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Cone to remain a Yankee; Orioles Alomar/Page 16 m-m The Hometown Newspaper of WM Clinton, Essex, Franklin Counties Vol. 103 - No. 122 ©Copyright 1995, Pre«»-RepublicMi Plattsburgh, NY 12901, Friday, December 22,1995 Suggested Price: 50 c 28 Pages By DIANE DUSTON Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The House approved a sweeping overhaul of the nation's welfare system Thursday, one that would give states more power to get people off government assistance. But President Clinton said he will veto it. Republicans, who made welfare reform part of their \Contract with' America,\ called the bill, which passed 245-178, the long-sought change to end welfare dependency and get peo- ple to work. . \At long last, the Congress and this president have the opportu- nity to show we mean what we say,\ said Rep* Bill Archer, R- m the running Amtrak down to 2 firms bidding to build its high-speed trains By RICHARD C. TEN WOLDE Stoff Writer PLATTSBURGH - Bombar- dier is one of two finalists com- peting for an Amtrak contract that could bring 150 more jobs to its facility here. If awarded the contract, the plant would manufacture locomotives for Amtrak's propos- ed high-speed trains, planned to run between Boston and Washington, D.C., by 1999. \It's big stuff, and the jobs are very important for the area,\ said Peter Stangl, president of Bom- bardier Transit Corp. \Our reason for building in Pitt- sburgh was to get ready for things like,this. We have a ter- rific workforce in Plattsburgh and a good community.\ But since the trains don't need to be ready until 1999, which is when upgrades to the rails will be done, jobs in Plattsburgh might not be seen for a while. Bombardier employs about 150,. building railcars for the Continued Pag* 3 White House to turn By JOHN SOLOMON ifociafed Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Threatened with a certain court challenge, the White House on Thursday, reached a previously elusive agreement with House Republicans and said it was ready to make public disputed Whitewater notes. The action would halt a dramatic confrontation between the Senate Whitewater Commit- tee and the White House that has brewed since President Clin- ton refused to turn over the notes, claiming attorney-client . privilege. \We have reached a very satisfactory conclusion ... that was much to the liking of both sides,\ White House counsel Jack Quinn said after emerging from a meeting with House Republicans. Quinn said he still needed to discuss logistics with senators who had already voted to take Clinton to court to get the notes, but predicted the documents would be made public \in the next day or so.\ Under the agreement with • House Republicans, the presi- dent preserves the right to claim in the future he is entitled to at- torheyfeiient .privilege' in Whitewater. But Congress would not have to decide now whether to accept that claim. A final wrinkle developed late Thursday. The House deal differed slightly from the one the White House had made in its last offer to the Senate, and which Senate Republicans were prepared to ac- cept. The agreement\ with the House did not include a second condition that senators had earlier accepted: Clinton's per- sonal lawyers could not be ques- tioned about the notes from' a 1993 Whitewater meeting. Senate Whitewater Committee Chairman Alfonse D'Amato sent a letter Thursday night to the White House indicating that the Senate now wants the same terms as the House. The White House appeared to be proceeding with plans to make the notes public in any case. \It would be irrational for the White House now to play a game about this and try to hold back on this when they agreed to give them to the House,\ said Michael Chertoff, the Republican counsel to D'Amato's committee. The White House's lengthy resistance to releasing the notes had propelled the Whitewater af- fair back to front-page news and prompted an extraordinary Senate vote Wednesday to take Clinton to court. Senate lawyers were working Thursday to get the court challenge ready for next week when the deal was struck. Clinton ignited the dispute earlier this month when he cited attorney-client privilege and ref- used to comply with a Senate subpoena• Windy and cloudy With scattered snow showers. High near 30. Chance of snow 50 percent. To- night, lots of clouds and,the \ chance of snow showers. ° .Bridge 24 Business 8,9 Classified 22-28 Comics, Landers 20 Editorial 4 (Entertainment 12 Arts.:.. 6,7 Ijjbljc Record ...10 f jorts 16-19 Either ..>.13> J .IFEAdHONElS \ • ISO dlfr&J6NT, WHY V < j ARifl*l6&AUUAY5 a V >F0fc'UWJN6 J -XJJACWOTHER? J o o , >,. . \ : *UL tiiMtJL Gf, r\ 'lYi' 1 rvr V \\ f\ l Dec. 22 3 \• shopping w ^Lottery: 544. 'Pick 4'r! .$pfeiQ: 2,3,5,.14,18,20,27,35,3_B, 4S, 45, 46,47,52,62;;^ 74..X 7%76.' ;: ; E<j£' : .' ; ' ; ,'• '**'•' \ •'''?••• • i>..:^;.••»*...•».'!&'„,..•. . .%'!,,..,,.:. .:.::',:, .. . changes Texas, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee which wrote much of the bill. But Clinton, saying the bill's cuts were too deep, characterized the vote as a political maneuver by the GOP-controlled Congress to push an approach to welfare reform he already rejected dur- ing budget negotiations* \I am disappointed that Republicans are trying to use the words 'welfare reform' as cover to advance a budget plan that is at odds with America's values,\ Clinton said. \If Congress sends me this conference report, I will veto it and insist that they try again,\ he said before the House debate began T-hursday. But Senate approval is far from certain, and the bill may never make it to the president. The House bill would end 60- year-old federal guarantees of welfare for people who meet cer- tain criteria. In their place would be block grants so states to tailor their own programs. Governors, have pushed for the change and say they—could do a better job than the federal government to meet the needs of the poor. The bill also would trim food stamp benefits and curb aid to immigrants, disabled children, drug addicts and alcoholics. It includes an experimental change in the federal school lunch program that would allow seven states to try other ways to Continued Page 14 Welcome to winter Staff. Photo/Mike Dowd One car lies partially buried in snow after sliding off Military Turnpike to avoid other vehicles that collided in Plattsburgh Thursday afternoon. One person was injured in the four-car mishap. Nfore on the accident, weather.Page 3. The North Country will see strong winds and some flurries today. There's a chance of snow f lurries toriighft and tomorrow. If you're headed south, the Albany area is expecting scattered; flurries, wind and mostly cloudy skies. Temperatures vyilj'get as high as 30. .'. ..V:' „• Toward New Ydrfe City-, you'll find sunny TRAVEL ADVISORIES skies, but expect scattered flurries and gusting wind. Highs will be near 35. Travelers heading into western New York will do so under mostly cloudy skies, with scattered snow showers. Road conditions on the Thruway are available 24 hours a day by calling a toll-free number: 1-800-847-8929 (or 1-800- THRUWAY). Vermonters will see weather much like the North Country's: variably cloudy skies, wind and occasional flurries. High will be in the 20s north to lower the 30s south. The Boston area won't see snow until to- night, and even then it will be only scattered flurries. Temperatures will reach into the 30s. Handful of passengers survive plane crash By CHRIS TORCHIA Associated Press Writer BUGA, Colombia (AP) - Mi- raculously, at least six people were alive Thursday after an American Airlines jet with 164 aboard smashed into an Andean mountain crest and burst into flames. It was the world's worst plane crash this year. Human remains and bits of mangled machinery covered the one-mile area where the plane from Miami went down Wednes- day night in Buga, 40 miles and . four minutes from Cali, its desti- nation. The cause of the crash was not immediately known. The Boeing 757 lost radio con- tact at about 9:45 p.m. EST Wednesday, and the first reports by the airline and Colombian of- ficials said there were no sur- vivors. But after rescuers made their way to the site early Thursday, braving darkness, rocky terrain ..«and the^ threat of leftist guerril- las, news of the living came through. One survivor spoke to a television crew as rescue workers attended him. \Really I don't remember any problem with the plane, but when I woke up ... and saw everything scattered around me, I realized we were in an' acci- dent,\ Gonzalo Dussan, one of the survivors, told Noticiero 24 Horas as rescue workers attend-' ed to him. By late Thursday afternoon, the Red Cross in Cali said eight people had been taken from the wreckage alive; one, a man, died at a hospital five hours later. But RCN radio later reported only seven people had been taken from the crash, six of whom have survived. Mauricio Reyes, a 19-year-old Colombian business student at the University of Michigan- Dearborn, was recovering at a Cali hospital Thursday, covered with cuts and bruises\ breathing Continued Page 14 NATO coiaiUajiders upbeat about Bosnia mission ByLIAMMcDOWAU Associated %sS\WrM|r. Herzegovinaif^) P^- \^%cr commanders Thursday'hM; good news from the front: Local troops welcomed NATO troops who demolished road blocks, com- mand posts and other symbols of . .AT6 reported the firsf casu; alties of its .Bosnian pfeSE|^|,\^fe» sipn r- a-German sbldi6|yKiilte'd! during an exercise and a^pro'at civilian who died in a colliieion' with a-NATO vehicle. ; • Otherwise, the first day was roundly hailed as a success. /'This is a good-news story,\ sai$. p.S. Navy ,Adm. Leighton f.'Smjfh, coimm^ttder or the SmiB'n said, h|. was _,_ ,„, --..„_-. that the soldiers havTe \al|eady moved into Serb-held area's ana removed some of the most in- famous checkpoints. -\ th$ camrG&ndtif of change...;; > ':.\ \The buf4^ w Peace; k pn the signers- of '^sp6spf0i^$^0ij^i. Gen; William Nash told reporters in Tuzla, the northern city that will be the hub for the 20,000 tLS. troops. \If they want peace ; there will be peace.\ NAsTO formally \assumed the peacekeeping mission on Wed- nesday from the ill-starred U.N. operation that preceded it, with French Lt. Gen. Bernard Janvier, Coniin^nder of the U.N. mission, . h^i^goveT conimand to Smith. .. '•-tfvm forces in Bosnia,. : >ttiMb0ring 24,000 at their peak, .;^ere: at .bjest able to help deliver o hiimahitariart aid to the besieged J and ; ne(ldy. At worst, they were harassed; shot at, taken hostage and accused of failing to protect Bosnian civilians from nearly four years of war that left 200,000. dead and 2 million homeless. But unlike the lightly armed U.N. peacekeepers, NATO soldiers now setting up in Bosnia have a clear mandate, heavy weapons and a peace plan signed by all sides. » Their goal is to enforce the U.S.-brokered peace accord sign- , ed in Paris on Dec. 14 that essen- tfally splits the country into a Source: Department of Defense Serb republic and a Muslim- Croat federation. The mission aims to keep the combatants separated by heavily patrolled ' zones, while the country tries to rebuild. In many, cases U.N. peacekeepers from NATO coun- tries simply exchanged their U.N. insignia for NATO gear. A U.N. spokesman in New York said 80 percent of the U.N. peacekeepers — about 15,000 troops — had been transferred to NATO command by Thursday. The troops quickly bulldozed checkpoints of the hostile parties, frequently setting up well-for- tified NATO posts in their stead. \No More Sierra,\ . exulted Sarajevo's daily Vecernje Novine. The frontpage headline celebrat- ed the demolition by French forces Wednesday of Sierra Four, a Serb checkpoint that blocked access to the airport. It was there that a deputy Bosnian prime minister, Hakija Turah'ic, was shot and killed by Serb gunmen in full view of U.N. peacekeepers • in January 1993. The road between Sarajevo and Kiseljak, 20 miles to the west, also was cleared of the Muslim, Croat and Serb check- points that made free passage impossible for much of the war. NATO control posts replaced them. British forces moved deep into Bosnian Serb territory, demolishing Bosnian Croat and Serb checkpoints. And Nash ven- tured into the Brcko corridor, the northeastern strip of land con- necting Bosnian Serb holdings with Serbia proper that was fiercely fought over during the war. \r^ii i * d