Waco Tribune-Herald from Waco, Texas • 1

Single copy $1.25 105th Year Serving sH a Heart of Texas SUNDAY, Feb. 23, 1997 WEATHER INDEX Am Landers I 2E E4ISSAL iJ A 1LMI1L1LV LoW 39, High 57 Dejtails, map2A f4 'l A Cox Newspaper At Home 3E Book reviews 4E Business 4B Classified ID Crossword Startlme Dave Barry IE Earl GoMing 7C Farm 4 Ranch IOC JohnYoung 12A Movies 9C Obituaries 2B Opinion 12A Outdoors 7C Travel 6E TV listings Starthm 00 A6S PLAY 0P01LEQ Doers' postcoficdn pach I dotours at ACM, 02-57 1 SPORTS, 1C 31 1217 B03 Gil DIM Pot 'fuipbrotoro' rosdy to open doors in Waco BUSINESS, 43 ssssassa ha mm Atlanta PACTS Part Soothsayer bombings Technology only might be connected 3. goes so far when trying to predict weather patterns By MIKE WALLACE Tribune-Herald staff writer 'i. to figure out to- morrow's weather is a JL quest almost as old as humanity itself. People have looked to animals, plants, the sky and the spirit world for help and still come away mystified by the next day's weather.

Thousands of instruments measure the state of the at mosphere every day, blin-' dingly fast computers simulate future conditions, ad- vanced radar systems con-, Stantly watch the motions of clouds and air while satellites look down from the other side -V. v. I the sky. I 1. t.

1 But while National Weather Service officials point proudly to their WSR- 88D Doppler ra- their GOES-7 and GOE5-8 satellites and their 'automated weather stations, By CARL HOOVER Tribune-Herald entertainment editor Central Texas television viewers may presume blue skies when watching local forecasts, but behind the scenes, there's the turbulence of a weather war. With weather forecasting acknowledged as a key component of winning viewership for local newscasts, Central Texas' Big Three network affiliates KWTX-TV, Channel Rating local toracasts4A Lake Waco holdi steady 1B Channel and KXXV-TV, Channel 25 have pumped considerable resources into, weather coverage in the last few years. Doppler radar. Antenna-mounted sky-cams. Slick computer-created graphics.

A cable channel dedicated to local weather coverage. Area networks of weather-spotter teams linked by ham radios or cellular phones. Automated meteorological reporting stations that monitor temperature, winds and precipitation at locations throughout Central Texas. Predicting the vagaries of Central Texas weather is serious business to the three television news departments, who see a way to higher ratings in the universal interest in the weather. Jeff Cook, KXXV's general manager, is blunt about it: He sees hi3 station's weather coverage as the key to upsetting KWTX's long ratings dominance.

"If we're going to win this war, we're going to win it in weather," he said. Drewry Communications, parent company of KXXV, has used the weather-first strategy to succeed in Amarillo Please see TV, Page 4A 4th blast In 7 months has investigators looking for ties By TARA MEYER The Associated Press ATLANTA A bomb blast that injured at least five people at a crowded nightclub the fourth to rock this city in seven months has forced authorities to consider the possibility of a serial bomber. "Clearly, we believe that we are dealing with a deranged killer, but one who is very clever as well," Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell said Saturday. A few blocks away from the nightclub on Saturday evening, a fire station, a motel and several businesses were evacuated after someone called the fire station saying a bomb had been planted there. Police barricaded streets in the area.

Bomb-sniffing dogs combed the station but found nothing. Friday night's bombing rocked The Otherside Lounge, whose clientele is mostly gay and lesbian. The lounge was crowded with about 150 people when the nail-packed device exploded in a rear patio. Memrie Wells-Griswell of Snellville, the most seriously wounded with a 8- to 4-inch nail in her arm, was in stable condition Saturday after surgery at Grady Memorial Hospital. The other four were treated at hospitals.

The blast blew out a window and part of ajloor, said club owner Beverly McMahon. "We have had no problems in seven years with this club," she said. "I'm shocked it happened to my club." Police found a "suspicious" backpack with a second bomb shortly after arriving. That device, set near a low brick wall in a parking lot beside the building, was detonated by a remote-controlled robot Aspects of Friday's bombing echoed the July 27, 1996, Centennial Olympic Park attack, which killed one woman and injured 100 people, and two Jan. 16 bombings at Atlanta Northside Family Planning Services, which injured seven.

Like both previous attacks, nails were used as shrapnel; like the Olympic bombing, a backpack was used to deliver a bomb; and, like the Northside clinic bombing, a second device, possibly intended for police and medical teams, was used. And like both previous attacks, there have been no arrests. Authorities drew no immediate connections among the attacks. "They will be worked as separate investigations but we all recognize the similarities here," FBI agent Woody Johnson said. "We will be searching Please see BOMBS, Section Back COT- they also admit that human intuition and experience still jjlay vital roles.

"The process of forecasting the weather is becoming more of a science than an art, but there is still a significant amount of art," said Jim Hoke, director of the National 1 Center for Environmental Prediction's Hydrometeoro-logical Prediction Center in Camp Springs, Md. Forty years ago, absolutely accurate weather forecasts seemed almost within reach, thanks to computers, weather radar and soon-to-be-launched satellites. But computers also helped Sm SCIENCE, Pago SA I Staff photo Dimm A. Lawrty Meteorologist Alan Mailer of the National Weather Service's Fort Worth Forecast Office uses a hand-drawn weather map to help htm visualize shifting weather patterns. 'XI WACO WEATHER RECORDS Highest temperature 112 on Aug.

1 1, 1969 Lowest temperature -5 on Jan. 1948 Most rain In 24 hours 7.18 Inches In May 1953 Most snow In 24 hours 7 Inches In January 1948 from Mclennan county to death row DA carries burden of death sentences Segrest has had to face decision 1 1 times 15 Coleman Spence The following is a ist of death row inmates from McLennan County: David Wayne Spence has been on death row since his convictions in 1984 and 1985 in the 1982 slayings of three teen-agers that became known as the Lake Waco murders. His execution is set for. April 3. Clifton Eugene Belyeu was sentenced in 1986 for the 1 985 snooting death of West resident Metodie Bolton.

John Albert Burks has been on death row since July 1989 for shooting Waco tortilla factory owner Jesse Confreres during a robbery in Januanr 1 989. Clydell Coleman was convicted In October 1989 in the February 1989 strangulation death of his former neighbor, 87-year-old Leetisha Joe. Billy Wayne CoMe was sent to death row in 1990 after his conviction in the August 1989 shooting deaths of his estranged wife's brother, Waco police Sgt Bobby cha, and parents, Robert and ZeWa Vena, in Axtel. Kenneth Alan McDuff was convicted In 1993 in Ummtan in th March 1992 abduction. Experiment may shepherd new era Group of British scientists says lamb cloned from adult sheep By GINA KOLATA The New York Times In a feat that may be the one bit of genetic engineering that has been anticipated and dreaded thore than any other, researchers in Britain are reporting that they have cloned an adult mammal for the first time.

The group, headed by Dr. Ian Wilmut, a 52-ear-old embryologist at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, has created a lamb using DNA from an adult sheep. Their achievement shocked leading researchers who had said it could not be done. The researchers had assumed that the DNA of adult cells would not act like the DNA formed when a sperm's genes first mingle with those of an egg. In theory, researchers said, the same techniques i could be used to take a cell from an adult human 1 Please see CLONE, Page 10A m.

Coble By TOMMY WITHER SPOON Tribune-Herald staff writer Few decisions carry life-or-death consequences, but McLennan County District Attorney John Segrest and his staff have made that call 1 1 times in capital murder cases since Segrest was first elected six years ago. Segrest sought the death penalty in four of those cases and waived the death penalty seven times in favor of automatic life prison terms that carry minimum 35-year or 40-year prison stays. With four capital murder cases pending in McLennan County, Segrest and his team will have to make the life-or-death call four more times before the year is out. It is an awesome responsibility that no prosecutor takes lightly, Segrest said. "Any time you are making the decision that may ultimately lead to a person's demise, it is a decision made with neither Joy nor anticipation, even though the person may deserve it," Segrest said.

Of the four capital murder defendants sent to death row during Segrest's tenure in office, two Gerald Wayne Tigner Jr. and La-Quan Cameron Miles have been sent back to McLennan See DEATH, Section Back Belyeu sexual assault and slaying of Waco convenience store clerk Melissa Ann North-rup. Michael Johnson was convicted in May 1996 in the September 1995 death of Jeff Wetterman, who was shot at his family's convenience store In Lorena over a $24 tank of gas. a McDuff Jc Johnson Burks Wo'll preview the Baylor men's golf team Monday In SportsExtra.