Copyright 1999 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
St.
Louis Post-Dispatch
May 5, 1999, Wednesday, FIVE STAR LIFT
EDITION
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. A13
LENGTH: 927 words
HEADLINE:
NATION
BYLINE: From News Services
BODY:
Rosa Parks is in line for
Congressional Gold Medal
President Bill Clinton has authorized giving
civil rights heroine Rosa Parks a Congressional Gold Medal. Clinton signed a
bill Tuesday bestowing Congress' highest recognition on the 86-year-old Parks,
whose refusal more than four decades ago to give up her seat to a white man in
Montgomery, Ala., inspired civil rights advocates across the country. "Her act
that December day was, in itself, a simple one; but it required uncommon
courage," the president said in a statement. "It was a ringing rebuke to those
who denied the dignity and restricted the rights of African-Americans." The
arrest in December 1955 of Parks set off a lengthy bus boycott led by Martin
Luther King Jr. and provoked a Supreme Court challenge to Montgomery's
segregation law.
Tour boat pilot says failed pump added to
tragedy
The driver of a Hot Springs, Ark., tour boat that went to the
bottom of a lake in seconds, killing 13 people, said the vessel's pump failed to
kick in when water poured through the hull, a federal investigator said Tuesday.
The pump has become a focus of the investigation as a Navy salvage crew began
preparations to raise the amphibious craft from the lake bed where it settled
Saturday. In talking with investigators on Sunday, the day after the accident,
driver Elizabeth Helmbrecht said she did not hear the main pump activate,
National Transportation Safety Board spokesman John A. Hammerschmidt said. The
pump is supposed to turn on if water about four inches deep reaches the center
of the hull, Hammerschmidt said.
Scheme to start all-white
republic lands 2 in prison
Two white supremacists were convicted in
Little Rock, Ark., on Tuesday of engaging in a murderous scheme to set up a
whites-only republic in the Pacific Northwest. Chevie Kehoe and Daniel Lee, both
26, could get the death penalty for killing an Arkansas gun dealer, his wife and
her daughter in 1996. Kehoe and Lee were convicted of all murder, conspiracy and
racketeering charges against them. The jury will return Thursday to begin
hearing testimony in the sentencing phase. Federal prosecutors said the men
pursued their dream of an all-white republic by stockpiling military-style
weapons, robbing several people and suffocating gun dealer William Mueller, his
wife, Nancy, and her 8-year-old daughter, Sarah Powell, before throwing their
bodies into a river.
House GOP urges audit of legal aid program
House Republicans have asked congressional auditors to investigate
case-reporting problems at a federally funded program that provides free legal
aid for the poor. House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, and four other GOP
House members want the General Accounting Office, the investigative and auditing
arm of Congress, to determine the extent of inaccurate case reporting at
Legal Services Corp.'s regional programs and whether the agency
is doing enough to fix the problem. The Associated Press reported on April 7
that Legal Services overstated to Congress the number of cases it handled in
1997 by tens of thousands. One office reported eight times as many new cases as
it should have, according to the report.
Ford recalls thousands
of Expeditions, Navigators
Ford Motor Co. is recalling about 57,200 of
its 1999 Expeditions and Navigators because of a problem that could cause the
wheels to fall off. "We're aware of one accident with two minor injuries," a
Ford spokeswoman said Tuesday. The recall of the two sport utility vehicles
affects models with optional 17-inch chrome-finished steel wheels. Ford said
some wheels might not have enough contact with the hub, which could cause
vibration or result in the wheel and tire falling off. Dealers will tighten the
wheels and install a label with tightening instructions on each wheel at no
expense to owners.
Switched-at-birth woman loses custody of her
son
Kimberly Mays, who was switched at birth and was the center of a
bitter custody battle with two sets of parents, has lost custody of her own son.
The Florida Department of Children and Families last week placed Mays' son,
Devin Weeks, in foster care, the Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale reported
Tuesday, citing unidentified sources close to the family. Devin turns 2 in
August. Mays, now 20, married Jeremy Weeks in 1997. The state agency would not
release details, citing confidentiality laws. The state has authority to remove
children from parental custody because of abuse, neglect or abandonment. Mays
was switched at birth in 1978 at a Wauchula hospital with another baby raised by
Regina and Ernest Twigg. The mix-up was discovered in 1988, when tests showed
the girl the Twiggs raised was not their biological daughter. That child, Arlena
Twigg, died of heart disease.
Satellite orbiting too low is
written off as a failure
An $ 800 million satellite that was launched
into an orbit thousands of miles too low last week will never achieve its
original mission, the Air Force said Tuesday. It was the third consecutive
military satellite mission to fail. Air Force controllers have stabilized the
Milstar communication satellite and extended its electricity-generating solar
wings since its launch Friday aboard a Titan IV rocket. But the satellite
remains in a lopsided orbit with a high point of only 3,100 miles. That orbit
poses no threat of an uncontrolled fall through the atmosphere, officials said.
The Air Force has yet to determine whether the satellite can be of any use where
it is, or how to eventually dispose of it.
LOAD-DATE: July 25, 1999 
