Waterloo Courier (Newspaper) - March 12, 1998, Waterloo, Iowa Vive la difference Saturn UAW members vote to keep productivity contract Page B6 Local call La Porte City residents OK local calling to Get a job More than 700 UNI students attend annual job fair Page Cl Not enough girls team falls to ranked Sully Page Bl Low 10 to 15 High low 30s WATERLOO CEDAR FALLS FRIDAY'S FORECAST Warmer west winds Complete weather on B8 THURSDAY MARCH 12 1998 50 cents 32 pages 4 sections Courier Online Elderly woman robbed injured AP PHOTO A truck uses chains to pull an Indiana State car from a snow bank on near Crown Point Wednesday State Police closed for the second straight day In wake of storm cupboards are bare LaPORTE Ind AP Plenty of stores had them Al's had gallons of it Running low but still available Kerosene heaters and Forget it Nobody in town has Liz a clerk at Laughlin's Ace said Wednesday day they said they were going to try and get us something but they weren't able to Bare shelves are the latest fort of the fierce winter storm that swept across the eastern two-thirds of the week stranding Mid- and forcing thousands to flee their frigid or flooded homes and businesses in northern Indiana were without power today and travel on and ice-covered roads was still a headache There are times when you've got to let off the gas and slow it said Tom Nadeau who spent Wednesday night at the Flying J in Indianapolis And there's times when you've just got to park it He let his Home Depot shipment wait rather than chance a wreck After weeks of mostly mild credited to El Nino the Pacific warming phenomenon that disrupts weather patterns worldwide the storm system brought floodwaters to the South heavy rain to the Northeast and a blizzard to the Midwest and Plains More than 500 people were at ters in Albany Ga where people have fled their homes amid floodwaters since Monday The Flint River was expected to rise until at least Saturday And now comes the cold After record lows as far south as Miami Beach Fla and Mobile Ala on Wednesday icy temperatures returned early today From Florida to the Great Lakes nervously watched fields and orchards worried that a killing frost could leave their crops a withered dis- aster The cold will devastate blooming garden plants and such as forsythia crab apples Bradford pears and lias said Steve Bennett general ager of Nurseries in Thompson's Station Tenn It's just one of the things we have to put up with in this business God Bennett said In Williford Ark the weather was blamed for Tuesday's death of a para- man who police believe fell out of his wheelchair David Richards 44 apparently froze to death It didn't get above 20 degrees up here until well in the afternoon He wasn't dressed that Deputy Sheriff David Huffmaster said See STORM page A10 Iowa House approves ban on gay marriages By ERIC STERN Courier Staff Writer Saying they were protecting the sanctity of traditional matrimony the Iowa House overwhelmingly approved a ban on gay marriages Wednesday The passed All area makers voted for the measure Only a marriage between a male and a female is valid and we don't have to recognize any same-sex riage that may come out of another said Rep Jeff Lamberti Ankeny who steered the through debate Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act last year that allows states to refuse same-sex marriages approved in other states Inheritance and insurance claims would be affected by sanctioning such As Hawaii courts grapple with same-sex marriages 25 states have passed legislation that would not recognize gay couples as married Elk Run Heights man woman charged with second-degree robbery child endangerment By Courier Staff FALLS An Elk Run Heights pair was arrested Wednesday just minutes after allegedly knocking down a year-old woman on crutches and snatching her purse in front of at Black Hawk Village police said Police arrested John Lingo 19 and Malissa Tyler 20 both of 5331 Lafayette Road in Elk Run Heights for second-degree robbery a Class C punishable upon conviction by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of between and Lingo lives in apartment No 22 while Tyler lives in No 27 The elderly woman who lives in Janesville had just parked her car about p.m and was using her crutches to walk to the supermarket That's when two people in a station wagon drove up beside her The senger reached out and grabbed her purse police said The was knocked to the ground and suffered head leg arm and hand injuries Witnesses called police with a description of the station wagon and the occupants Waterloo Police ted the gold Buick station wagon and stopped it at p.m at Washington and Sunnyside streets in Waterloo The pair were arrested without dent police said Cedar Falls Police found the ly woman's Police said Lingo and Tyler will be charged with child endangerment as well Tyler's son was reportedly with her during the bery The child was found hidden under a blanket when the car was stopped in Waterloo The child was turned over to a family friend Child endangerment is an ed misdemeanor punishable upon conviction by two years in prison a fine Brain power MATTHEW Courier Staff Writer The Grundy Center High School Academic Decathlon Team crams In an extra study session Wednesday before the state Academic Decathlon on Friday Grundy students making the trip are clockwise Amanda Junior Jake Junior Ellen Osterhaus freshman Brent Lennard Junior Jeff Melloy sophomore Courtney Davidson freshman Jacob Towley Junior Janssen senior and Adam Osterhaus Junior Area students ready for state Academic Decathlon Lamberti said man-woman ships are the foundation of a family that predates most civilized societies Traditional marriage still means something in this state and we're going to say loud and clear that it Lamberti said But some lawmakers made it loud and clear that the smacks of civil rights violations For some reason we seem to find it necessary to single out someone who is different than we said Rep Richard Myers City One of these days we're going to get over this homophobic attitude Rep Ed Fallen D-Des Moines said equal rights for gays and lesbians will be a defining civil rights issue in the next decade We're saying that not only is gay marriage wrong homosexuality is Fallon said Fallen questioned why some straight legislators feel threatened by gay marriage If Amy and Barbara or Mike and Steve love each other it doesn't mean John and Mary Fallon said By MATTHEW WILDE Courier Staff Writer GRUNDY CENTER It's been called the Nerd Olympics and even the but that doesn't bother Grundy Center High School's academic decathletes In fact these masters of math tans of science and lords of literature revel in it Nine Grundy Center dents along with teams from Iowa Falls and Oelwein will compete against 21 other schools in a two-day state Academic Decathlon starting Friday in Denison Yeah I've heard kids around school call it Nerd said senior Ellie Janssen 18 about the competition But that doesn't bother us Our response is We're going to state and you're not Janssen's teammates agree They're proud of their achievement People can think what they said junior Amanda Schildroth We applied ourselves and we're going to get something out of it Not only potential college scholarships but also more knowledge Team scores are determined through a battery of tests in art music language and literature math science social science events of the 1980s and the super quiz tion of the world's dents also will be required to write an essay be interviewed by a panel of judges over a variety of subjects and give an educational speech over a topic of their choice A maximum of points is We're really proud of them It takes a lot of determination and discipline Linda Peik Oelwein coach available per student in each Decathlon teams can have between six and nine students However teams must have at least two students with grade point averages of 3.75 and above two with between 3.1 and 3.74 and two that are below 3.0 If a team has more than six dents the lowest score in each GPA category will be dropped Don Osterhaus Grundy academic decathlon adviser said the varied GPA format gives all students a chance to better themselves These are subjects not normally hit hard in high school curriculums across the state Abroad knowledge base will help come ACT Osterhaus said Of the 60 teams that competed in the regionals last month the top 12 small and large schools advanced to state While schools will compete in each class for awards the top point getter of either class will advance to nationals in Providence next month Grundy Center first fielded a decathlon team in 1987 and went to state a year later They haven't been back until now I think we have a pretty good chance to win some the small schools and we even have an outside shot to make nationals But whatever we do we want to beat Oelwein They always seem to edge us Janssen said Oelwein is ready for the challenge coach Linda Peik said A team from this knowledge has made it to state for seven years We're really proud of Peik said It takes a lot of determination and discipline The Oelwein team begins reading listening to music and practicing speeches in September Peik said The team usually practices twice a week Their first competition isn't until February a long time to tice The other Northeast Iowa school that made it doesn't really have a rival It is the first time Iowa Falls has had a team let alone a team that made it to state said coach Jolene Teske The decathlon began in 1984 Teske who came to Iowa Falls after teaching in Des Moines for three years had coached a team before She asked around to see if any students would be interested in See DECATHLON page A10 Asteroid to hurtle close to Earth Experts say there's a small chance the wide rock will slam into the Earth at mph in October of 2028 AP Science Writer WASHINGTON It's not time to panic but Earthlings need to keep an eye on a oid that will zip very close to the Earth in 30 years and could even smash into the planet causing widespread destruction astronomers say Tentative calculations are that the asteroid called 1997 will pass within about miles of the center in Octo- ber 2028 and experts warn that there is a chance it could actually impact Such a hit would release energy equal to thousands of atomic bombs It will come extremely said Brian Marsden of the Interna- tional Astronomical Union which issued an asteroid alert day The chances of impact are very small but not impossible We've not had a case like this before The IAU has identified 108 asteroids that orbit close enough to Earth to be called potentially said Marsden but astronomers have never seen an object this big moving on a path that would carry it so close to the Earth It is not the kind where people should be worried as said Marsden If it was only a few months away we should be deadly worried But with 30 years astronomers will solve the lem That might mean a rocket ing an atomic explosive could be sent to the asteroid and detonated on its rocky surface This would nudge the asteroid into an orbit that misses Earth The asteroid was discovered in December and repeated tions since have steadily refined the projected orbital path of the speeding space rock Marsden said his latest calculation was based on photos taken by the University of Texas observatory last week News of the asteroid quickly captured the attention of astronomers This is the first really big one to pass this said Jack G Hills a Los Alamos National Laboratory asteroid specialist This is the most dangerous one we've found See ASTEROID page A10 INDEX Bridge DS I Cipher B D8 I Comics B0 j Daily Record a C2 a B6 Classified I Crossword D4 I Horoscopes DB Iowa E I Markets 87 I Lifestyles H I Metro Cl I A2 Opinion Obituaries C2 Theaters C8 Sports I TV BS
