News Digest
Ramsey grand jury recesses
until Wednesday
1 BOULDER, Colo. — A grand
jury investigating the JonBenet
Ramsey slaying met for nearly
seven hours Tuesday before re
cessing with plans to return to
work Wednesday as speculation
mounted that a decision soon
would be made.
When the grand jurors finished
for the day, they were escorted to
their cars by armed sheriffs
deputies.
“The grand jury will return for
more work tomorrow,” said
Suzanne Laurion, a spokes
woman for District Attorney Alex
Hunter. She declined further
comment.
The sheriffs deputies were part
of a stepped-up effort to keep the
growing number of reporters and
cameramen away from the jurors.
City officials erected “Media
Free Zone” signs in the courtyard
of the Boulder County Justice
Center, barring reporters from ar
eas where they once stood to
videotape the jurors.
Hunter avoided reporters so he
could focus on the case, Ms. Lau
rion said.
“I think he wants to play it real
close to the vest... and I think he
wants to not be distracted,” she
said.
Hunter fueled speculation last
week by telling reporters to stay
by their phones over the week
end, implying the jury’s work was
nearing an end.
rort, six contractors face fines
over airport work
2 SEATTLE — The Port of Seattle
and six contractors face more
than $127,000 in fines for alleged
safety violations that may have
exposed workers to asbestos dur
ing renovation at Seattle-Tacoma
International Airport, the state
Department of Labor and Indus
tries says.
The port and the companies
can appeal the citations and fines
announced Monday.
Asbestos, once prized as a
building material for its ability to
resist heat and corrosives, has
been linked to lung disease, in
cluding cancer.
The largest penalty, $63,000,
was assessed against Martinez
Melgoza and Associates, a Seattle
consultant on the project to reno
vate airport restaurants.
The consultant was cited for
seven willful violations, which
occur when an employer knows
safety rules are being broken or in
tends to break them.
Among other things, L&I says,
Martinez Melgoza failed to set up
enclosures to confine asbestos to
work areas, failed to make sure
workers wore respirators, failed to
provide decontamination facili
ties and failed to ensure asbestos
was cleaned up or adequately
contained after removal.
The company will contest the
violations, said attorney Douglas
Hales, who added that it seems
unlikely that any workers were
exposed to asbestos.
Americans watching fat, but
ignoring calories, exercise
3CHICAGO — Many of the more
than two-thirds of U.S. adults
trying to lose weight could fail be
cause they>e either cutting calo
ries or exercising but not doing
both, a nationwide survey found.
Thirty-five percent of men and
40 percent of women who said
they were trying to lose weight are
not counting calories, according
to a report in Wednesday’s Jour
nal of the American Medical As
sociation.
Many are eating less fat, but
they may be consuming as many
"—;—~™
or more calories from lower-fat
foods, researchers said.
Even those who are combining
exercise and calorie reduction of
ten aren’t exercising enough, re
searchers said. Only 42 percent of
the men and 37 percent of the
women who said they were trying
to lose weight are meeting federal
recommendations of at least 150
minutes of exercise each week.
The findings could help ex
plain why obesity is increasing
even though Americans spend
$33 billion a year on weight loss
products and services, said the
study’s lead author, Dr. Mary K.
Serdula, a medical epidemiologist
in the federal Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention’s Division
of Nutrition and Physical Activi
ty
Virginia officiate to investigate
inmate sex complaints
4RICHMOND, Va. — Gov. Jim
Gilmore said Tuesday he has
ordered Virginia’s top public safe
ty official to investigate com
plaints of widespread sexual
abuse by guards at the state’s
largest prison for women.
The inquiry was announced af
ter The Associated Press reported
sexual misconduct complaints at
the prison nearly tripled in the
first nine months of this year com
pared with the last nine months of
1998. There have been 25 com
plaints this year, up from nine a
year ago.
The reported cases are “the tip
of the iceberg ... in this little
cesspool (of) seductions,” inmate
Bobinette Fearce told the AP.
She and others interviewed by
the AP said most inmates are
afraid to report abuse because
they fear reprisals from guards.
The Fluvanna Correctional Center
for Women near Charlottesville
has 900 inmates and nearly 500
employees.
“We can’t assume anything ...
until we know the facts,” Gilmore
told reporters. “So let’s go out
there and get the facts, and I’ve di
rected the secretary of public safe
ty to do that.”
American Civil Liberties Union
attorney Donna Lee said she knew
of no other women’s prison with
more sexual abuse complaints.
“That’s a strong indication of a
very serious problem,” she said.
There are about 140,000 women
in U.S. jails and prisons.
Search for lunar water comes
up dry
5WASHINGTON — An attempt
to find water on the moon by
crashing a used spacecraft into
the lunar surface has come up
dry, researchers say.
In a report prepared for presen
tation Wednesday at a meeting of
astronomers in Padua, Italy, a re
searcher from the University of
Texas said no water was detected
from the crash of the Lunar
Prospector spacecraft into a moon
crater.
The Lunar Prospector, which
had completed its mission of
mapping the moon from lunar or
bit, was sent smashing into a
crater near the moon’s south pole
on July 31. Instruments on the
spacecraft earlier had detected the
presence of hydrogen, suggesting
the crater could contain ice. Sci
entists hoped the violence of the
crash would splash up a plume of
water-bearing dust.
More than a dozen Earth- and
space-based telescopes observed
the crash site. Researchers hoped
that ultraviolet radiation, shining
through the dust plume from the
crash, would bear the spectral sig
nature of water. No evidence of
water was found, said David
Goldstein, the University of Texas
researcher who headed the exper
iment.
“As expected, we didn’t make a
big splash, or we all would have
seen a water signal quickly,”
Goldstein said in a statement.
U.S. mercy mission planes fly
to edge of Antarctica
BCHRISTCHURCH, New Zea
land — After a 24-hour delay
caused by bad weather, two U.S.
military cargo planes flew to the
South Pole early Wednesday to
prepare to rescue a polar research
station’s doctor who has a lump
in her breast.
Two Air National Guard Her
cules LC-130 cargo planes set out
for McMurdo base on the north
ern coast of Antarctica after high
winds and swirling snow eased in
Antarctica.
When the planes arrive in Mc
Murdo, they must wait until the
temperature at the Amundsen
Scott South Pole Station rises
above minus 50 degrees Celsius
(minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit) be
fore flying thereto pick up Dr. Jer
ri Nielsen.
A replacement doctor for the
station and a team of medics to
treat Nielsen are on one of the
planes, which are fitted with skis
:o allow them to land on the ice at
\mundsen-Scott base. The base is
■un by the U.S.-based National
Science Foundation.
Nielsen, 44, is the only physi
cian among 41 researchers at the
\mundsen-Scott base. She dis
covered a lump in her breast earli
?r this year but could not be evac
uated because of the harsh polar
weather.
Conservative Austrian party
decides against coalition
7VIENNA, Austria — The con
servative junior partner in Aus
tria’s coalition government decid
sd Tuesday to become an
apposition party, a move that may
lead to political instability and
aew elections next year.
The decision, made by leaders
af the Austrian People’s Party,
came only hours after the center
left Social Democrats of Chancel
lor Viktor Klima had urged the
conservatives to reconsider their
earlier threat to join the opposi
tion despite their third-place elec
tion finish.
The Social Democrats were
seeking to prevent the far-right
Freedom Party of nationalist Joerg
Haider from entering the govern
ment— a development that could
prompt Israel to break off diplo
matic relations with Austria.
If the Social Democrats stick to
their motto: “No coalition with
the Freedom Party” and the Peo
ple’s Party of Foreign Minister
and Vice Chancellor Wolfgang
Schuessel indeed goes into oppo
sition, this small neutral country
would be without a government,
and new elections would have to
be held next year. Final results
from the Oct. 3 national election
announced earlier Tuesday con
firmed that the Freedom Party fin
ished second in the balloting.
The Associated Press
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