McCain, Gore win primary
■ Sen. McCain had a
surprise victory margin,
with 49 percent of the vote.
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) -
Arizona Sen. John McCain scored a
landslide victory over George W. Bush
on Tuesday in New Hampshire’s lead
off primary, puncturing die Texas gover
nor’s aura as the inevitable Republican
nominee. Vice President A1 Gore sur
vived a toe-to-toe challenge from Bill
Bradley in the Democratic duel.
The former New Jersey senator con
gratulated Gore and toldThe Associated
Press: “We’re goingto keep moving for
ward.”
With more than half the precincts
counted, Gore had 54 percent of the
vote, Bradley 46.
It was a typical New Hampshire pri
mary, with voters delivering a lecture to
the front-runners and recasting the GOP
race as the candidates looked to larger
states ahead.
McCain rolled up 49 percent of the
GOP vote, Bush 31.
Before heading back to the cam
paign trail, McCain was savoring his tri
umph and celebrating his surprising
victory margin. He watched returns
with his wife, Cindy, who put a trem
bling hand to her mouth and said: “It
really happened.”
“We have sent a powerful message
to Washington that change is coming,”
McCain told cheering supporters, cred
iting his agenda of political and cam
paign finance reform for his victory.
“The Republican Party recovered its
heritage of reform. And it’s the begin
ning of die end of the truth-twisting pol
itics of Bill Clinton and A1 Gore.”
The vice president cast his victory
as a bad omen for Bradley, who lost the
Iowa caucuses to Gore last week by a
much wider margin.
“If he cannot win here, then that’s a
devastating blow to him,” Gore told
reporters. Bradley, however, has enough
money to compete with Gore in a coast
to-coast series of primaries March 7.
In returns from 56 percent of New
Hampshire’s 300 Republican precincts,
McCain had 49 percent of the vote com
pared to 30 for Bush. Millionaire pub
lisher Steve Forbes was a distant third at
13 percent and former ambassador Alan
Keyes was at 6.
An AP analysis predicted McCain
would get 10 out of the total 17 dele
gates at stake Tuesday. Bush was pre
dicted to get five delegates, and two
would go to Forbes.
Photo by Steven E. Friscnling/Brattleboro Reformer
NEW HAMPSHIRE voters stand inside polling booths at Cnesterfiold’s Town
Hall while filling out Presidential Primary ballots during the First in the
Nation Presidential Primary on Tuesday.
Social conservative Gary Bauer
barely registered and was struggling to
survive. “I’m a fighter, but I’m not delu
sional,” Bauer said, before flying home
to Virginia to take stock of his candida
cy. Aides said campaign stops were still
chi this week’s schedule.
Bradley was rocked by last week’s
landslide loss to Gore in Iowa’s caucus
es. The New Hampshire campaign was
close enough to give Bradley hope, but
made his work all the harder against the
sitting vice president backed by the
Democratic Party’s establishment.
California crash inquiry continues
OXNARD, Calif. (AP) - The pilots
of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 struggled
with a sudden control problem for six
miritftes before the jetliner crashed into
the ocean off California with 88 people
aboard, federal investigators said
- Tuesday.
The last minutes of the MD-83’s
flight Monday may have been witnessed
by pilots aboard four other aircraft over
the Santa Barbara Channel, and the
National Transportation Safety Board
was seeking to interview them.
Investigators also said Tuesday they
had recovered four bodies and heard
“pinging” from the ocean, apparently
from the aircraft’s flight recorders. One
of those could reveal what went wrong
with the jet’s tail controls.
NTSB. member John
Hammerschmidt released preliminary
transcripts of air traffic control commu
nications with the airliner at a news con
ference Tuesday while the search con
tinued offshore for any signs of sur
vivors.
The last routine transmission
cameat 3:55 p.m. PST, when the flight
from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, was
cleared to continue on up the California
coast to San Francisco.
At 4:10 p.m. the pilots advised they
had control difficulties and were
descending through 26,000 feet. A few
seconds later they advised they were at
23,700 feet, and there was “some dis
cussion aboyt their ability to control the
aircraft,” Hammerschmidt said.
Over the next few minutes, the
pilots said they “were kind of stabilized
and going to do some troubleshooting,”
but then said they had a jammed stabi
lizer. At 4:16 they were cleared for an
emergency landing in Los Angeles.
The controllers cleared Flight 261 to
17,000 feet. The crew acknowledged
that was “the last known transmission
from Flight 261 ” Hammerschmidt said.
At 4:21 p.m. the aircraft dropped from
radar.
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^ This is still a search for human
life. The decision to stop searching is
mine, mine to make, and it’s a difficult
one."
Tom Collins
Coast Guard vice admiral
The plane crashed in water 300-feet
to 750-feet deep. A witness described it
as a nose dive, officials said.
Coast Guard ships, Navy vessels
and a private boat combed the choppy
sea about 10 miles off the coast Tuesday
for additional debris that could help
explain the crash. The position of the
pinging was pinpointed by a Navy
underwater demolition team helping
with die search.
Coast Guard Vice Adm. Tom
Collins said die bodies recovered were
those of an infant, two women and a
man.
“This is stilha search for human life.
The decision to stop searching is mine,
mine to make, and it’s a difficult one,’'
Collins said during a news conference.
Monday night, commercial squid
boats used nets to haul in grim
reminders of lives lost: a tennis shoe, a
stuffed animal and a number of small
souvenirs from Mexico. A stench of jet
fuel hung in the air as the nets were
pulled to the surface.
Near the entrance of Port Hueneme,
where the search effort was based, a 7
foot wooden cross festooned with flow
ers was erected Tuesday. A white plastic
angel sat at the base with a candle blow
ing in ajar.
Some local residents bowed their
heads in prayer. From die site they could
see search aircraft patrolling offshore
above die crash area.
“They just stand for a while with
their own thoughts. It’s tragic,” said Neal
Silverman, 47, who moved into his
beach house just a week ago.
Both pilots were Alaska Airlines
veterans. Capt Ted Thompson, 53, was
hired Aug. 16, 1982. First Officer
William Tansky, 57, was hired July 17,
1985, and had 8,047 flying hours with
die Seattle-based airline.
District judge gives inmate
expected stay of execution
OMAHA (AP) - A U.S. district
judge has granted a stay of execution
for death-row inmate Charles Jess
Palmer.
Judge Joseph Bataillon of Omaha
issued the stay Tuesday. Palmer was
scheduled to be executed in Nebraska’s
electric chair on Feb. 15.
Palmer filed the appeal in U.S.
District Court last Friday. Last week the
state Supreme Court rejected a stay.
The stay was expected because
Palmer’s appeal had not been heard in
federal court.
In addition to issuing a stay,
Bataillon appointed two Omaha attor
neys, Michael Nelsen and Steven
Achepohl, to represent Palmer in his
federal appeals.
The state Supreme Court ruled last
year that Palmer, who has been convict
ed three times for killing a Grand Island
coin dealer during a 1979 robbery,
would not get a fourth trial.
Palmer’s earlier request that the
US. Supreme Court hear his request
for a stay of execution was rejected
until the Nebraska high court ruled on
the matter.
Palmer’s defense argues, among
other things, that Palmer had ineffec
tive counsel during the sentencing
phase of his first trial.
Palmer^ lawyers also said his death
sentence Was arbitrary and capricious
because people convicted on similar
crimes have received life in prison.
They also argued that Palmer’s jury
should have been given the option of
convicting him of a lesser offense, such
as second-degree murder or
manslaughter.
■ Northern Ireland
IRA fails to surrender
promised weapons
BELFAST, Northern Ireland
(AP) - Northern Ireland's
Protestant-Catholic government
was plunged into crisis Tuesday
after a report by an independent
commission confirmed that the
Irish Republican Army has failed
to begin turning over its weapons.
Amid doubts that the 8-week
old Northern Ireland administra
tion could survive, the major
Protestant party, the Ulster
Unionists, accused the IRA-linked
Sinn Fein of failing to deliver on
its side of an American-brokered
deal that led to their power-sharing
Cabinet.
■ New York
Trial begins for NYPD
shooting of unarmed man
ALBANY, N Y. (AP) - A 12
member jury, including four
blacks, was seated Tuesday for the
trial of four white New York City
police officers charged with mur
dering an unarmed African immi
grant in a barrage of 41 bullets.
State Supreme Court Justice
Joseph Teresi scheduled opening
statements for this morning.
Amadou Diallo, 22, was
gunned down last February in the
vestibule of his apartment build
ing in the Bronx, shot 19 times by
members of an elite street-crime
unit who said they thought the
street vendor was armed.
■ New York
Advocacy group: Reeve
commercial misleading
NEW YORK (AP) - A dramat
ic commercial aired during the
Super Bowl left some paralyzed
people believing Christopher
Reeve could walk again and want
ing to know where they could find
the same help, the leader of an
advocacy group said Tuesday.
“We’ve received a number of
phone calls from persons who are
paralyzed or their parents or rela
tives, saying, ‘What research insti
tute did Mr. Reeve go to in order to
receive his cure?”’ said Thomas
Countee Jr., executive director of
the National Spinal Cord Injury
Association.
In the computer-engineered ad
for Nuveen Investments, the
“Superman” actor is among those
assembled in an auditorium of the
future to honor research that cured
spinal cord injury. Reeve was par
alyzed in a 1995 horse riding acci
dent.
In the commercial, he gets up
from a chair, then walks hattingly
to the stage and stands with other
research beneficiaries.
■ California
'Simpsons’ character
to meet doom
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A
character on “The Simpsons” is
going to kick the cartoon bucket
this month during the February
sweeps period.
Maude Flanders, wife of do
good Simpson family neighbor
Ned Flanders, is rumored to be the
character that dies in the Feb. 13
episode, although the makers of
the Fox animated series refused to
confirm her passing.
Executive producer Mike
Scully said Maude is among the
possibilities.
The others are school princi
pal Seymour Skinner and Mo the
bartender, a man close to beer
guzzling dad Homer Simpson’s
heart.