News Digest
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■The Republican secretary of
state is under attack for
enforcing the recount time limit
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Honda’s
secretary of state had this message
Monday for election workers
weary from the tedious task of
counting presidential votes: Hurry
up.
Sticking to a firm state dead
line, Republican Secretary of State
Katherine Harris said all 67 coun
ties must finish their recounts by 5
pun. Tuesday.
But her decision was Chal
lenged hours later in court by
lawyers for Palm Beach and
Volusia counties, Democrat A1
Gore and the Florida Democratic
Party, who said counties should
have as much time as they need to
complete their hand counts.
Broward County, one of the
four Florida counties weighing full
recounts by hand, rejected the
idea late Monday after workers
performed a manual count in
three precincts and turned up no
major problems.
The strong Democratic coun
ty, which includes Fort
Lauderdale, found only four addi
tional votes for Gore after hand
counting 3,892 ballots in three
precincts. Attorneys for George W.
Bush and Harris’ office defended
the deadline.
Circuit Judge Terry Lewis said
he would issue a ruling Thesday
morning.
The deadline is a major con
cern for Democratic officials
because the manual recounts they
requested cannot all be complet
ed by the end of the day Tuesday.
The state said counties that don’t
certify their vote by the deadline
“shall be ignored.”
Weary workers, meanwhile,
continued the counts Monday in
scattered counties:
■ Volusia County, home of
Daytona Beach, resumed hand
counting 184,339 ballots and
might finish by late Monday.
Election workers also were
recounting roughly 29,000 absen
tee ballots.
■ Palm Beach County, home
of West Palm Beach, prepared to
start hand counting 425,000 bal
lots Tuesday. They expect to con
The best course of action is to allow the
existing two recounts to stand. Anything less
... would be neither fair nor right.”
Ari Fleischer
Bush spokesman
tinue through Sunday.
■ In Miami-Dade County, the
largest, officials planned to meet
Tuesday to consider the
Democrats’ request for a hand
recount
An informal survey of 61 of
Florida’s 67 election supervisors
found that they had mailed out
more than 18,500 overseas ballots.
Of those, about half had been
returned and the majority of them
counted. It was not immediately
known how many ballots were
outstanding. Election supervisors
plan to count the remaining bal
lots on Friday and send the results
to the Harris's office.
The latest unofficial tally by
v The Associated Press gave
Republican Bush a 388-vote lead
in Florida, but hand recounts
and overseas ballots due by
Friday will determine the final
margin — and likely the winner
of the presidency.
Rate jump to
stamp mail
in January
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - The cost of mailing a letter
will be going up a penny, probably in January.
The independent Postal Rate Commission
acted Monday on a request by the U.S. Postal
Service for a rate increase to offset rising costs.
Under the commission’s action, the price of a
first-class stamp will rise to 34 cents. But the 22
cent cost of a second ounce of first-class mail will
stay the same, as will the 20-cent postcard. The
Postal Service had asked that the second-ounce
rate be raised by 2 cents and the postcard by 1 cent
The post office Board of Governors will decide
when the higher rates will go into effect Jan. 7 is
said to be the likely date.
The Postal Rate Commission
approved the increase after
Maga- months of hearings and deliber
■ ations. The higher rate fora first
ZineS class stamp will bring in about $1
Called billion a year.
fUp The commission also raised
the cost of mailing two pounds of
KegueS- priority mail from $3.20 to $3.95.
ted rate The last rate increase was Jan.
10,1999. It tacked a penny onto
JUtnp the cost of a first-class stamp.
‘devaS- Because it takes so long to
. print the billions of stamps need
tating to ed when new rates take effect,
their the Postal Service already has
r.,. ci'mapp interim stamps in the works.
business. In the past, those changeover
_ stamps carried letter designa
tions, A through H, but that prac
tice has been discontinued.
The post office's proposed increases averaged
about 6 percent over all classes of mail.
In addition to letters and postcards, the Postal
Service sought significant rate increases for maga
zines and catalogs. Magazine publishers called die
requested rate jump “devastating'' to their busi
ness.
Newspaper postage will increase from 26.6
cents for a 10-ounce mailing to 28.7 cents.
The post office is required by laW to base its
rates on the cost of handling each type of mail.
When rate cases go before the rate commission,
hours are spent debating whether costs have been
property allocated.
Postmaster General William Henderson has
noted that the 1-cent boost in first-class mail rates
is below the rate of inflation.
The post office had a $363 million profit in its
1999 fiscal year but was expecting to lose money in
fiscal 2000, which ended Sept 30. Final figures are
scheduled to be announced in December.
Unlike its commercial competitors, when the
Postal Seryice wants to raise prices it must seek
permission from the rate commission and provide
detailed supporting documents. The commission
then holds hearings and issues its decision.
The process takes 10 months.
The Postal Service is a semi-independent fed
eral agency. It does not receive tax money for oper
ations and is expected to make enough money to
break even over time.
It still carries a $3.5 billion accumulated deficit,
built up over many years of operating in the red.
Gore: Recounts honor democracy
Vice president's lawyers pressjudge for hand tallies, extended deadlines
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - His
back to the White House he
yet hopes to claim, A1 Gore
urged patience on the
nation. He suggested
Monday that the presiden
tial election could be set
tled in days.
“While time is impor
tant, it is even more impor
tant that every vote is
counted and counted accu
rately," Gore told reporters
who had been summoned
to the driveway outside the
West Wing.
“Having enough
patience to spend the days
necessary to hear exactly
what the American people
have said, is really the most
important thing because
that is what honors our
Constitution and redeems
the promise of our democ
racy.”
It was the vice presi
dent’s first public comment
on the election tumult
since his sober homage to
the Constitution last
Wednesday, after TV net
works awarded the White
House to Republican
George W. Bush. Then they
took it back because
Florida’s vote was too close
to call.
In the intervening five
days, Gore has made family
touch-football games and
church outings available to
the news media but stu
diously has avoided com
ment on the election out
come.
He spoke Monday as his
lawyers were deeply
involved in court in Florida.
They were persuading a
federal judge to allow their
requests for hand recounts
to continue in several
counties. They also wanted
a state judge to permit the
new tallies to continue
beyond a Tuesday 5 p.m.
deadline set by state elec
tion officials allied with
Bush.
, “I would not want to
win the presidency by a few
votes cast in error or misin
terpreted or not counted,”
Gore said. “And I don’t think
Governor Bush wants that
either.”
The vice president
made no direct mention of
any of the legal wrangling
but, in a contest of images
with the Bush camp,
appeared intent on sound
ing a calming and presiden
“What is at stake is the integrity of our
democracy; making sure that the will of
the American people is expressed and
accurately received
Vice President A1 Gore
Democratic presidential candidate
tial note for the nation.
His backdrop was a
West Wing entrance often
used by visiting heads of
state.
The absence of a uni
formed Marine standing
guard there signified that
President Clinton had
already departed for Asia.
Gore spoke self-con
sciously, as if aware that all
eyes were on him and that
his words would be scoured
for clues to his strategy in
the looming court battles.
He forced a laugh into
his voice when he spoke of
the schoolchildren’s civics
lesson that is the blessing of
this protracted election —
“if there's any saving grace
at all to the extra time that
this is taking.”
“What is at stake is more
important than who wins
the presidency,” he said.
“What is at stake is the
integrity of our democracy,
making sure that the will of
the American people is
expressed and accurately
received.”
He refused to take any
questions as the finish of
his remarks was met with
applause from the two
dozen White House aides
gathered beside journalists
in the driveway.
While at the executive
mansion, his first visit since
meetings there last month
on the Mideast peace crisis,
Gore received his daily
security update directly
from his national security
adviser, Leon Feurth.
In the thick of the cam
paign, those daily readouts
were often handled by tele
phone or by the military
aide who traveled with
Gore.
■ Eight U.S. military personnel and
relatives are presumed dead after
the Austrian cable-car fire.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WUERZBURG, Germany -
Neighbors in this tight-knit military
community remembered Maj. Michael
C. Goodridge on Monday as a father who
did everything he could to help his two
young boys adapt to life on an overseas
military base.
He helped out with his 7-year-old’s
Cub Scout troop, coached soccer and T
ball teams and took die family to week
end football games. On a long Veteran's
Day weekend, Goodridge, his wife
Jennifer and sons Michael and 5-year
old Kyle joined a military-affiliated ski
trip to neighboring Austria.
The family from Texas are among
eight U.S. military personnel and their
relatives who are missing and presumed
dead in a cable car fire at Kitzsteinhorn
mountain in Kaprun, Austria, that killed
atleast 159 people Saturday. U.S. military
recovery teams joined the effort to iden
tify bodies Monday and were collecting
the belongings of die missing, including
the Goodridges’ green SUV parked in
front of the Sport Hotel, its ski racks
empty.
The other members of the
Wuerzburg ski club who are still missing
— 1st Lt. Erich R. Kern, 25, of Dobbs
Ferry, N.Y., and 2nd Lt Carrie L Baker,
23, of Florida — had just become
engaged last week.
Two other missing Americans trav
eled with another ski club from the
Kaiserslautern area, near the U.S. mili
tary’s Rams tein Air Base. They are Paul A.
Filkil, 46, and his son Ben, 15, of
Deerfield, Mich. Filkil’s wife, Karen
Kearney Filkil, is a civilian who works for
the Air Force’s Warrior Preparation
Center in Germany.
Despite being told that their son and
his fiancee were seen boarding the
• doomed cable car, Kern’s parents haven’t
given up hope yet “We don't knowyet for
sure. They didn’t find them yet,” his
mother Angela Kem said in a telephone
interview from her home.
Kem talked to his parents a week ago
and told them how excited he was about
the trip with Baker. He had missed skiing
last season while commanding an infir
mary in Macedonia
"He was ecstatic” about the trip,
Rudolf Kem said. An accomplished skier,
“he was happy to be getting back on
skis.”
Back in Germany, the Goodridges’
neighbors cried and held each other as
they gathered at the military apartment
complex where they all lived near the
main entrance to Leighton Barracks,
headquarters of the 1st Infantry
Division.
They described a family active in
base life. Michael Goodridge ferried the
boys to soccer, T-ball and Tae Kwon Do
practice.
Mrs. Goodridge was involved with
the base elementary school, helping pre
pare meals on holidays and working with
the parent-teacher association.
“Both were Army brats, they knew
what it took to make a community
work,” said Christine Merkel, who lived
next to the Goodridge family.
After hearing about the accident in
the mountain tunnel, Merkel’s 8-year
old son Alastair recalled a trip to the
Canary Islands he took with his mother
and Mrs. Goodridge and her boys while
the women’s husbands were serving in
Kosovo last Easter.
During a train ride, the children
started whistling and making noise as
they passed through a tunnel. “I bet Kyle
was whistling when they went through
that tunnel," Alastair said
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Palestinians increase ambushes
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
JERUSALEM
Palestinians pushed their
conflict with Israel to a
more violent level
Monday with ambushes
in the West Bank and Gaza
Strip that killed four
Israelis. Four Palestinians
also died from clashes,
and as the death toll
passed 200, Israel said the
conflict is no longer an
uprising, but open war
fare.
Palestinians in a car
opened fire on a convoy of
Jewish settlers escorted by
army vehicles between
two Israeli settlements in
the West Bank in the late
afternoon, killing an
Israeli woman in a civilian
car. The gunmen then
raked an army bus with
more than 50 bullets,
killing two soldiers and
wounding eight', the mili
tary said.
After nightfall,
Palestinians opened fire
on an Israeli truck near
the Kissufim crossing
point in Gaza, killing
another Israeli.
Two Palestinian teen
agers were killed in a clash
with Israeli forces near the
Gaza refugee camp of
KhanYunis, Palestinians
said. The Israeli military
denied its soldiers opened
fire there.
Another teen-ager,
Ahmed Dahlan, 17, died
in an Israeli hospital of
wounds suffered
Saturday.
He was a nephew of
the chief of Palestinian
Preventive Security in
Gaza, Mohammed
Dahlan.
A Palestinian police
man was shot and killed
in a nighttime clash with
Israeli soldiers near the
city of Qalqilya in the West
Bank.
At least 206 people
have been killed since the
latest outbreak of Middle
East violence began on
Sept. 28, the vast majority
Palestinians.
The Associated Press
■New Hampshire
Bush loses votes to Gore
in recount but keeps lead
CONCORD - Proofreading
and computer errors whittled
George W. Bush’s margin of vic
tory in New Hampshire to 7,211,
the secretary of state’s office
said Monday.
A review of the voting
showed Bush lost 731 votes and
Al Gore gained 227, a net gain of
958 for Gore.
Monday was also the dead
line to ask for a recount, and
none was requested.
State and local officials
spent the day examining prob
lems in the count and deter
mining how widespread they
were.
A proofreading error at the
secretary of state's office gave
Bush 1,000 too many votes in
one Nashua ward. In several
other communities, a program
ming error miscounted votes —
in some cases helping Bush, in
some cases, Gore. And in sever-"
al communities, straight ticket
votes were not counted. The net
winner on that error was Bush,
who gained 153 votes.
The revised final counts
were 273,559 votes for Bush and
266,348 for Gore. Initially, the
official results gave Bush a
8,169-vote lead.
■Antarctica
Two women aim to be first
to ski across continent
QUEEN MAUD LAND - An
American polar adventurer and
her Norwegian partner arrived
in Antarctica on Monday, hop
ing to become the first women
to ski unaided across the frozen
continent
When their Russian-built
Ilyushin 76 airplane skidded to
a halt on an ice runway,
American Ann Bancroft and
Norwegian Liv Arnesen imme
diately called their support base
in Minnesota by a satellite
phone.
Bancroft and Arnesen want
to be the first women to ski
across Antarctica with no out
side assistance. Towing a heavy
sled, they plan to ski 2,400 miles
across a barren expanse, where
winds blast up to 100 miles per
hour and summertime temper
atures average 30 degrees below
zero.
In 1994, Arnesen, of Oslo,
became the first woman to ski
alone and unaided to the South
Pole - a 50-day journey.
Bancroft was the first woman to
ski to both the North Pole and
the South Pole.
■ Washington, D.C
Using dog, cat hair in retail
calls fur prison time,fines
Selling or making products
with dog or cat fur is now a fed
eral crime under a bill signed
into law by President Clinton.
Under the new law, selling,
making or transporting cloth
ing, toys or other items made
with the fur or skins of dogs and
cats could bring a maximum
$25,000 fine or up to a year in
prison.
“This legislation sends a
strong message to importers
and retailers that sales of dog
and cat fur will not be tolerated
in the United States,” said
Wayne Pacelle, senior vice pres
ident of Humane Society of the
United States.
There is no evidence that
pets are being killed in the
United States for their fur.
But DNA tests on furs have
confirmed that products such
as gloves, fur linings and insoles
for shoes and boots made with
dog or cat hair have been sold in
this country, the Humane
Society said.
TODAY
Mostly sunny
high 40, low 24
TOMORROW
Scattered snow
high 38, low 25