Casa Grande Dispatch (Newspaper) - March 17, 1994, Casa Grande, Arizona Valley Life Maricopa Stagecoach Days Special Supplement Surgery Restores Sight For 2 Women p SA Annual Fundraiser Scheduled Saturday P 67A III at Sierra Ranch Sets Grand Opening p iSB Final Countys Daily Newspaper A KAN L CASA GRANDE ARIZONA 85222 THURSDAY MARCH 17 1994 NO 64 INC MICROPROCESSING DIV 2627 EL PASU TX 79903 83rd Year 35C per copy House in Wild Debate on Health Care By CHRISTOPHER CONNELL Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON The term debate doesnt quite capture what transpired on the floor of the House Democrats and Republicans staged a forensic food fight hectoring heckling and haranguing each other over health reform It was part drama part farce with lawmakers blustering and bullying for nearly two hours over whose health plan posed a bigger threat to the republic The Republicans repeatedly played their trump card citing chapter and verse from the page Clinton health plan They called it a recipe for health care rationing and an impending ca lamity for small business We ought to quit lying to our selves about the power of govern ment to play King Canute and tell the waves to stop coming House Minority Whip Newt Ging rich said The debate an experiment to get away from scripts and age unfettered exchanges in Con gress got personal Gingrich told of a daughter with a preexisting condition and House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt told of his sons bout with cancer And Rep Rosa L DeLauro D said she came to this health care debate as a cancer The Republicans fired back with barbed criticisms of the Clin ton plan especially its mandatory alliances Gingrich said I absolutely want to see that every American gets but Clintons was not the way to do it I know you want us to defend every word on every page of the Thats fine thats a great de bate Gephardt said Four of the eight debaters had spent the day battling in the House Ways and Means health subcommittee over a modified version of the Clinton health The chairman Rep Pete Stark infuriated Republicans there by suggesting that Rep Nancy Johnson ac quired her health care expertise through pillow Johnson is married to a doctor Stark later apologized He prefaced one exchange with Johnson during the debate by say ing The gentle ladys expertise is known far and wide in the medi Staff Photos by Jerry Welch fc Performers Come to town B www wi clown right entertained children and parents who came out to see the circus being set up this morning Above Barbara a 9yearold Afri can elephant helps raise the tent The Casa Grande Firefighters Association is sponsoring the circus which features clowns aerial acts jugglers and more Showtimes are and today at Ed Hooper Rodeo Park Final Avenue and Rodeo Road The circus was in Maricopa Wednesday Pinal Residents Interested in Information Highway By SUSAN EDMOND clients By SUSAN EDMOND Staff Writer SIGNAL PEAK When Ron Di Mino wants to send a quotation to a customer in Guadalajara he can mail it wait a couple of weeks and follow up with several long distance phone calls or he can send it from his computer to his clients computer in seconds by Internets Email The second method is faster cheaper and still experimental because not many of his foreign clients are set up yet to receive and send Email DiMino said A lot havent realized the capa But I think well see DiMino operates Electric Supply Co in Casa Gran de and Phoenix a business that sells everything from lighting fix tures to sophisticated factory automation products His clients are located throughout Arizona and in New Mexico Mexico and South America DiMino and his wife Marian first joined Internet to talk to their son Mark when he was a Montana State University student with access to the network But little by little the are dis covering the commercial tages of the systems rapid rela inexpensive communications DiMino said if one business has access to information and another does not the second business is at a disadvantage But youre playing on the same playing field if you have the That means businesses could be located in small rural towns and still compete with businesses based in metropolitan centers With NAFTA communications are going to become the primary way to do DiMino added DiMino was one of several peo ple from Pinal Countys business es farms elementary and high schools community college li cities and towns county and Indian governments and non profit groups who came together Tuesday at Central Arizona Col lege for a workshop on how Arizo na will put its rural communities on Internet the closest onramp to the information superhighway Internet is a collection of almost computer networks world wide said William Lewis vice provost for information technol Internet page 3A Truth Elusive as Both Sides in Harding Case See Victory Analysis By STEVE WILSTEIN AP Sports Writer Tonya Harding left the court room a huge winner Wednesday skating free of any charge that she plotted the attack on Nancy Kerrigan or knew about it beforehand Yet the end of this saga came with the gnawing sense that the truth remains as murky as ever Deputy District Attorney Norm Frink said there was substantial evidence to support Ms Hardings involvement prior to the assault Shes not going to plead guilty to it but I think the facts speak for The facts dont speak for them selves They offer no resolution no end Frink argued it was in the best interest of the state to accept the plea agreement because of the po large cost of a trial Per haps justice was served and mon ey was saved but the truth suffered with the plea bargain Harding made and the court accepted Florence Police Chief Ran kin Wont Face Abuse Charge She pleaded guilty to conspiracy to hinder an investigation Who wouldnt have done the same thing in Hardings place assum ing as we must from the evidence presented that she didnt know about the attack until after it oc curred What woman would rat on her husband OK an band she was still living with especially if she might have been battered by him before and was afraid of what he might do again If thats all the prosecution had Inside on Harding after 2 12 months of investigations in Oregon Michi gan Massachusetts and Arizona after FBI interrogations and a grand jury probe it was pitifully small That had to be galling to Frink and may explain why he would take a parting shot at Harding and her claims of innocence in plotting the attack I didnt say we didnt have enough to indict on Frink said Had this agreement not taken place we would have pro with indictments on other pertinent The reality is the feds the dis attorneys the grand jury largely built a case out of mush circumstantial evidence hearsay and the word of conspirators with no credibility Harding will pay with a fine three years probation 500 hours community service a donation to the Special Harding page 3A cal And I earned it on my Johnson said When Johnson lit into restricted coverage of in the Clinton plan Stark demanded to know why she voted against more liberal benefits in his Did you say you wanted mammo grams or not he asked Stark and Rep Henry Waxman mixed it up with Rep Thomas Bliley and Rep Thomas Acquitted In Death Of Child By SHANNON L PANTELIS Staff Writer FLORENCE A third jury cho sen to hear his case acquitted Wesley Davis of mur der Wednesday The sixman jury deliberated for about four hours before coming back with the ver dict that set free the 39yearold Casa Grande man who had been in jail since the death of his 6 niece Jen in 1991 Defense attorney David Roev said it was the most emotional verdict he ever saw He said Da vis who had sat stoically through each proceeding burst into tears when it was read Davis shook hands and thanked each juror hugging several Roer attributed the jurys deci sion to medical testimony present ed by both the defense and prose cution He said his witness a neurological pathologist from Barrow Institute in Phoenix said the Pima County medical examin er made several mistakes in the autopsy Roer said time of injury and time of death were so hazy the baby could have been around doz ens of people not just Davis Final County Superior Court Judge William ONeil said he thought the jury felt good about this He said it was such a tough case he would not have been surprised whichever way the jury went This definitely was not an open and shut he said He said if the jury had hung the state probably would have dropped the case If they cant prove it in two trials how could they do it in a third he said He also said many tough trials do have to be heard twice The case first was heard in Jan uary That jury deliberated for three days and came out evenly split six to six The second jury never heard testimony ONeil called a mistri al when Roer tried to strike all the women ONeil said Roer told him he did not want women on the pan el because they could get too emo tional with a case ONeil said he thought the ju rors in the final trial just had too many questions about the case to convict Davis Prosecutor Warren Granville Acquitted page 3A Enters Crowded 6th District Field PHOENIX AP The Mari copa County Attorneys Office will not prosecute Florence Police Chief Thomas Rankin for child abuse saying there is insufficient evidence from an investigation Rankin was accused of slapping and kicking his 15yearold daugh ter Feb 12 The Maricopa County Attor neys Office sent a letter Tuesday to the Pinal County Attorneys Of fice saying it would not prosecute the case after an investigation re quested ly Pinal County Rankin denied hitting his daughter Justice of the Peace Bob DeAr man a neighbor of the police chief said he and his daughter saw Rankin slapping and kicking a girl they later found out was Rankins daughter DeArman reported the incident but Pinal County officials asked Maricopa County to conduct the investigation 12A County and State 13A Dear For the 10B National 10B Valley 14A By STEVE WALLACE Staff Writer David Smith said it took what he perceives to be a lack of leader ship from Congresswoman Karan English to force him into the race for 6th nal District seat and a life of politics We need better repre sentation in Congress for Smith said Karan En has not done that in terms of her voting record Her vote for President Clintons budget was the worst I decided then that it was time for me to hang up the robe and get Smith will compete in a crowd ed Republican primary along with candidates Ramona Liston Hayworth Gary Husk David Schweikert and possibly three more candidates English a Democrat is finish ing her first term in newest congressional district formed after the 1990 census and is considered a prime target by Republicans this fall People are fed up with Wash ington and career Smith said We need someone in Congress that is going to do the job and then come Smith listed crime as his No 1 issue saying he favored a two strikes and youre out policy He said Congress cant change state laws regarding crime but can alter the way the federal gov handles crime Smith said that the key is in locking up the 4 percent of all criminals who commit 70 percent of all crime Violent offenders have to be put Smith said Smith a Carefree resident and the former presiding city judge in Peoria said he is a common page 3A V
