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Nation & World Home for giant animals found in North Dakota by John MacDonald Associated Press Stele, ND.—The world’s largest rock pile didn’t make the cut. The tallest haystack probably would have just been blown over by the winds of the Upper Plains. And so, after a couple of yfears of toy ing with giant ideas, Susie White went with the bird option — namely, the 40 foot-lall sandhill crane anchored deep in the ground by her motel parking lot. This bird of steel is really, really big; and just odd enough, While hopes, to cap ture the bored eyes of motorists driving along this largely featureless stretch of North Dakota highway. “I look out the window sometimes and see people drive up and they laugh and laugh at the bird,” White said, beam ing with pride. “But they’re stopping, and that’s what’s important.” And if only a few of each day’s 5,500 passing motorists stop by her Lone Steer motel and steakhouse, it’ll have been worth it, she says. But is it just a rather desperate gim mick for roping in customers? Or is there more to this curious spectacle of the big bird and all the other bizarre statues that dot the Northern Plains? Passing the giant buffalo, then the gi ant bird, the giant cow, the giant grasshop per and the giant turtles, you can’t help thinking you’ve walked in on the punch line of an obscure, Upper Midwestern joke. Or maybe, as one expert suggests, it’s a way of carving out an identity in a landscape of unremitting sameness. In New Salem, in west-central North Dakota, it is 38-fool-tall New Salem Sue, surely the world’s laigest Holstein cow, made of steel and fiberglass, standing halfway up a small butte along Interstate 94, the state’s main east-west highway. Elsewhere on 1-94, in Jamestown, looms the 60-ton buffalo, also the world’s laigest. Bottineau, Turtle Lake and Dun seith offer variations of oversize turtles, including one riding agiant snowmobile and another made of automobile wheels. On a 32-mile stretch of road in south western North Dakota known as the En chanted Highway, retired school teacher Gary Greff has created his own horde of giants — a family of tin people, a cov ey of pheasants, a 40-foot-long grasshop per. More giants, he says, are in the works. Special to The Gamecock Lois, left, and Lavem Hansen of Fairfield, Wash, pose before the world’s largest buffalo statue at Jamestown, NJ>. It was conceived by the chamber of commerce to honor the bison herds that once roamed the area. [-=--— FBI provides less protection for whistleblowers by Michael Sniffen Associated Press Washington —Ten years after Congress ordered pro tections for whistleblowers throughout government, the Justice Department has set up a system to shield FBI agents, but they will have less shelter than other federal employees who report waste, abuse and crime by their co-workers. The new final rules drew sharp criticism from a na tional whistleblower group and a key FBI overseer in Congress. Under the final rules published this month: ' »Unlike other federal workers, FBI whistleblow ers are not protected from reprisal for reporting mis deeds to Congress, in court during a trial or to imme diate superiors. FBI employees are protected only if they report to a short list of top officials and internal in vestigators at the FBI and Justice. • Other federal workers can have an administra tive hearing if they believe they have suffered retalia tion for turning in co-workers, but it is entirely up to the FBI director whether bureau employees get a hear ing. • When other federal agencies decide whether a whistleblower has suffered retaliation, the employee has the right to have a federal court review that deci sion. FBI whistleblowers were not given that right. Sen. Charles Grassiey, chairman of a Senate sub committee that oversees the FBI, said Sunday the rules “represent crafty lawyering rather than good public pol icy.” He said the Justice Department “interpreted the law to protect its own interests rather than the public in terest in exposing fraud and mismanagement,” Grass ley said. An attorney for four FBI whistleblowers, David Co lapinto of the National Whistleblower Center said: “At a time when the credibility of the FBI is being called into question in light of the Waco, Texas, scandal, the FBI Laboratory scandal and other serious wrongdoing at the FBI, the need for strong FBI whistleblower protection could not be greater.” Justice officials counter that they ended a long his :ory of inaction and met the law’s requirements. The Whistleblower Protection Act was enacted in 1989 to shield federal workers who report misdeeds from reprisals by their superiors. Examples include be ng threatened, fired, disciplined, denied promotions or drifted to less desirable work or schedules. Because their jobs are so sensitive, FBI workers were excluded from the act’s general protections. But .he law required the president to set up a separate FBI whistleblower system with protections equivalent to hose guaranteed other federal workers. President Bush ignored that requirement. It was 1’t until 1997, amid a scandal in the FBI Laboratory wrought to light by FBI whistleblower Frederic White lurst, that Clinton ordered the Attorney General to de mise protections. The argument now is how different FBI protections ihould be from those for other federal workers. Grassley, co-author of the 1989 Whistleblower Pro ection Act, says the new rules fall short of the law’s re quirement for equivalent protections. No sure winner in Democratic nomination by Ron Fournier Associated Press Washngton —A funny thing happened on the way to the presidential election: A campaign broke out. Republican Gov. George W. Bush of Texas and Democratic Vice Presi dent A1 Gore were the pick of every pun dit, pol and poll to win the nomina tions. They had money, momentum and ready-made political organizations; it was going to be so easy. Instead, both front-runners were sur prised by potent rivals, jarred by their own gaffes and stripped bare of any hope that victory was inevitable. Conventional wisdom was proved unwise first with Gore, who shed his cloak of inevitability by July. The vice presi dent had ignored the warning signs, in cluding: • Mid-year financial reports that showed rival Bill Bradley had raised near ly as much money. • Democrats showing up at Bradley’s events to check out the candidate who wasn’t associated with President Clinton and his sex scandal. • Americans telling pollsters Gore was a phony, a stiff—certainly not pres idential. He claimed credit for inventing the Internet, and comics had a punch line for months. “We’re focused on Bush,” Gore cam paign chairman Tony Coelho said in the summer. And he meant it. While Gore eyed Bush, Bradley con solidated the anti-Gore, pro-underdog vote and narrowed the gap in polls throughout the Northeast, including the first-in-the-nation primary state, New Hampshire. Gore refused to utter Bradley’s name in public until the day he pushed the pan ic button, announcing in September that his campaign would move to Ten nessee. He slashed his oversized budget and retooled his campaign style. He started to look more like a candidate who hopes to be president, and less like a vice president expecting coronation. Gore waged political war. He ques tioned Bradley’s party loyalty, his stand on school vouchers, his health care pro posal, and accused the former New Jer sey senator of a “foxhole conversion” on raising the retirement age. Bradley, trying to appeal to voters 1 who say they’re tired of political attacks, refused at first to respond to Gore. As the vice president’s na tional and New Hampshire poll numbers strength ened, Bradley be gan to fight back. He accused Gore of being timid, poll-driven and betraying core Democratic principles. Gore advisers have scoured Bradley’s voting record and writings for weaknesses they can exploit during what now appears to be a long nomination fight. “I don’t think this should be such a surprise,” said Democratic consultant Gene Bregman of Washington. “Though Bradley is just as dull as Gore, he has ap peal to a lot of Democrats with his hon esty, his seriousness and his above-it all-ness.” Though Bradley is just as dull as Gore, he has appeal to a lot of Democrats with his honesty, his seri ousness and his above-it-all-ness.' Gene Bregman Democratic consultant Right-to-die from page 5 actually prolong their lives, just to know that that was a way to end their suffering that was quick, gentle and certain.” Others fear that making suicide so neat and tidy could fan the concerns of right-to-die opponents who say tlie move ment devalues human life and could pres sure vulnerable people to choose death. 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