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Riley seeks 8th term as Charleston mayor BY BRUCE SMITH THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CHARLESTON - Joseph P. Riley Jr., who has served as may or longer than anyone in Charleston’s 333-year history, built an early lead Tuesday in his bid for an unprecedented eighth term in office. Riley, first elected in 1975, faced four challengers in the most expensive mayoral race ever waged in Charleston and one he called the toughest of his career. With about 29 percent of the city’s precincts reporting, Riley had 56 percent of the vote to 35 percent for his most formidable opponent, ex-state Rep. Jimmy Bailey. City Councilman Kwadjo Campbell had 6 percent of the vote with carriage company own er Tom Doyle and contractor Marc Knapp with about 1 percent each. Riley was the acknowledged front-runner, but it was unclear whether, in a five-way race, he would gather the more than 50 percent of the vote needed to win outright. If no candidate gets more than 50 percent, the two top finishers meet in a Nov. 18 runoff. Across the state in Greenville, incumbent Mayor Knox White sought a third term in City Hall. He was opposed by businessman Billy Mitchell in a race in which turnout was light. The early turnout in Charleston also was light with only about 10 percent of the city’s approximately 52,000 registered voters going to the polls by mid day, according to Nancy Bloodgood, chairwoman of the city Election Commission. However, by early afternoon, some precincts in the Historic District, where Riley lives, re ported one-third of registered vot ers had cast ballots. Riley, in an earlier interview with The Associated Press, called it “my toughest campaign by far” and added “I’m running hard and scared.” Riley is credited with leading a renaissance in Charleston, which attracts millions of visitors a year. He helped establish the Spoleto Festival U.S.A., revital ized the downtown business dis trict and led the way in building parks and the South Carolina Aquarium. The 60-year-old mayor said he is running on his record but said there is more to do. He said the city needs to work to help local schools improve and continue ef forts to attract high-tech busi nesses and make the suburbs more livable. His opponents said it’s time for a change after 28 years. And some voters on Tuesday seemed to agree. “We think the mayor has been in there, quite frankly, a little too long, although we think he has done a good job,” said Bill Miller, who runs an Internet company. “It would be healthy to have a change.” Lyman McCallum, an antiques dealer agreed. “Joe Riley has been a good mayor to a certain extent,” he said, but after almost three decades, it’s more just about pulling strings to get things done. Another voter said the mayor has done a great job. “He seems to really love the city,” said a woman named Joyce, who spent decades away from Charleston — “in exile” as she put it — before returning a few years ago. She didn’t want her last name used because she said Charleston relatives would think she was running her mouth after only recently re turning. Judge unseals evidence on Rep. Janklow’s driving record of 7 accidents, 12 tickets BY CARSON WALKER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FLANDREAU, S.D. — Some evi dence pr-osecutors want to use in the manslaughter case against Rep. Bill Janklow was unsealed Tuesday, including a driving record listing seven accidents and 12 speeding tickets. But Circuit Judge Rodney Steele also ruled that other evi dence may bias potential jurors in advance of the South Dakota Republican’s trial. It will remain sealed for now. Steele’s ruling means the pub lic can attend part of a hearing Monday during which lawyers will argue about what evidence should be included in the trial, which is scheduled for the week of Dec. L Janklow, who did not attend Tuesday’s hearing, is charged with felony second-degree manslaughter and three misde meanors for an Aug. 16 traffic ac cident near Trent that killed a motorcyclist. Steele also unsealed documents dealing with a reported near-miss at the same intersection last December involving Janklow. In that case, a woman report ed that someone driving a vehi cle matching Janklow’s went through a stop sign and nearly hit her family’s pickup. She lat er found out it was Janklow but didn’t press charges. Janklow is a former state at torney general and four-term governor who was elected to the U.S. House in 2002. Along with felony manslaughter, he is charged with going 71 mph in a 55 mph zone, disobeying a stop sign and reckless driving. The felony count carries a possible 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Tuesday’s hearing was prompted by Janklow’s lawyer, Ed Evans, asking that all docu ments and hearings dealing with admissibility of evidence be kept private. Evans argued that some evi dence released to the public may not end up in the trial, and that could bias jurors. “I was pleased that the con gressman’s right to a fair trial will be preserved,” he said after the proceeding. Nineteen media organizations, including The Associated Press, hired lawyer Jon Ameson to ar gue that all the motions and hear ings on evidence should be'open. “It’s not a complete victory. It’s not a complete loss,” Ameson said after the hearing. Prosecutor Bill Ellingson said he was neutral on whether he wanted the documents and hear ings opened. Records unsealed Tuesday in dicate Janklow was ticketed for speeding 12 times and involved in seven accidents since 1990, not including the August crash. In two of the accidents, as well as in the Trent crash, Janklow re ported seeing vehicles no one else saw. Janklow was governor when three of the accidents occurred. The other accidents and the speeding violations occurred be fore he took office as governor for a third term in 1995. A misdemeanor conviction would not affect Janklow’s abili ty to serve in Congress. STATE S.C. to get millions from security grants COLUMBIA (AP) - South Carolina will get $35 million more in federal grants for homeland security next year, according to state and federal officials. About $27 million of the mon ey will be used for training and equipping local police to help them prevent, respond to or re cover from terrorist attacks. With the newest federal grant, South Carolina has re ceived a total of $68 million to better prepare first responders, said State Law Enforcement Division Chief Robert Stewart. The funds will be divided be tween local and state govern ment. About $8 million of next year’s money will go to law en forcement agencies to improve their abilities to share intelli gence information and pay over time expenses related to home land security efforts. Sanford pushes for lower income taxes COLUMBIA (AP) — Gov. Mark Sanford said his plan to lower the state’s income tax rate would encourage the growth of small businesses and attract large companies interested in relo cating in South Carolina. Sanford began a three-day, 12-city tour of the state on Tuesday to discuss his econom ic stimulus proposal for the leg islative session that begins in January. Under the plan, Sanford would increase the tax on a pack of cigarettes to 68 cents, the national average. The state’s 7-cent tax is fourth-low est in the nation. Sanford also would apply the 5 percent state sales tax to lottery tickets, which currently are not taxed. The expected $222 million in new tax money would cover a 15 percent reduction in income tax revenue. State offers funds for mental health COLUMBIA (AP) - The state Mental Health Department has awarded more than $1.7 million in grants to 10 community men tal health centers across South Carolina. The grants allow mental health centers to implement pro grams to help reduce the num ber of mentally ill people wait ing in hospital emergency rooms. They also are intended to help reduce the number of beds used in the state’s two psy chiatric hospitals in Columbia and Anderson. The funding period for the grants began this month and will end June 30. During that time, mental health centers will be required to report their progress. NATION Microsoft antitrust case back in court WASHINGTON (AP)-The an titrust case against Microsoft Corp. returned Tuesday to the U.S. appeals court, where the world’s largest software compa ny already has won significant victories since the government began investigating its business practices nearly a decade ago. ‘Six appellate judges who agreed in June 2001 that Microsoft had illegally abused its monopoly over Windows soft ware are considering whether the Bush administration and 19 states negotiated adequate an titrust sanctions in a court-ap proved settlement. The court aggressively ques tioned key provisions of the set tlement, but it stopped short of suggesting it might instruct a lower court to throw out the agreement and seek tougher sanctions against the software company. 4 dead,3 wounded in highway shooting CASA GRANDE, ARIZ. (AP) - Four people were found shot to death along a highway Tuesday morning and three others were wounded in a possible dispute involving immigrant smuggling, officials said. Department of Public Safety spokesman Frank Valenzuela said highway patrol officers first got calls about a multiple-vehi cle accident along Interstate 10 outside Casa Grande, a town southeast of Phoenix, and later received calls about a shooting. Authorities suspect the shoot ing occurred as people in one ve hicle tried to overtake another ve hicle believed to be transporting immigrants, said Russell Ahr, spokesman for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. There was no indi cation that anyone in the second vehicle returned fire, Ahr said. Ex-HealthSouth CEO charged with fraud BIRMINGHAM, ALA. (AP) - Former HealthSouth chief Richard Scrushy was arrested Tuesday on charges of falsifying the books at the health-care chain by $2.7 billion to enrich himself — the first CEO charged under a new federal law prompt ed by the wave of corporate ac counting scandals. Prosecutors said that because Scrushy’s compensation was tied in part to HealthSouth’s per formance, he pocketed $267 mil lion in salary, bonuses and stock options and surrounded himself with yachts, luxury cars, fine art and jewels. Scrushy, 51, pleaded innocent to the 85 counts and was released on $10 million bail secured by his three homes and 360 acres of plantation property. WORLD Fatal flood results from illegal logging BUKIT LAWANG, INDONESIA (AP) — A devastating flood in Indonesia that left more than 200 people dead or missing has driven home a stark warning: rampant logging in Sumatra’s forests is harming not only en dangered animals but humans too. Felled trees may have blocked a waterway high in the moun tains, causing a huge flash flood when they collapsed Sunday night, a government spokesman said. By late Tuesday, rescuers with chain saws and bulldozers had pulled out 85 corpses from debris piled two stories high. Five of the dead were foreigners — two Germans, two Austrians and a Singaporean. Officials said up to 123 people were missing and feared dead. Afghanistan unveils draft constitution KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (AP) - Two years after the fall of the Taliban, the Afghan govern ment unveiled a historic draft constitution Monday, aiming to cast aside a quarter-century^ of conflict with a unifiec Islamic state under a powerful presidency. The draft makes Afghanistan an Islamic republic but stops short of imposing the harsh brand of Islamic law favored by the Taliban, and for the first time enshrines a permanent role for women in governing the country. The draft, containing 160 ar ticles in 12 chapters, is to be presented next month for ap proval at a constitutional loya jirga, or grand council, of some 500 delegates from across the country. Sri Lanka president halts Parliament . COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (AP) - Sri Lanka’s president stunned this island nation Tuesday when she suspended Parliament, sacked three Cabinet ministers and deployed troops around the capital — moves that endanger the fragile peace process with Tamil Tiger rebels. President Chandrika Kumaratunga — who is com mander of the armed forces and has considerable executive au thority under the constitution — made the surprise power grab against her political rival, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, while he was in Washington to meet with ' President Bush. Wickremesinghe hit back, ac cusing Kumaratunga of endan gering the government’s bid to end two decades of civil war on this tropical island off the south ern tip of India. Last of NYC’s old red subway cars makes final run to Queens BY RICHARD PYLE THE ASSOCIATED PIIKSS NEW YORK — When the old ma roon subway cars left Times Square on their final run to the Queens borough, the passengers included — or so it seemed — ev ery former teenage oddball who ever rode up front with nose pressed to the glass, watching the onrushing tracks. There also were the city’s top transit executives, a small army of television and print journalists, uniformed subway employees and even some regular commuters, puzzled by the sudden hoopla on the No. 7 platform. The occasion Monday was the retirement of the last of the all steel cars called “Redbirds,” the backbone of the New York subway fleet for more than 40 years but now the victims of a $2 billion up grade program that includes mod em cars with stainless steel bod ies and features like digital signs. Officials said about 100 of the original 1,400 Redbirds will stay in service as work trains, and a few will go to the city’s Transit Museum, but most are destined to be sold and sunk into the Atlantic Ocean as artificial reefs. The Redbirds were the last sub way cars built in the United States, by the former St. Louis Car Ci., in Missouri. The latest cars are built in Canada with some parts from France and elsewhere. There were some genuine laments as the 11-car No. 7 train, which serves 200,000 people a day and runs to the Mets’ Shea Stadium, emerged from the East River tunnel and became an ele vated train. Several riders noted that the Redbirds are the last cars to have straphanger straps; newer models are short of handholds for stand ing commuters. Others said they found in the Redbirds a certain ro mance, or a sense of community that is now lacking. “If you keep regular hours, you get to know the other people, the conductor, even the token clerk. It’s more like a local train, or a lo cal railroad,” said Mia Mather, a computer expert who rode the No. 7 for years before moving to Manhattan. Daniel Wrynn, 39, a 17-year sub way conductor, was hand-picked, along with train operator Michael Rubino, 46, for the last run to Willets Point in Queens. “This is my favorite train right here,” he said. “They have a fla vor, the old-fashioned kind. If it was up to me, I’d want them to run forever.” Michael Perez, 24, agreed; “I love the subway. It’s a somber mo ment. I’m going to have tears in my eyes vt hen we get to Willets Point.” Pauli D. Mays GE1C0 Direct Representative 7402 B Garners Ferry Road, Columbia, SC 29209 1 Telephone: (803) 783-1551 Fax: (803) 783-1557 Claims: 1-800-841-3000 On Thi “- ~ - &MXL :e 41 ! W»W#| I IMmmmm T&^tPUjm Closest Service Center to the Horseshoe: DOWNTOWN 1400 Gervais St. 79^9950_