Albany Times Union (Albany, NY) back issues from October 1999:
IT RAINED CATS, DOGS -- AND RECORDS -- IN SEPTEMBER.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: CHRIS STURGIS Staff writer Say goodbye to a soggy September. The month's 11.02 inches knocked off a 109-year-old record for precipitation. Hurricane-turned-Tropical-Storm Floyd delivered the biggest hit -- 5.6 inches on Sept. 16. And to top it off, the heavens ...
EUROPEAN NEANDERTHALS HAD A NEANDERTHAL DIET.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: MARTIN MERZER Knight Ridder It turns out that Neanderthals really were ... Neanderthals. They ate one another. In a report to be released today, prominent archaeologists will announce that they found persuasive evidence that Neanderthals living ...
INCOMES UP ACROSS THE BOARD.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: MERRILL GOOZNER Chicago Tribune WASHINGTON -- The Clinton-era economic expansion established another milestone Thursday when the U.S. Census Bureau reported the median household income in 1998 surged 3.5 percent to an all-time high of $38,900, surpassing the previous ...
GORE STICKS TO THE SCRIPT.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: JOHN CAHER State editor Al Gore brought his campaign for ``empowerment zones'' -- and presumably the presidency -- to the Mohawk Valley on Thursday, when he engaged in a series of orchestrated events. Gore toured Amsterdam, where a pre-selected group of local ...
NUCLEAR LEAK SHAKES JAPAN.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: SHIHOKO GOTO Associated Press TOKAIMURA, Japan -- An uncontrolled nuclear reaction was contained at a uranium processing plant in Japan Friday, authorities said, a day after leaking radioactive gas seriously injured three workers and possibly contaminated 40 others. ...
VENTURA WRESTLES WITH HIS MOUTH.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: Associated Press ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Anyone who was not offended by Gov. Jesse Ventura's Playboy interview, please raise your hand. The former pro wrestler whose frank talk got him elected in an upset last fall gave an interview in which he aimed barbs at ...
TALK ABOUT YOUR PIE-IN-THE-SKY IDEAS.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Pizza Hut wanted a billboard on the moon. It settled for a Russian rocket bound for space. The company announced Thursday that it would pay the cash-starved Russian space agency about half the price of a 30-second TV ad during the Super Bowl -- currently up to $2.5 million -- ...
DRIVER ACCUSED OF HITTING STEPHEN KING INDICTED.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... The driver who hit horror writer Stephen King was indicted by a grand jury in Paris, Maine, Thursday on charges of aggravated assault and driving to endanger. The Oxford County grand jury found that Bryan E. Smith ``did recklessly cause serious bodily injury to Stephen King'' as ...
FORREST SAWYER ADDS NBC TO NEWSMAN PEDIGREE.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Former ABC newsman Forrest Sawyer is joining NBC News. Sawyer, who starts Oct. 11, will be chief substitute anchor for MSNBC's ``The News with Brian Williams" and will also report for various NBC network programs, including "Dateline NBC," it was announced Thursday in New York ....
BRAIN DISORDER TAKES ITS TOLL ON DUDLEY MOORE'S VISION.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Actor Dudley Moore is beginning to have vision problems as an incurable degenerative brain disorder he has had for several years progresses, his doctors said this week. Moore, 64, was diagnosed several months ago with progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare disorder related to ...
IF BEATTY IS A CANDIDATE, IS SCHWARZENEGGER NEXT?(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: LYNDA GOROV Boston Globe LOS ANGELES -- In his taped greeting to the evening's honoree, comedian Garry Shandling provided some campaign advice, Hollywood-style. ``If you run,'' he suggested, ``make sure you get your name above the title of the country. `Warren ...
CHINA CELEBRATES 50 YEARS.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: ELAINE KURTENBACH Associated Press BEIJING -- Cannons roared, fighter jets screamed through the air and crisp-uniformed soldiers and flashy weaponry paraded through Tiananmen Square as China celebrated 50 years of communist rule today. President Jiang Zemin ...
EARTHQUAKE KILLS AT LEAST 10 ON MEXICO'S COAST.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: JOHN RICE Associated Press MEXICO CITY -- A strong earthquake along the Pacific coast rattled much of Mexico on Thursday, killing at least 10 people and damaging hundreds of buildings. The U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo., said the magnitude-7.5 quake ...
NOVELIST GRASS WINS NOBEL PRIZE.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: CAROL J. WILLIAMS Los Angeles Times BERLIN -- Guenter Grass, who charted his generation's tortured journey through Nazi terror, wartime hardship, exile, shame, political strife and post-unification angst, won the Nobel Prize for literature Thursday. The ...
GORE, BRADLEY TO GET ELECTION DEBATES OFF TO AN EARLY START.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: RICHARD L. BERKE and JOHN M. BRODER New York Times LOS ANGELES -- Vice President Al Gore and former Sen. Bill Bradley are poised to begin an unusually early and intense series of debates in the run-up to the primary season next year. As a start, their campaigns said ...
DECISION DUE ON TRIAL FOR PINOCHET.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: Associated Press LONDON -- Almost a year after his arrest, yet another hearing to determine Gen. Augusto Pinochet's fate ended Thursday with supporters and opponents of the former Chilean dictator still unsure if he will ever stand trial in Spain on torture charges. ...
RUSSIA INTENSIFIES EFFORT IN CHECHNYA.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: DAVID FILIPOV and BRIAN WHITMORE Boston Globe MOSCOW -- Russia's campaign against Islamic rebels in Chechnya moved closer to full-scale war Thursday as federal forces entered the breakaway Caucasus region where Moscow suffered a humiliating and costly defeat three years ...
BILL WOULD PROTECT UNBORN.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: JIM ABRAMS Associated Press WASHINGTON -- The House voted Thursday to make it a crime to harm a fetus during a violent act against a pregnant woman. It is a key bill this year for opponents of legalized abortion, and the administration threatened a veto. The ...
U.S. URGES INDONESIA TO AID PEACE.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: ROBERT BURNS and ELLEN KNICKMEYER Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia -- After blunt warnings, Defense Secretary William Cohen got the verbal assurances he was looking for, but he said Thursday that Indonesia still must prove that it will allow East Timor its ...
PROBES OF KOREAN WAR MASSACRE BY GIS PROMISED.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: SANG-HUN CHOE Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea -- The South Korean and U.S. governments promised full investigations Thursday into accounts of mass killings of refugees by U.S. Army troops at the South Korean hamlet of No Gun Ri in 1950. Survivors of No ...
SENATOR RAPS Y2K WEB SITE.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: Associated Press WASHINGTON -- The government started warning airline travelers about foreign airport and airline Y2K readiness Thursday, but one senator questioned why the information was so sketchy. The advisory was made public through a new Transportation ...
GOP CHANGES COURSE, SEEKS VOTE ON TEST BAN TREATY.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: TOM RAUM Associated Press WASHINGTON -- After two years of blocking a sweeping global nuclear test ban treaty, Senate Republican leaders reversed course Thursday and abruptly offered to vote next week. The Clinton administration and Senate Democrats, who have ...
CISNEROS PLEA DEAL SPARED CLINTON HAVING TO TESTIFY.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: -- Associated Press WASHINGTON -- In a move that could have subjected him to questions about his own fidelity and credibility, President Clinton had agreed to testify as a defense witness at the trial of former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros, lawyers say. ...
GENE LINKED TO SEIZURE THAT KILLED JOYNER FOUND.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: -- Associated Press French scientists have identified a gene associated with the kind of brain seizure that killed Olympic sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner. Faulty copies of the gene, known as CCM1, are responsible for the development of tangled blood vessels ...
STIMULATION OF BRAIN HELPS NEWBORNS' VISION.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: -- Associated Press WASHINGTON -- Newborns have incredibly poor eyesight that depends on brain stimulation to sharpen. Now a study published todayin the journal Science suggests infants' brains are so flexible that just an hour of visual stimulation can jump-start that ...
SCIENTISTS FIND GENE FLAW LINKED TO RETT SYNDROME.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: -- Associated Press NEW YORK -- Scientists have identified a faulty gene that causes Rett syndrome, one of the most common causes of mental retardation in females. Rett syndrome almost invariably strikes girls. They develop normally until age 6 months to 18 ...
JAPAN'S ACCIDENT WAS NO CHERNOBYL.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: SCOTT ALLEN Boston Globe The accident at a Japanese uranium processing plant Thursday can't compare with the disastrous explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in 1986, but it's probably more serious than the 1979 meltdown at Three Mile Island that crippled the U.S ....
LOSS OF MARS PROBE BLAMED ON MATH CONVERSION ERROR.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: MATTHEW FORDAHL Associated Press LOS ANGELES -- The $125 million spacecraft that was destroyed on a mission to Mars last week was probably doomed by NASA scientists' embarrassing failure to convert English units of measurement to metric ones, the space agency said ...
FLOOD VICTIMS FIND LITTLE TO GO HOME TO.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: Associated Press PRINCEVILLE, N.C. -- Residents of this town founded by ex-slaves glumly surveyed their wrecked homes Thursday for the first time in the two weeks since Hurricane Floyd's floodwaters swallowed the town. Some found the damage too great to bear. ...
SPENDING BILLS MISS FISCAL DEADLINE.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: ALAN FRAM Associated Press WASHINGTON -- Congress left most of its spending work unfinished Thursday as the government closed the books on the 1999 fiscal year. President Clinton denounced a plan to save money by slowing income-support payments to millions of working ...
HEALTH CARE GETS ITS DUE.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Vice President Al Gore deserves credit for being the first candidate in the 2000 presidential race to address the key issue of providing health care for the 45 million Americans who are uninsured. Now comes his rival for the Democratic nomination, Bill Bradley, with a better and more ...
AN ADIRONDACK PLEA.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... It wasn't even two years ago when the state's purchase of 14,000 pristine Adirondack acres from socialite Marylou Whitney was the culmination of a successful effort to protect the environment. All that land, so rough and so gorgeous, should be forever wild, the argument went, on ...
ALBANY TREASURER RESPONDS TO COMPTROLLER'S LETTER.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: HON. BETTY J. BARNETTE Treasurer City of Albany I read with interest the Sept. 24 letter to the editor from Albany Comptroller Nancy Burton. In her letter Ms. Burton responded to a Sept. 22 article that appeared in your newspaper regarding an independent audit ...
WALK TO CURE DIABETES DESERVES BETTER COVERAGE.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: KATE CRANDALL Schenectady I am a juvenile diabetic, age 12. This past Sunday, Sept. 26, I participated in the Walk to Cure Juvenile Diabetes at Corporate Woods in Albany. More than 3,000 people walked the 5K, breaking an attendance record. We raised more than $350,000 ...
TAKE MICHAEL VOLKMAN'S WARNINGS SERIOUSLY.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: JOHN M. KERRY Executive Director New York State Catholic Conference Albany I hope the citizens of New York state take seriously the warnings of Michael Volkman (``The obligation of freedom of speech,'' Sept. 21) regarding the writings and insidious philosophy of Peter ...
PLEA AGREEMENT DRAWS CRITICISM.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: J. JOSH ANDERSON Albany I would like to comment on the recent plea agreement between Rensselaer County District Attorney Kenneth Bruno and former Troy police officer Liam Robbins. Robbins is a 22-year veteran police officer who after being accused of ...
STEPS FOR DRYING UP THE FLOOD OF WEAPONS.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: REV. JOHN A. EKMAN Presbyterian and New England Congregation Church Saratoga Springs - Although I own two shotguns, I have never thought that either my manhood or my American citizenship were dependent on gun ownership. Virtually all major gun manufacturers are now ...
BUCHANAN WILL BRING ECONOMY INTO RACE.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: JIM SQUIRES With presidential candidate Pat Buchanan's stand on immigration and his protectionist tirades on U.S. trade policies under Reagan-Bush and Clinton-Gore, he offers the best potential for framing the most important political issue of the new millennium: ...
HELP IN DECIPHERING THE BUDGET.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: MATTHEW MILLER Republicans ask how the President can veto their $792 billion tax cut as ``unaffordable'' when it returns only 3 cents of every dollar folks send to Washington. Clinton says the GOP plan would slash education and put Social Security at risk. ...
ART BASHER BECOMES ART PROMOTER?(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: GARRY WILLS Is a painting in a show at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, of the Virgin Mary with elephant dung and genitalia on it, in bad taste? Of course. It is part of a bad taste exercise, in a show meant deliberately to shock. If it did not do so, it would fail in this ...
`TEEN PREGNANCY' DESERVES A REST.(MAIN)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: WILLIAM RASPBERRY WASHINGTON -- America has been fulminating for years about the problem of teenage pregnancy. Me too. A quick computer search turns up 37 columns in which I at least mention the phrase. Maggie Gallagher wishes we'd give it a rest. She didn't ...
PRICE RISES FOR ALBANY'S Y2K BASH.(CAPITAL REGION)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: JAY JOCHNOWITZ Staff writer It's a price tag to match a vow to put on the show of the millennium: Albany's downtown New Year's Eve is likely to cost close to $350,000, more than twice what the city budgeted. Mayor Jerry Jennings indicated the evening-long ...
SHARED HOPES FOR LANDS IN PERIL.(CAPITAL REGION)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: DINA CAPPIELLO Staff writer They both are home to endangered species and are unique habitats. The similarities between the Albany Pine Bush and the 4 million-acre Tunkinsky National Park in Siberia end there. It is the people responsible for their ...
SUN'S BRIGHT, BUT SHADOWS ARE LONG.(CAPITAL REGION)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: DAN LYNCH Late yesterday morning, a rolling blanket of thick, gray clouds shrouded the dark tarmac at the Stratton Air National Guard Base in Glenville. Just as the pale-blue and white Boeing 757 bearing the legend ``United States of America'' appeared over the ...
DARE TELLS HOW CHARTER SCHOOL DREAM BECAME REALITY.(CAPITAL REGION)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: RICK KARLIN Staff writer NEW YORK -- New Covenant Charter School founder Aaron Dare took his message on the road Thursday, explaining how and why he became the driving force behind one of the state's first three charter schools. ``It's an example of what ...
SIX OF COP'S BULLETS STRUCK ATTACKING PIT BULL, AUTOPSY FINDS.(CAPITAL REGION)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: BRENDAN LYONS Staff writer An autopsy indicates that a pit bull was shot six times by a city police officer, including one that ricocheted off the pavement, authorities said Thursday. Officer Michael Parsons shot the dog as it attacked another pit bull that ...
SLAIN GIRL'S MOTHER TAKES $985,000 SETTLEMENT.(CAPITAL REGION)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: -- Associated Press NEW YORK -- A woman whose 6-year-old daughter was killed by Joel Steinberg nearly 12 years ago agreed Thursday to accept $985,000 to settle the wrongful death lawsuit she had filed against several city agencies. The woman, Michele ...
CANCER FIGHT TO BENEFIT FROM NEW LICENSE PLATES.(CAPITAL REGION)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: -- Associated Press ALBANY -- New York motorists who want people to know they are helping find a cure for cancer will now be able to say it with their license plates. Gov. George Pataki on Thursday signed a law making special ``Drive for the Cure'' license ...
2 CHARGED WITH CAR THEFT FROM WOODSTOCK FESTIVAL.(CAPITAL REGION)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: -- Associated Press ROME -- State Police have made two more arrests following the Woodstock '99 Festival. Troopers charge a man from Maine and a woman from Georgia with stealing a car from the concert and selling it to a Connecticut woman. Keith G. Cook of ...
TRUCK DRIVER CONVICTED IN 20-YEAR-OLD KILLING OF COP.(CAPITAL REGION)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: -- Associated Press NEW YORK -- A New Jersey truck driver was convicted Thursday in the savage, two-decade-old slaying of an off-duty police officer after a trial featuring a turncoat mobster who helped identify the killer. A Brooklyn jury deliberated two days ...
BLOOD SAMPLES MAY ANSWER WEST NILE VIRUS QUESTIONS.(CAPITAL REGION)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: Associated Press NEW YORK -- How many people might have been infected with West Nile virus and not fallen ill? What age groups are most at risk? A troubling aspect of the potentially fatal ailment is that so little is known about it and how far it might have spread. ...
ENCEPHALITIS RISK LOW IN AREA.(CAPITAL REGION)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: SYLVIA WOOD Staff writer The risk is minimal for residents in the Capital Region to be bitten by mosquitoes carrying the encephalitis virus that so far has killed four people in the New York metropolitan area, the state's top health official said. ``I would ...
CLINTON SAYS FRIENDS WARY OF ENEMIES.(CAPITAL REGION)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: Associated Press WASHINGTON -- President Clinton said Thursday that some of his friends declined to help him buy his $1.7 million home in suburban New York because they didn't want to get ``dragged around'' and subjected to unwarranted allegations. Lamenting ...
GIULIANI TAKES MUSEUM TO COURT.(CAPITAL REGION)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: BETH GARDINER Associated Press NEW YORK -- Defenders of the Brooklyn Museum of Art Thursday called Mayor Rudolph Giuliani an enemy of free expression who is using a pitched battle against an upcoming exhibition to boost his own career. The city answered in ...
HEALTH INSURERS LAMBASTED IN PANEL WITH FIRST LADY.(CAPITAL REGION)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: WILLIAM KATES Associated Press MASSENA -- Insurance companies were cast as the villain Thursday as a panel of patients and medical professionals described for First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton what they see wrong with today's health care system. Panel members ...
BAIL REVOKED IN OTB CASE.(CAPITAL REGION)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: BOB GARDINIER Staff writer A county judge revoked bail and ordered a psychiatric evaluation for Mark Etkin, who was charged in May with bribing a witness in the state attorney general's probe of Capital OTB Prosecutors said Etkin is unstable and made a ...
TAX RATE UNCHANGED, MAYOR SAYS.(CAPITAL REGION)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: TIM O'BRIEN Staff writer Mayor Mark Pattison will present a budget today that keeps taxes the same and adds seven positions. Pattison released his budget message Thursday, but declined to provide details of the spending plan. He will unveil the budget at 11 ...
ALBANY MAN CONVICTED OF RAPING RUNAWAY, 14.(CAPITAL REGION)
Oct 01, 1999 ... ALBANY -- A city man was convicted Wednesday of statutory rape for having sex with one of three runaway girls he brought to his home for a four-day party, prosecutors said. Jerry Fernandez, 35, formerly of Orlando Avenue, faces a maximum of 8 years in prison for having sexual ...
DIOXIN-SPILL SCARE FORCES SCHOOL CLOSINGS.(CAPITAL REGION)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: TIM O'BRIEN Staff writer Students in the city school district got an unexpected day off Thursday when an accidental spill was first thought to be hazardous. The spill, which closed off access to school buses in the South Troy Industrial Park, turned out to be ...
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL REPORTS E. COLI CASE.(CAPITAL REGION)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: LINDA TRISCHITTA Staff writer A first-grader at Charlton Heights Elementary School has contracted E. coli and is being kept at home, said Principal Daniel Riggins. Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake School District spokeswoman Christy Multer said that officials were ...
ALBANY AIRPORT LANDS $6 MILLION TO REDUCE NOISE.(CAPITAL REGION)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: KERI P. MATTOX Staff writer Albany International Airport will receive $6 million in federal funds to help fund its noise improvement programs, U.S. Rep. John E. Sweeney, R-Clifton Park, announced Thursday. The funding will go toward construction of quieter ...
KILLER GETS LIFE FOR MURDER OF HIS WIFE AND SON.(CAPITAL REGION)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: BOB GARDINIER Staff writer Calling him a ``permanent danger to society without one ounce of remorse,'' a county judge Thursday sentenced William Coleman Sr. to life without the possibility of parole for murdering his wife and son in a jealous, drunken rage. ...
WOMAN WINS $600,000 SUIT OVER BROKEN ANKLE.(CAPITAL REGION)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: MELISSA GRACE Staff writer Albany A city woman who sued her landlord after breaking an ankle on the front stairs of her apartment won a $600,000 jury verdict Thursday. Deborah A. White fractured her left ankle on Christmas Eve 1995 as she left her 47 ...
BRESLIN EYES TAX RELIEF, RESERVES FOR TOBACCO CASH.(CAPITAL REGION)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: JAY JOCHNOWITZ Staff writer Days away from presenting his budget, County Executive Michael Breslin Thursday detailed his proposal for using the first proceeds of an estimated $168 million tobacco settlement, but other county officials were not immediately embracing the ...
HVCC BOARD ELECTS O'CONNOR AS ITS NEW CHAIRMAN.(CAPITAL REGION)
Oct 01, 1999 ... Byline: CATHY WOODRUFF Staff writer Troy Leadership of the Hudson Valley Community College Board of Trustees changed hands Thursday as William F. O'Connor III of Averill Park was elected to succeed outgoing chairman James S. Millea Jr. O'Connor, 55, is revisiting a ...