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M I McCain. Gore win in New Hampshire McCain's 19-point victory shatters Bush's invulnerability; Gore beats Bradley handily by Ron Fournier Associated Press Manchester, N.H. — Arizona Sen. John McCain scored a landslide victory over George W. Bush on Tuesday in New Hampshire’s leadoff primary, puncturing the aura of inevitability that had buoyed his Republican presidential campaign. Vice President A1 Gore survived a toe-to-toe challenge from Democratic challenger Bill Bradley. “We have sent a powerful message to Washington that change is coming,” McCain told cheering supporters. He watched returns with his teary-eyed wife, Cindy, who put a trembling hand to her mouth and said, “It really happened.” McCain rolled up 49 percent of the GOP vote, Bush just 30, a maigin that re cast the GOP race for the larger states ahead. Gore was winning 52 percent of the vote, Bradley 47. “We’re going to march all the way down the field — state to state, all the way to victory in November,” the vice president told supporters, as Democrats and Republicans alike looked to a five week stretch of primaries that could de termine the nominees by mid-March. The results damaged Bradley’s chances, but he vowed to keep up his challenge. The former New Jersey sen ator lost badly in Iowa last week and lost the lead he once held in New Hampshire polling. Even so, he found solace in the nar rower maigin Tuesday night. “Wfe’re mov ing forward, ” Bradley told AP and indeed he has enough money to remain com petitive in an expensive sprint of followup primaries, a luxury McCain could not have afforded AP’s delegate analysis showed Gore leading for 13 out of the 22 Democratic delegates at stake in New Hampshire, with Bradley winning 9. The vice president cast his victory as a bad omen for Bradley, whose laid-back style and pledges of political reform were tailor made for independent-minded vot ers of New Hampshire. “If he cannot win here, then that’s a devastating blow to him,” Gore told re porters. Nearly four out of every 10 New Hampshire voters do not declare a party affiliation, and these independents were a potent attraction to insuigent candidates McCain and Bradley in a state with a proud history of knocking front-runners offstride. McCain credited his agenda of polit ical and campaign finance reform for his victory. “The Republican Party recovered its heritage of reform. And it’s the beginning of the end of the truth-twisting politics of Bill Clinton and A1 Gore,” he said. In returns from 80 percent of New Hampshire’s 300 Republican precincts, McCain had 49 percent of the vote com pared to 30 for Bush. Millionaire pub lisher Steve Forbes was a distant third at 13 percent and former Amb. Alan Keyes was at 6. McCain was winning 10 out of the 17 GOP delegates at stake, Bush five and Forbes two. Social conservative Gary Bauer bare ly registered in the returns and was strug PRIMARY see page A6 NTSB seeks clues in Alaska Airlines crash by Jeff Wilson Associated Press Fort Hueneme, Calif*—The pilots of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 struggled with a sudden control problem for at least six minutes before the jetliner plummeted into the ocean with 88 people aboard, federal investigators said Tuesday. The last minutes of the MD-83’s flight Monday may have been witnessed by pi lots aboard four other aircraft, and the National Transportation Safety Board was seeking to interview them. The plane plunged from 17,000 feet « . and crashed nose-down in the Pacific af ter the pilot reported problems with the horizontal stabilizer, a wing-like struc ture on the tail that controls the pitch of the aircraft's nose. Investigators at the crash site also said Tuesday they had heard a pinging from the ocean, apparently from the flight recorders, which could reveal exactly what went wrong with the stabilizer. The search was concentrated on a de bris field about 10 miles offshore and about 40 miles northwest of the Los An Crash see page as Some on Old House Lane feeling strain of Clintons as neighbors * by Maria Miro Johnson ‘ Knight-Ridder Tribune Chappaqua, N,Y.—The gray Chevy Suburban — typical enough, but for the police escort—approaches, then passes by. And so, well, that’s that. End of visit End of story. The scattering of residents and TV crews who were waiting on the grassy bank of the Grand Union supermarket for a glimpse of the presidential mo ' torcade now turn to leave. “Finito musica,” shrugs an Italian man to his wife. But then, hey, wait! Down there at the firehouse, the Suburban is stop ping! And they're climbing out—the president and the first lady—to greet the folks. The Grand Union contingent hustles right over. President Bill Clinton, jaunty in a black bomber jacket and more angu lar about the jaw than on TV, ambles across the street toward the guys at the Mobil station, with its “Welcome Hillary and Bill” sign, as his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, in her dual role as first lady and a (soon-to-be-an nounced) candidate for the U.S. Sen ate, smiles and reaches out to shake hands. Minutes earlier, the Clintons walked hand-in-hand onto the lawn of their white-columned, Dutch colonial home, for a news conference. Mrs. Clinton stepped back to let her hus band be the main event. He is the pres I ■ -V ident, after all, although she and her campaign are the reasons these TV satellite trucks lumbered into town. When she was asked a question— about “soft money” fundraising, of which her likely opponent, New York Gty Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, lias made an issue—she quickly put the kibosh oh all such discussion: “We're going to talk about our house this morning.” Now- here she is in the firehouse driveway, moving serenely in a loose ring of Secret Service officials through this friendly throng, aid the only ques tion before her is, how does it feel to be an official New Yorker? “It feels great! "says Mrs. Clinton.. No one dares ask those other ques Neighbors seeW« News Briefs ■ Alaska avalanche victims rescued Anchorage, Alaska (AP) — Nine motorists were rescued by a state police helicopter Tuesday after spending the night in their cars, trapped by huge avalanches that buried a highway. The travelers, who had kept in touch with rescuers by cellular phone as they wait ed along the Seward Highway, were flown out in three groups and taken to a diner for breakfast. They were in good condition. “We ate everything they had in the restaurant, and now we're starting all over again,” said Darwin Peterson. “1 told my wife when we get back home, I'm not go ing as far as the post office for the rest of the winter.” ■ Investigators in Seton Hall fire seize student’s computer Newark, NJ. (TMS) —Investigators seized a computer belonging to a student living in the same dormitory where a deadly fire broke out two weeks ago af ter Seton Hall officials received an e-mail threatening an even worse blaze. The computer was taken from a sec ond-floor room in Boland Hall three days after the Jan. 19 fire, which killed three students and injured 62 - four of whom are still in critical condition. Investigators are analyzing the com puter's hard drive and software to deter mine whether the e-mail was a prank, school officials said. ■ Feds, Wal-Mart team to promote new coin Washington (AP) — Mindful of the debacle with the Susan B. Anthony coin, the U.S. Mint is aggressively marketing the new Sacagawea coin by placing it in Wal-Mart cash registers and boxes of Cheerios. “Right away, this gets the new gold en dollar coin into cash registers across the nation,” said Philip Diehl, director of the U.S. Mint. -1 Your Student ID now buys more at... Clothing for all Occasions. Affordable furniture for your dorm or apartment. Household items and much more. Bring your valid student ID to Goodwill and receive 10% off your ENTIRE purchase! 7523 Garners Ferry (Wal-Mart Shopping Center) 783-2696 555 St. Andrews Rd. 754 W. Main St. (west of [-26 by Lexington Food Lion ) (K-mart Shopping Center) 216-9000 356-8680 # 0 v'f Make North Myrtle Beach Reservations Now Spring Breakfy GraduatioOJOO « All Units located in Cherry Grove Beach Some With Swimming Pools!! visit us at: www.cherrygrovebeachhouses.com or call 1-800-418 7 days a week • V