News Digest
r *
■Three other executives also
must testify in the case of a
couple who died in a car wreck.
THEManranTEnpagaa
WASHINGTON - A Texas
judge has ordered the CEO of
Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. and
three other executives to appear
in the case of a couple who died
when the tread allegedly came off
of their Firestone tires, said a
lawyer involved in the case.
A lawyer for relatives of
Patricio and Nidia Leal, who died
in the accident last May, said he
wants chief executive officer
Masatoshi Ono to explain in a
deposition when the Tokyo
based company knew that there
were problems with die Firestone
tires that are being recalled.
Ono told The Wall Street
Journal in an Aug. 18 story that
the company knew there were
problems with Wilderness tires
when used under “severe condi
tions” and moved to improve the
model before the recall.
“The question that jumps up
is, ‘What did you know and when
did you know it?”’ said attorney
Bob Patterson, who requested
the deposition. “And what
changes were they making to try
and stop die problem?”
Patterson said Texas State
District Judge John Pope issued
the order on Friday for Ono and
Firestone executives Gary
Crigger, Christine Karbowiak,
and Robert Wyant to be deposed
Sept. 15 in Nashville, Tenn.,
where Firestone’s headquarters
are located.
Patterson said attorneys may
also use the executives’ deposi
tions in other cases of accidents
involving the tires.
More than 100 lawsuits were
filed nationwide against the tire
makers before the recall
Congressional staff are
scheduled to meet Monday with
Firestone executives in Nashville.
A spokesman for the House
Commerce Committee said it will
be asking when the company
knew there was a problem with
the Wilderness AT, ATX and ADCII
tires.
Bridgestone /Firestone
recalled about 6.5 million
P235/75R15 size Firestone ATX,
ATX II and Wilderness AT tires,
often found on Ford Explorers, on
Aug. 9.
The Leals were killed in May
1999 near Brownsville, Texas,
while traveling in a Ford Explorer
equipped with now-recalled
Firestone ATX tires, Patterson
said. \
The Leal trial is scheduled to
begin Oct 16, the first case to go
to trial since the recall, said Sean
Kane, president of Strategic
Safety, a group researching the
"The question that
jumps up is, What did
you know and when
did you know it?"
Bob Patterson
attorney
tire problem for attorneys who
are suing the company.
A spokeswoman for
Firestone, Cynthia McCafferty,
said she had no information on
the case, but the company does
n't generally comment on pend
ing litigation. However, she
added, Firestone officials will
comply with any judicial order
Remains returned
to surviving tribe
THE ASSftMATEn PRESS
BERKELEY, CaBt -The return
of Ishi's remains to his Indian
homeland 80 years after scientists
removed his brain in the interests
of science has drawn new atten
tion to the quest to retrieve ances
tral bones from museum base
ments.
Ishi, it turns out, is an excep
tion. Ten years after Congress
ordered Native American remains
returned to their tribes, only 10
percent of the up to 200,000
remains estimated to be in public
collections are even officially
inventoried, federal records show.
With more than 8,000 Indian
remains, the collection of the
University of California, Berkeley,
is third only to those at the
Smithsonian and Harvard. So far,
however, the school has returned
only an amulet and an earthen
ware jar
While a variety of factors lie
behind the delays, two stand out:
Institutions have been slow to
reveal tb^ir holdings tn Indians as
they try to match bones to tribes,
and federal officials have been
slow to do anything about the data
that have been turned in.
Ishi walked out of the wilder
ness of Northern California in
1911, the last survivor of his tribe.
He was taken in by researchers
and lived out his days at a muse
um wnere ne demonstrated ms
skills for curious crowds.
When Ishi died in 1916, his
brain was removed - against his
request not to be autopsied - and
his body cremated.
His brain was sent to the
Smithsonian, where it remained
largely forgotten until a group of
California Indians began search
ing for him in 1997.
Although Ishi was known as
the “last of the Yahi," the
Smithsonian ruled that Ishi had
ties to a surviving tribe, which
decided to reunite his brain with
his cremated remains for burial in
a secret ceremony near Mount
Lassen.
The 1990 federal law requires
all federally funded agencies and
museums to return remains.
Inventories were to be com
pleted in 1995. After an extension
and a threat of fines, Berkeley
finally finished its inventory of
remains on June 30.
About 17 parent of Berkeley’s
remains have been determined to
be affiliated with a particular tribe,
meaning they can be claimed.
Three requests are pending.
Despite the headaches,
Sullivan believes overall that the
law is working.
“What’s happened is there’s
finally a national standard that
recognizes these human rights,”
Sullivan said.
Firefighters worry windy weather
may worsen dangerous wildfires
■Weekend forecast blamed
for creating afirestomn in
South Dakota's Black Hills.
THPtaanRUTtnpnesa
HELENA, Mont - Firefighters
were on their guard Sunday as
more windy weather threatened
to worsen wildfires that already
had turned hundreds of thou
sands of acres of forest to ash.
Wind already was blamed for
creating a firestorm in South
Dakota’s mountainous Black
Hills.
Fire officials worried that 30
mph wind forecast Sunday could
cause problems for some of the
10,000 people battling the 23
major wildfires in the forests of
western Montana.
“Tbday is supposed to be a big
day for wind,” said Venetia
Gempler of the National
Interagency Fire Center in Boise,
Idaho. “We are expecting to have a
significant growth in fires because
of this wind.”
Montana fires burned an
additional 13,000 acres Saturday,
as blustery weather swept
through the region, but officials
said some of that was land within
the perimeters of fires that had
not been charred by the flames’
first pass.
“We did get some growth on
the fires, but nothing incredibly
huge,” said Connie Myers, an
information officer for crew bat
tling a group of blazes that had
blackened more than 260,000
acres in and around the Bitterroot
Valley.
That was not the case in
Western South Dakota, where a
fire in the heart of the Black Hills
National Forest, northwest of
Custer, exploded from 30,000
acres on Saturday to an estimated
90,000 on Sunday.
The Forest Service said it
expected more "explosive fire
behavior” Sunday.
rirengmers were rorceu on
that fire’s north side Saturday
because the wind created
firestorm conditions. Three out
buildings and a tractor were
destroyed in the sparsely settled
region and two homes were dam
aged, officials reported.
The few people in the region
woe urged to evacuate an area of
300 square miles, forest officials
said.
Fire lines along the eastern
side of the blaze were being
strengthened because a cold front
moving into the region was
expected to bring northwesterly
wind.
There was a possibility that
the wind could help crews work
ing on a 110,000-acre range fire in
south-central Washington. It had
burned 16 structures, including
one home.
“We are expecting to
have a significant
growth in fires
because of this wind "
Venetia Gempler
National Interagency Fire Center
That fire, near Prosser, Wash.,
was 50 percent contained early
Sunday, and the wind was expect
ed to blow out of the west, which
“would be blowing the fire back
on itself,” said Laura Vander Meer
of the state Emergency
Operations Center.
Montana's Gov. Marc Radcot
said Sunday that die federal gov
ernment shared some of the
blame for the fires.
The fire danger, he said on
“Fox News Sunday,” was some
thing “that the administration
knew about, that all of us have
known about for a long period of
time.”
But Racicot denied that
Western governors were using the
issue of die fires to hurt A1 Gore’s
presidential campaign.
"That’s patent nonsense,” ,
Racicot, a Republican, said.
“Anyone that would politicize this
issue with the tragedy that’s con
fronting die people of the West,
virtually all of them, would be
outrageous. It’s totally inappro
priate to cast it in those terms.”
C Questions? Comments?
Ask lor the appropriate section editor at
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ore-mail: dn#unl^du
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^_DAILY NEBRASKAN
Omaha man
picks winning
lottery ticket
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
OMAHA, Neb.—A mistake by
a convenience store clerk couldnt
have had a better outcome.
The winning PowerbaU ticket
was sold for Saturday^ $ 14 million
jackpot at the Comer Food Mart
in south Omaha.
“He wanted a Pick 5 but I hit
the wrong button for it and got
PowerbaU instead,” said Greg
Poth, who was working at the food
mart Friday night. “I talked him
into buying it and he won.”
Poth said he remembered the
customer. Poth said the winner
buys $10-15 worth of lottery tick
ets twice a week.
TODAY
Partly cloudy
high 89, low 72
TOMORROW
Partly cloudy
high 80, low 72
Rebels free five hostages
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
JOLO, Philippines - Five for
eign hostages released by Muslim
rebels walked into freedom
Sunday looking stunned, some in
tears and leaving family members
still captive in the jungle on a
remote Philippine island.
The Abu Sayyaf separatist
guerrillas released four women
and one man after Libya agreed to
pay $1 million for each, negotia
tors said. The rebels were still
holding seven other Westerners
and 12 Filipinos.
But freedom was bittersweet
for the former hostages. “We’re
not happy because there are peo
ple left behind,” said French citi
zen Marie Moarbes. “It's not fin
ished yet for us.”
The freed hostages were Sonia
Wendling of France, South African
Monique Strydom, German
Werner Wallert, and Maryse
i
Burgot, a French journalist
“My son is still there. You don't
expect me to be happy," Wallert
said. Strydom's husband also
remains a hostage.
Wendling, rubbing her eyes in
apparent disbelief, said she could
never forget her four months in
captivity. “I don't know how to
describe the experience,” she said.
All but die journalist were kid
napped April 23, while vacation
ing at a Malaysian diving resort
and brought by boat to Jolo, an
impoverished island near the
Philippines' southern tip.
Burgot was seized with two
other French television journalists
last month when they visited the
rebel camp.
Still in captivity are one
French, one German, two Finns
and one South African kidnapped
from the Malaysian resort, the two
French journalists and 12 Filipino
Christian evangelists.
"We’re
not
happy
because
there
are
people
left
behind.
It’s not
finished
yet for
us."
Marie
Moarbes
French
citizen
-1
Can you handle the truth?
Dailyneb.com
The Associated Press
■Rush
traps four people in elevator
MOSCOW-Fire engulfed the
Ostankino television tower, the
world’s second-tallest freestand
ing structure, trapping four peo
ple in an elevator and knocking
out most TV channels in the
Russian capital Sunday.
Firefighters have had trouble
fighting the fire, which started
about 1,520 feet above ground,
due to die difficulty of hauling
equipment, including chemical
fire extinguishers, up so many
flights of stairs. The towerfe spire is
narrow at that point, and the
cramped quarters hampered
movement
Yellow flames licked from the
glassed-in platform as darkness
fell on the dty.
Rescuers battled to locate the
stuck elevator where three fire
fighters and a female elevator
operator were trapped about 860
feet above ground, said Nikolai
Sarychev, a fire department
spokesman at the scene.
■VoKZueb ^
astopminktersinCabinet
CARACAS, Venezuela -
Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez appointed three “revolu
tionary* women as top ministers
Sunday, in what had previously
been a male-dominated Cabinet
Chavez picked Blancanieves
Portocarrero to replace Lino
Martinez as labor minister.
Portocarrero had served as vice
president to a special assembly
which drafted a new constitution
tailored to Chavez's specifica
tions.
Former Commerce Minister
Juan Montilla will be replaced by
Luisa Romero Bermudez, presi
dent of the state import-export
bank, and Deputy Health
Minister Analisa Osorio Granado
will take the job of environment
minister.
■Connecticut
Man guns down three people
h rtfrr i^n fKjuiriiui himrnlf
DeTore snooung nirnseiT
WATERBUn% Goon. - A man
went on a killing spree Saturday,
gunning down three people,
including a firefighter who was
collecting money for charity,
before shooting himself to death,
police said.
The gunman knew all three
victims, but authorities hadn’t
determined why he targeted
than. One victim was a neighbor
and another was the mother of an
ex-girifiiend.
The shooting spree began
when the suspect, identified as
Mark Cote, 29, got into an argu
ment with Brian Miller, 30, who
lived in the same multiple- family
home as Cote, police said. The
two had an ongoing dispute, but
police would not say why they
were arguing Saturday.
Flaherty said Cote shot Miller
while his neighbor was sitting in
his car; dragged him out and shot
him again before fleeing in the
car
In a pulled quote that ran in
Friday’s Daily Nebraskan about a
rally featuring human rights
activist Angela Davis on the north
capitol steps at noon today, a par
enthetical phrase was inserted
that could be misinterpreted.
Mary Dickinson, spokeswoman
for Nebraskans for Justice, said:
“We want to raise awareness of
the unjust incarcerations of 30
years.” She was referring to two
men who she believes are political
prisoners, Edward Poindexter
and David Rice, who changed his *
name to Mondo we Langa while
in prison.
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