Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Nation & World Four teens plead innocent for alleged school rampage plan by Thomas J. Sheeran Associated Press Cleveland—Four white ninth-graders accused of making plans for a racially mo tivated rampage at their predominantly black high school pleaded innocent on Sunday and were sent back to a juvenile lockup. The boys, one 14 and the rest 15, were accompanied by their parents and ar raigned separately before Cuyahoga Coun ty Juvenile Court Magistrate Dick Walsh in closed hearings. They allegedly planned to set off bombs and open fire on classmates at noon last Friday. The hearings were in a room on the ground floor of the Cuyahoga County Detention Center. The four will continue to be held there. They were kept out of sight from the public. Reporters were allowed to see the hearing room, but were ushered outside the building before the arraignments be gan. Larry Zukerman, an attorney repre senting one boy, emerged from the ar raignments upset that the names and pho- • tos of the boys have appeared in print and on television. Juvenile court proceedings, by law, are confidential in Ohio. “The identities of the juveniles are supposed to remain confidential,” Zuk erman said. Dan Bailey said after the arraignment for his stepson, Adam Gruber, that the boy is well-behaved, respectful and would never get involved in violence. “He’s dealing with it the way any 14 year-old boy would,” he said. “He’s fair ly high-spirited, and his feelings are hurt not being at home. This is his family. He’s got a lot of brothers and sisters that love him.” Adam was charged because his name was on a school map, with shooting lo cations marked, that was seized from an other suspect, Bailey said. “My son was not caught with a map. He was not caught with a firearm. He was not caught with bomb-making materi als,” Bailey said. Authorities said a school map marked with shooting locations and comments reported by classmates convinced them that the threat was real. Two weapons were found at one boy’s home during a series of police searches on Friday. The plan was never carried out at South High School, which was closed Fri day as a precaution. Classes will resume Monday under tightened security at the 1,500-pupil school. The boys felt alienated and at least part of their motive was race, said May or Michael R. White. South High is 70 percent black. Federal agencies say they'll be ready for Y2K by Jim Abrams ASSOCIATED PRESS Washington — The Social Security Administration is readying jet-fueled generators, the Internal Revenue Ser vice is prepared to write tax refund checks manually and the Pentagon is sharing secrets with the Russians as part of a government effort to avoid crises related to the Y2K computer problem. IRS chief information officer Paul Cosgrave, questioned at a House hearing Friday about concerns that the tax agency was prone to Y2K disrup tions, gave assurances that systems are ready and no one will lose a refund check. Federal agencies are given high marks for fixing computers so they won’t misread the year 2000 for 1900, a mis take that could cause widespread com puter breakdowns. Friday’s hearing fo cused on the contingency plans the agencies have for unexpected problems and what they’ll be doing just before and after the new year. The White House office on the Y2K problem, headed by John Koskinen, is to run an information coordination cen ter to monitor developments in the pub lic and private sectors as the new year begins. Most agencies will have com mand centers to assure a smooth tran sition to the new millennium. John Dyer of the Social Security Administration said his agency' will take its system off-line Dec. 30 to allow the collection of all 1999 computer trans actions, and that just before midnight on the 31st, the main data center in Bal timore will switch to jet-fueled gen erators to guard against electrical surges. Dr. Martin Langston, the Defense .Department’s top Y2K official, said the on-duty stiff will be boosted by up to 10 percent in the New Year period. Russian military officials will arrive in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Dec. 22 for a joint exercise aimed at assuring that problems in early warning track ing systems don’t lead to mistaken per ceptions that the other ride has launched a missile. Norman Lorentz, chief technology officer of the Postal Service, said the mail agency has placed a freeze on all computer systems changes through March. Postal officials expect more people to mail letters because of con cerns about the reliability of comput er e-mail. Joel Wiliemssen of the General Ac counting Office, the investigative ami of Congress, said the Education De partment is encouraging schools to ob tain information before Jan. I so it won’t have problems in determining student financial aid eligibility. The Veterans Affairs Department has suggested that its hospitals pre pare bottled water and stock water less soap for the possibility that water supplies are interrupted. Cosgrave said the IRS has been working for about 15 years on the prob lem of highly decentralized records in some 800,000 pieces of equipment, with the accuracy rate now increased to 90 percent New evidence suggests first Americans might have crossed the Atlantic by Joseph Verrengia Associated Press Santa Fe, MM. —In a radical new view of pre-history, two prominent archeolo gists say North America’s first inhabitants might have crossed the icy Atlantic Ocean some 18,000 years ago from Europe’s Iberian Peninsula. The theory, presented at a weekend conference, is at odds with the long-held notion that the continent’s first settlers came across a land bridge from Asia. The conventional view is the stuff of college entrance exams and Far Side car toons — wandering cavemen wrapped in animal hides and lugging enormous spears, crossing the land bridge from Asia to hunt woolly mammoths. Archeologists say some nomads al most certainly made their way into Alas ka and found an ice-free highway down into the continent some 13,500 years ago. Their culture has been named Clovis for their distinctive weapons that have been found in digs nationwide. But according to the new theory, the continent’s first inhabitants might have crossed the Atlantic more than 18,000 years ago from Europe’s Iberian Penin sula — the area that’s now Spain, Portu gal and southwestern France. Belonging to a group known as the Solutreans, these pre-modem explorer are believed to have originally settled the Eastern Seaboard, according to the re searchers. Over the next six millennia their hunting-and-gathering culture migh have spread as far as the American desert and Canadian tundra, and perhaps inte South America. The researchers, Dennis Stanford ane Bruce Bradley, concede that the Solutrean might not have been the only paleo-ex plorers to reach the Wfestem Hemisphere But judging by their distinctivr style of projectile points and othe clues in the archeological record, the; might have been the first settlers whc brought to North America what, until now, has been considered the Clovis cul ture. “There is very little in Clovis — in fact, nothing — that is not found in So lutrea,” said Stanford, who is anthro pology curator at the Smithsonian Insti tution. “Their blades are virtually indistinguishable.” Stanford and Bradley, an independent researcher from Cortez, Colo., offeree their stunning reinterpretation of the stan dard settlement theory at an archeology ; conference in Santa Fe. i The meeting was devoted to re-ex amining Clovis research seven decadet l after it was accepted as historical bedrock , Other scientists say the Solutrean al temative is such a radical departure thai it might take yean to adequately evalu : ate. Stanford and Bradley’s new expla nation, they noted, is based primarily on comparisons of projectile points ant i other artifacts already discovered on botl sides of the Atlantic. No unequivocal Solutrean settlement remains have been found in North Amer ica, they said. Researchers who believe that Clovis and the Bering Sea land-bridge theory is outdated point to sites at Monte Verde, Chile as well as Pennsylvania, Vnginia and South Carolina as being settled in 12,500 B.C. to 16,000 B.C. But Clovis defenders say many arti facts from those digs are so crude that they might be rocks that have broken nat urally rather than actual stone tools fash ioned by prehistoric hands. • Still, observers said, the older So lutrean projectile points from Europe and the more recent Clovis points from the Americas closely resemble each other. That’s what makes the new “Out of Iberia” theory so tantalizing. Think about it! What you really want in a graduate studies experience is an excellent education in a great town. In fact, now is the time you need to be applying for fall admission to the University of Charleston, S.C. Our affordable tuition.. .inviting surroundings... friendly people...exceptional programs and professors... all combine to create an atmosphere of learning and personal growth. Graduate Programs include: • Accountancy • Bilingual Legal Interpreting • Early Childhood Education • Elementary Education • English • Environmental Studies • History • Marine Biology • Mathematics • Public Administration • Science & Math Education for Teachers • Special Education The University of Charleston, S.C. is the graduate school of the College of Charleston. Charleston South Carolina The Graduate School at the College of Charleston To view a catalog call, write, or visit our web site. The Graduate School Office Suite 310, Randolph Hall University of Charleston, S.C. Charleston, SC 29424 ' (843) 953-5614 http://univchas.cofc.edu ■ Planning Trips for Generations X, Y, and Z. C' _ VOTE! Online Straw Poll Tuesday, November 2,1999 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Vote for 2000 U.S. Presidential candidates! Should USC change its mascot? * Do you support Safe Ride? Alan Keyes Al Gore Steve Forbes George w. Bush Elizabeth Dole Pat Buchanan John McCain Bill Bradley 1. Log on to www.vip.sc.edu 2. Enter your student ID and PIN numbers 3. Click on the Personal tab 4. Choose Student Government Elections 5. Vote