINGTON The United States and Cuba attempted to calm their stormy relations yesterday, with President Fidel Castro calling for "persuasion" to stop the exodus and the U.S. offering a measured response to any democratic moves. Brandishing a diplomatic carrot instead of a military stick, U.S.

Secretary of State warren Christopher said the administration was not seeking to oust Castro, even though it has blamed him for the flood of boat people pouring out of Cuba this month. "If he moves toward democracy in a tangible, significant way, we'll respond in a carefully calibrated way," Christopher said on the CBS television program "Face the Nation." He said the United States sought peaceful democratic change in Cuba. "Whether that involves Mr. Castro or not is really up to him. If there was a free election and he ran, I imagine the people of Cuba might be rather hesitant to vote for him," he said.

But, Christopher added, it was not U.S. policy to seek the removal of "any individual person." In Havana, meanwhile, Castro issued an order that his Coast Guard and police should stop unsafe boats and rafts carrying minors from leaving the country the first indication that both he and the United States want to halt the emigration. Earlier orders issued on August 12 had effectively allowed Cubans to leave the country if they were willing to risk the 90-mile journey across the open sea to Florida. The order, published on the front page of yesterday's Juven-tud Rebelde newspaper, prohibited "the departure of persons who try to emigrate abroad with inadequate and unsafe means that carry children or secondary school-age adolescents aboard. The order said the authorities should use "persuasion" and only use force or firearms in exceptional cases.

"In case the craft is discovered already at sea, reiterate the warnings and use persuasive efforts without attempting to physically capture the craft or employ any force or violence so as to avoid accidents." Seven men, armed with knives and flares, tried to hijack a ferry in eastern Cuba but were stopped by passengers on the boat and later protected from SEE CUBA, PAGE A-4 Joe MarquetteAssociated Press U.S. Marine Corps 1 st Lt. Pete Mitchell, of Sarasota, playfully adjusts a military hat yesterday on Paulmise Cilie, a Haitian refugee at Camp McCalla in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Cuban, Haitian tent cities vie in Guantanamo they have to compete for world attention with a fast-growing twin city of more than 13,500 Cubans. "The U.S.

government should take care of the Haitian problem before the Cubans," shouted Fred Jean Juste, 27, a former Haitian soldier. "This is not our place. We don't want to be here anymore." The Haitian flight from military rulers who overthrew President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has all but stopped. Only 31 Haitians, all from the same boat, have been picked up in the past two weeks. The extent of the Cuban exodus, triggered by a standoff between President Clinton and Cuban leader Fidel Castro, could become clearer today as U.S.

warships watch for more rafts in the Florida Straits. The United States and Cuba agreed Saturday to open a new round of mid-level talks aimed at resolving the refugee crisis. The discussions, slated for New York, are expected to open by midweek. The numbers of Cubans on rafts dwindled to a few hundred over the weekend from thousands per day last week. But it was unclear whether the decline was due to rough seas or changed policy.

SEE TENT, PAGE A-4 till By David Briscoe The Associated Press GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba A hunger strike and scattered fighting underscore the frustration felt by nearly 28,000 Cuban and Haitian refugees living here in separate tent cities. But U.S. military officers running this overtaxed outpost say the situation is under control. "I don't think that we're likely to have any kind of explosion here," said Lt Gen. Michael Williams, in charge of refugee operations.

But he acknowledged growing anxiety among the Haitians: "I think there's a great deal of discontent and a great deal of frustration." Some of the 14,310 Haitians feel neglected now that their numbers have stopped increasing and By Marylynne Pitz Post-Gazette Staff Writer Chocolate, that all-consuming passion, was uppermost in the mind of Elizabeth Tolomeo yesterday as she waited with 50 other people for Lazarus to open its doors at Mon-roeville Mall. A few minutes after noon, the Penn Hills resident was relieved to see that the Lazarus candy cases contained her old friends Pecan Bark at $16 a pound and Stolen Heaven at $14 a pound, the same prices as at Home's. "They have the best chocolate. Only it isn't going to be called Home's," Tolomeo said. Yesterday, Lazarus officially took over the 10 Home's stores, opening nine of them for business.

The 10th, the Downtown store, will open today under the Lazarus name. Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores bought the Home's chain in April. Lazarus is Federat-ed's Midwest division. At Monroeville Mall and Ross Park Mall, the outdoor signs now say Lazarus. But inside yesterday, vestiges of Joseph Home's remained.

Sale signs were in the familiar blue and tan, and some merchandise still bore Home's tags. Leslie Sanderson of Tarentum was shopping at Monroeville Mall with her fiance, Clint Lohler. She had already cruised through Laza- SEE LAZARUS, PAGE A-7 Haiti's secret weapon voodoo being called on to rally the nation's vast pantheon of voodoo spirits both for and against an invasion that many here believe is inevitable. Haiti's historical legacy of mixing voodoo and politics has given the military junta the upper hand in this black magic battle for hearts and souls. SEE VOODOO, PAGE A-4 By Philip Smucker Special to the Post-Gazette PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti Anr other young recruit, bent on becoming an invincible warrior, crept up the rickety staircase into the macabre voodoo den.

Surrounded by skulls and all manner of strange concoctions, the mambo, or priestess, began by bathing the young man in a potion pecting enemy patrol and potion made from decayed human flesh that she said could be used to turn U.S. Marines into "zombies." "You don't have to toss this directly onto an invader," explained Paul. "It can be launched with a blowpipe or be swept towards an enemy with a gust of wind." Priests and priestesses, "houng-ans and mambos," across Haiti are WORLD VIEW INVASION DEFENSE intended to protect him from the "American invaders." Mambo Denise Paul proceeded to offer the soldier a pair of secret weapons, including a "handshake powder" to be used on an unsus Having their landfill Landfill bioreactors, which solve leakage problems and turn methane production into profit, are a Pitt researcher's alternative to entombing garbage. Science Health, Page A-8 Day ol Caring On Thursday, a one-day SWAT team of more than 6,000 volunteers will clean up parks, fix soup for the hungry and paint homes and storefronts for the United Way's annual Day of Caring. The Region, Page B-l Working on it Westgate Village has its share of problems, and community leaders are trying to get more residents interested in solving them.

City Neighborhoods, Page B-5 A real phony Commuter Russell Baker discovers that a volume of Keats is insufficient ammunition against Mr. Suspenders and his cellular phone when he sits next to him on the train. Perspectives, Page B-3 "He will always be remembered as a gentle, humble leader whose very pastoral style brought stability. Bishop Leonard dies; led diocese here 14 years INDEX A ft loved the priests and the diocese, but he also loved the Pirates and the Steelers," McDowell said. "He was a close friend of Art Rooney and he never missed a game." McDowell called Bishop Leonard an extremely holy and kind person who never said an unkind word.

"He was truly a Catholic bishop in every sense of the word," McDowell said. Bishop Leonard, who was considered a first-rate administrator, SEE BISHOP, PAGE A-10 Wuerl called him a "close personal friend and counselor whom I shall sorely miss." "He will always be remembered as a gentle, humble leader whose very pastoral style brought stability and calm to this local church, Wuerl said last night. "Like Christ the Good Shepherd, he was always there when needed." Senior Auxiliary Bishop John B. McDowell called Bishop Leonard "one of the holiest bishops we ever had, and one of the cleverest." "He was an all-around man. He From staff reports Vincent M.

Leonard, retired bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh and an understanding man with boundless patience, died yesterday in the Little Sisters of the Poor Home on Pittsburgh's North Side. He was 85. Death, caused by complications from pneumonia, came at 5:10 p.m. Bishop Leonard was the ninth bishop of Pittsburgh, the spiritual leader of more than 920,000 Catholics in Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Greene, Lawrence and Washington counties from July 1969 to December 1983, when he was succeeded by Bishop Anthony J. Bevilacqua.

During that period, Bishop Leonard supervisea about 770 priests, 321 parishes, 160 schools, 11 homes for the aged and about 3,800 employees. The annual budget was nearly $20 million. Bishop Leonard was a gentle, self-effacing man who presided over the diocese during the chaotic years when the church was implementing the changes of Vatican II. Incumbent Bishop Donald W. Neighbors B-5 Obituaries B-8 Perspectives Region B-1 Science A-8 D-2 Sports D-1 Television C-8 Want ads D-6 Weather A-2 Abby, Ann Brian O'Neill.

Bridge Business B-8 Comics Crosswords. D-7 Editorials B-2 Entertainment C-2 Lottery D-7 Bishop Vincent M. Leonard Presided from 1969 to 1983.