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mzmm^ The Hometown Republican etown Newspaper o/ •• Clinton, Essex, Franklin Counties Vol.103 - No. 56 © Copyright 1995, Prew-RepubUcan Plattsburgh, NY 12901, Monday, October 16,1995 Suggested Price: 50 c 20 Pages Hurricane Roxanne bears down on Mexico By JOHN RICE Associoted Press Writer CAMPECHE, Mexico (AP) - Wind and rain lashed the southern Gulf coast Sunday night and power outages dark- ened homes as a reborn Hur- ricane Roxanne's 85-mph winds took aim on areas it sideswiped just days earlier. Roxanne, which had been downgraded to a tropical storm, was listed as a category 1 hur- ricane on Sunday, the weakest on a scale of one to five. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami issued a hurricane warn- ing from Progreso to Tampico. Richard Pasch, a forecaster at the hurricane center, said Tabasco and Campeche states on the southern Gulf rim could be inundated after having bjeen pounded by Roxanne and by Hurricane Opal a week earlier. \The big problem is that the- Continued Page 10 Thousands join rally at By CONNIE CASS oodKiMU. MILLS AuocloUd Pun Wrltan WASHINGTON(AP) - Black men converging on the nation's capital for Monday's Million Man March described it as a unifying, uplifting event that transcends its controversial originator, Na- tion of Islam leader Louis Far- rakhan. \It's not about a march, a man, words. It's about a movement,\ the Rev. Vernor Clay said after a Sunday sermon urging the men of Lincoln Congregational Tem- ple in Washington to attend. The event, actually -more of a rally and prayer meeting than march, is called \a day of atone- ment and reconciliation.\ Sup- porters describe it as a call for black men to take responsibility for their own lives and families, and to dedicate themselves to fighting the scourges of drugs, violence and unemployment. Organizers asked women — and men who can't come to the rally — to stay home from work or school to mark a \holy day,\ and to avoid spending any money as a demonstration of black eco- nomic power. No one knows how many will take part. Sunday night, several thou- sand black men, women and children turned out for a \prayer and praise rally\ at the D.C. Continued Page 1,0 Staff Photo/Mike Dowd SUPERSTITIOUS?: Some say it's bad luck to have a black cat cross your path, but this friendly feline doesn't appear to be a threat. He may, however, simply be biding his time while planning a mischievous Halloween night. NY leads country in prisoner lawsuit spending By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY Associated Press Writer ALBANY (AP) - New York pays more than $7 million per year for the legal pursuits of its prisoners, far outpacing amounts spent by other states, even those with larger inmate populations, \according to a new report. Statistics in a new study en- titled \Inmates vs. Taxpayers\ by state Sen. Michael. Nozzolio shows that New York.leads the nation in inmate legal costs, ac- counting for 26.8 percent of all dollars spent by states for legal assistance for prisoners. That's more than double than Texas, which was second with 10 percent, but has more than 130,000 inmates, compared to New York's 68,000 prisoner pop- ulation. \How can New York continue to be so out of line with other states?\ asked Nozzolio, who chairs the Senate committee on Crime Victims, Crime and Cor- rection. The Monroe County Republican senator is calling for a sharp reduction in the financial, aid given to inmate legal ser- vices. \Law-abiding citizens don't have those same kind of rights or services,\ he said on Sunday. \Inmates on the other hand have the taxpayer-financed services to take care of them.\ According to the report, the state spends at least $3.5 million per year on professional inmate legal services that help prisoners not only with cases related to their incarceration, but also in divorce cases, immigration pro- ceedings, and a host of other issues. In addition, the state provides about the same amount annually to pay for prison legal library resources and staffing for those facilities. \ We've seen an industry grow here of taxpayers finances (legal services),\ said Nozzolio, who noted that many states only pro- vide either law libraries or legal services, but not both. Nozzolio is also calling for New York state to drop either the libraries or the legal services for prisoners. Representatives for the main group that represents prisoners, Prisoners Legal Services, were not at their office on Sunday and attempts to locate their home numbers were unsuccessful. Nozzolio blames the availabili- ty of these resources as a reason for the sharp rise in prisoner suits against the state, which has grown from 25 in 1976 to nearly 7,000 this year. \Some of these inmates are doing it as a fact of sport,\ said ' Nozzolio. \I would say the vast majority of these inmate lawsuits are frivolous. They're doing it to harass the officials that are keeping them there,\ he said. Although Nozzolio said he wasn't seeking to stop an inmate— from his right to sue, he criti- cized the ability of inmates to collect damages from the state due to civil rights violations since many of them are serving time for violent crimes. \If there is a violation of civil rights, we are suggesting that that violation be taken care of, but we do not believe that the monetary damages are necessar- ily the way to take care of it,\ he said, noting in his report that more than $58 million in inmate awards have been doled out since 1976. Nozzolio's report calls for any awards given to inmates be given to the Crime Victims Assistance Board, which gives financial assistance to crime victims and their families. The report also suggested that attorneys that work for state- funded organizations like Pris- oners Legal Services be barred from collecting attorney's fees for awards won by inmates. Attorneys from such organiza- tions should also be prevented from taking, cases from inmates .suing the state for monetary damages, the report said. iMost of the issues raised in the report will be the subject of a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Nozzolio said. \We need to look at every way possible to ,cut the cost of state services and here's a cost of state government that has been growing unchecked for the past two decades,\ he said. Voter appeal Neighbors bring their concerns to city mayoral candidates RICHARD C. TEN WOLDE Stoff Writer PLATTSBURGH - As the mayoral race nears the final stretch, the Democrat and Republican candidates have yet to meet in a public debate, but Sunday they took their respec- tive messages to the voters. Mark Dame, the Republican runner, campaigned at a day of hot dogs,-cotton candy and music in the South End Park, and Mayor Clyde Rabideau met with West Court Street residents to hear their concerns. The voters attending each function expressed similar wor- ries about the future of Platt- sburgh, but were convinced that their candidate was the man to lead the city. Most of those interviewed listed the redevelopment of the air base First when asked about the campaign issues. \Clyde Rabideau should be more involved in the base's future,\ said Marilyn McClure, a Dame supporter. \I don't see (Rabideau) doing anything about it. I'm sick and tired of it.\ But voters in Rabideau's camp, like Joseph McGrath, said they see the mayor's efforts as persis- tent and aggressive. \He's meeting the challenge of reutilizing the Air Force base,\ said Jack Dee, a Clinton County attorney. Dame said he would use a more exhaustive and pro-active approach to redeveloping the base because its success directly impacts the health of the local economy. The dominant issue is the air base, agreed Rabideau. And the mayor said he stands by his ad- ministration's record in pursuing new tenants in cooperation with the Town of 'Plattsburgh, the county and Plattsburgh Airbase Redevelopment Corporation. Mark David, who recently returned to Plattsburgh from school in San Francisco, said he noticed a change for the worse in the condition of the downtown area. Other Dame supporters made sim i 1 ar— st-atements, -but—Noel- - Smith applauded Rabideau's ef- forts to bring jobs into the city, improve the infrastructure and take steps to beautify downtown. The mayor cited \the major turn around in the downtown, like the new Farmers Market, street repairs, facade renovations and marketing\ as part of his at- Continued on Page 10 WEATHER Today, blustery with lots of clouds and scattered showers. High in the upper 40s. Southwest wind 15 to 25 mph and with higher gusts. Chance of rain 50 percent. INDEX Business News 9 Ann Landers 8 Classified -. • 16-20 Features 6 Comics » 8 Public Record 16 Editorial..\\\\ 4 Sports. 12-15 Horoscope... ~ -.8 Weather.... ........„_. ..JL N;Y. Lottery: 594. Plek 4\: 3432. Plelf 10: \, 2,-3,8,26,27, 32,42,44,47,51,54,55,58,61,65,73,75,77,78. Bad weather forces record-tying delay of shuttle ByMARCIADUNN AP try, but the weather beat us this time.\ NASA sent the astronauts to the pad an hour later than plan- ned to extend the launch window into the afternoon. But it didn't help: A cold front stalled over the Kennedy Space Center and kept a cloud cover overhead. Columbia —' NASA's oldest shuttle — tied its own record for launch scrubs. A satel- lite-delivery mission by Columbia was delayed six times befcVe fi- nally getting under way in January 1986, almost a month late. This mission already is 2 V2 weeks late. .^^fta*isOT9rwaiteainvam ,^—j- ^^JJ-^—^ [mi itttoe than five hours for the sky mediately resc heduled; the next «™ 1, 1 f m -w D » aa iA earliest possible liftoff date is tafflr&AJ^ss aS «»** *—• »• ^ ingtpn, \We gave it the college Continued Page 10 Space Shuttle Columbia. GAPE ^tSfAVERAI^, Fla. (AP) — For a liidoi-d'-tyihg sixth time, NASA delayed the launch of space shuttle Columbia on Sun- day because of thick, low clouds, launch controllers waited as jj as possible to send Columbia ] its seven astronauts on their ^•b^li^iiy^gave up early in t%\ aftethboni By then, it was getting dark at the emergency landing strips overseas and the weathet at the launch site was •• , Kenneth Bower- %*itd • in vain M I AP Photo ••'* •'< fi * •..-•>