Ex-guard member plans to sue state - The Sheridan Press

6 The Sheridan Press, Thursday, October 21, 1999
Government finalizes rules protecting children online
■ Companies banned
from collecting personal
information on kids
without permission
WASHINGTON (AP) — The governent
laid out new rules for protecting kids’
rivacy on the Internet Wednesday, allowng
companies to send e-mail to parents
eeking permission to ask children questions
The First
American
newspaper
was
published on
September 25,
1690.
— but only if the information is not shared
with other companies.
The rules are designed to tell companies
how to comply with a new federal privacy
law that bans them from collecting personal
information from children without a parent’s
permission.
One of the most contentious provisions
involved a compromise allowing businesses
for the next two years to send e-mail to parents.
The new rules from the Federal Trade
Commission, approved 4-0, are expected to
FCC expected to boost
fund that keeps phone
service affordable
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Federal subsidies that help make
phone service affordable for people
in rural and expensive-to-serve
areas are expected to grow under
action by federal regulators.
The change by the Federal
Communications Commission is
part of a broader effort to revamp
the system to prepare for the day
when there is widespread competition
in the local phone market.
The commission ‘‘is taking
another step forward in reforming
universal service for a more competitive
era,’’ said FCC Chairman
Bill Kennard. ‘‘Everybody
acknowledges that as the markets
change and as we get more competition,
we will transition to a new
model.’’
The FCC was expected today to
nearly double the pot of money
available in the program that goes
to big telephone companies, such as
the regional Bell companies and
GTE, that serve rural customers and
others living in high-cost areas.
Big phone companies now get
$207 million in federal subsidies to
help make local phone service
affordable in high-cost areas in 19
states. Of that, $130 million goes to
the main phone company in Puerto
Rico. Alabama and California are
two big recipients among the states.
Federal subsidies are mostly
paid by fees the FCC imposes on
AT&T, MCI, Sprint and other longdistance
companies, which pass
them on to customers.
The nation’s largest long-distance
carrier, AT&T, anticipates
that it will have to raise the monthly
line-item fee that consumers see on
their bill, called the Universal
Service Connectivity Charge,
because of the subsidy increase.
GOP pushes spending bill through
WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite
veto threats from President Clinton
and a contentious start to budget
talks, Republicans are continuing to
push overdue spending bills through
Congress for the new fiscal year.
Republicans planned to try moving
a $14.5 billion measure through
the House today that would finance
the Interior Department and cultural
programs. The bill contains millions
more than last year for many programs,
but Clinton has threatened a
veto because it has less than he wants
for park land purchases and has provisions
helping oil, mining and other
industries he considers anti-environmental.
In remarks to reporters
Wednesday, Clinton maintained a
positive tone.
‘‘We still have a great opportunity
to make this a season of progress and
work together to pass a budget that
lives within its means and lives up to
our values,’’ Clinton said. ‘‘We’ve
done it before and we can do it
again.’’
On Friday, Republicans hope to
send Clinton the last and biggest of
the 13 annual spending measures for
fiscal 2000, which began Oct. 1. The
bill would provide more than $300
billion for the departments of Health
and Human Services, Labor and
Education.
Since that time, newspapers such as ours have provided you
with information on the most important current events,
including: the first U.S. census in 1790, man’s first step on
the moon, the Journeymen Printers Union strike in 1776, the
Boston Tea Party, every major armed conflict around the
world, the establishment of the armed forces, the Gettysburg
Address, the Pony Express, the great Chicago fire of 1891,
the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, the first minimum wage,
“The Star-Spangled Banner,” Pearl Harbor, desegregation,
the Mall of the Americas, the assassination of JFK and
MLK, postage increases, the ozone layer, “Star Wars,” the
World Trade Center bombing, the treaty of Paris, the Enola
Gay, the Ford Model-T, 123 manned space flights, Al
Capone, the gold rush, computers, Albert Einstein, the
World's Fairs, Social Security, the Titanic, the Bill of Rights,
MRIs, the Internet, the fall of the Berlin Wall, cloning,
“Citizen Kane,” the Olympics, and 41 Presidents.
Imagine what you’ll learn
tomorrow.
have a dramatic impact on hundreds of popular
Internet sites aimed at children, which
typically offer online games and entertainment
in exchange for personal information
valuable to marketers.
Catherine Benjamin, a mother of two
young children in Rolling Meadows, Ill.,
called the law ‘‘long overdue’’ and bristled
at how easy children online can be persuaded
to disclose even the most personal
details.
‘‘It scares us,’’ said Mrs. Benjamin, who
recently warned her 12-year-old niece about
these risks. ‘‘Children just give out information
on the Internet. There’s a lot of wonderful
opportunities on the Internet ... (but) it
can become a dangerous tool.’’
The FTC will begin enforcing the new
rules in April.
‘‘There’s a real problem out there,’’ said
FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky. ‘‘We’re
going to give the industry six months to get
its act together to make changes. After that,
we’ll monitor these Web sites and we’ll take
enforcement action.’’
The FTC said Web sites that share chil-
dren’s information with other companies
must obtain a parent’s permission through
mailed or faxed paperwork, calls to a tollfree
number, through use of a credit-card
number or via e-mail using nascent digital
signature technology.
The provision over a parent’s consent
was among the most controversial. E-mail is
the most convenient and immediate method
for granting permission, but it’s also simple
to impersonate another person online —
especially for kids who often know more
about technology than their parents.
Fire prevention helped Teton lodge avoid blaze
JACKSON (AP) — Two years of
fire prevention helped firefighters
beat back flames that threatened a historic
lodge in Grand Teton National
Park last week, a park official said.
Crews had been thinning trees and
removing dead logs from in front of
Jenny Lake Lodge in case of such an
emergency, said Len Dems, the park’s
fire management officer.
Their efforts caused the fire to
approach the 77-year-old lodge in
pulses rather than a large wave. That
helped firefighters stop the fire at a
road in front of the lodge. Fire fighters
also sprayed the buildings with
foam as the fire approached.
‘‘We probably have not seen a fire
in that area for 120 to 200 years,’’
Dems said.
The fire had been burning for
about six weeks when strong winds
whipped it out of control. The blaze
jumped Jenny Lake and String Lake
and eventually consumed 312 acres.
Some residents said the park
should have suppressed the fire sooner.
Joanne Hennes said she is grateful
the lodge was saved but is sad to lose
one of her favorite hikes.
Many of the trails that burned were
flat and accessible to senior citizens,
she said.
‘‘It would have been nice to have
stopped it before it crossed String
Lake,’’ she said. ‘‘For six weeks, you
could have put it out with a bucket.’’
Before the fire grew out of control,
park officials decided that the benefits
of a natural fire outweighed the risks.
Fire is known to restore diversity to
the forest by creating a mosaic of
mature and young trees and brush.
Typically, late fall is a good time
of year for controlling fires because
cool temperatures and precipitation
keep them in check, Dems said. So
when a cold front started moving
through the area last week, fire offi-
AP Photo/Barry Williams
ALDER FIRE — Firefighters struggle to keep the Alder Fire from reaching the Jenny Lake Lodge
in Grand Teton National Park Thursday night. Over 50 firefighters, two helicopters dropping water,
and three drops of fire retardant from aerial tankers saved the lodge from going up in flames.
cials monitored the blaze but
did not try to suppress it as it
grew from a few acres to more
than 100 acres.
Once firefighters realized
CHEYENNE (AP) — The
Wyoming Board of Medicine was
overzealous in its investigation of a
Gillette physician who practices
alternative medicine, an attorney told
the state Supreme Court.
The result was a ‘‘scorched earth
attack’’ on Rebecca Painter that went
beyond an investigation into her
methods of treatment, her attorney,
Tom Toner, argued Wednesday.
But the attorney for the state
board, Don Riske, a special assistant
attorney general, said the board has
Wyoming
focus
Wisconsin man
dies in Torrington
shooting
TORRINGTON (AP) — An 18year-old
man was killed after handling
a gun that he and three runaways
had stolen during a crosscountry
burglary spree, authorities
said.
Benjamin Buck, 18, who lived
near Caruthersville, Mo., died after
the .45-caliber Smith and Wesson
automatic discharged in a motel
room at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday,
said Police Chief Billy Janes.
Buck was struck in the left side
of the head and later died at a hospital
in Scottsbluff, Neb., Janes said.
An ‘‘extremely’’ shaken trio of
juveniles were taken to the Goshen
County Sheriff’s Detention Facility,
where they were waiting for their
parents to arrive and take them
home Wednesday.
‘‘We don’t have anything that’s
inconsistent with an accidental
shooting at this time,’’ Janes said.
Trio fined
for digging up
petrified wood
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL
PARK (AP) — Three people have
been fined and sentenced to probation
for digging up petrified wood in
Yellowstone National Park, according
to park officials.
Toby P. Brown, 21, and Katrina
the fire had jumped across the
lakes, park officials called in air
tankers, helicopters, engines
and crews to fight it.
At that point, the fire began
‘‘no agenda’’ in Painter’s case or on
alternative medicine.
Riske said the board inquiry and
order came about because of complaints
from two of Painter’s patients
who said they were misdiagnosed.
Painter is appealing a board order
issued in March that found her negligent
and requires her to complete a
four-week training course in
endocrinology at the University of
Utah School of Medicine.
The board directed the physician
to cooperate with periodic random
M. Usher, both of Upton, Mass.,
and Andrew S. Trick, 19, of Beaver
Creek, Ohio, pleaded guilty on Oct.
13 to charges of removing natural
features from the park.
They were accused of digging up
more than 150 pieces of petrified
wood near the Petrified Tree, about
three miles west of Tower Junction,
park Superintendent Michael Finley
said.
Visitors told rangers they saw
the trio digging in the ground with a
screwdriver on the slope above the
tree on Oct. 8. The pieces were
found in a car and small backpack,
Finley said.
All of the petrified wood pieces
will be returned to their natural state
if possible, Finley said.
The three were each fined $750,
placed on three years of probation
and barred from entering the park
for three years.
No death penalty
in window
death case
CHEYENNE (AP) —
Prosecutors will not seek the death
penalty against a transient accused
of dropping another man to his
death out of a downtown third-floor
hotel window.
Brian Holloman, 39, is charged
with first-degree murder in the July
25 death of Douglas Johnson.
Police say Holloman pushed
Johnson out of a window.
Holloman could have faced the
death penalty, but Laramie County
District Attorney Jon Forwood said
he decided on life in prison for several
reasons.
‘‘You have to look at the nature
to burn intensely because of
fuel accumulated on the forest
floor as a result of past firesuppression
efforts, Dems
said.
Board of medicine accused of
intense attack against physician
reviews of the office charts of her
patients by a board-certified internist
on three occasions for one year.
The board also found that Painter
violated the code of medical ethics by
subjecting one of her patients to testing
for a clinical study without the
patient’s consent or knowledge.
During oral arguments before the
Supreme Court Wednesday, Toner
said the board’s action against Painter
was ‘‘foreordained’’ from the beginning
because Painter fought the board
and held her hearings in public.
of the crime, our evidence, public
sentiment and cost,’’ he said.
‘‘You need a compelling case with
tremendous public support.’’
Forwood said prosecutors are
seeking a habitual criminal charge
against Holloman as an additional
penalty.
A tentative trial date has been
set for Feb. 7 in Laramie County
District Court before Judge Dan
Spangler.
Officials make
valuable economic
contacts
CHEYENNE (AP) — Wyoming
made some valuable contacts with
executives of leading worldwide
businesses, economic development
officials said Wednesday.
Wyoming participated in the
International Development
Research Council conference in
Nashville, Tenn., earlier this week.
The council is a worldwide corporate
advisory body developing business
networking, education and
research for Fortune 500 and
Global 1,000 firms.
Some 2,000 senior executives of
the world’s largest companies were
on hand, and about 700 stopped by
Wyoming’s booth, according to
John Reardon, chief executive officer
for the Wyoming Business
Council.
There were 22 states represented
at the conference.
Reardon and other Business
Council officials said it is important
for Wyoming to make such contacts
and build relationships with company
executives if it is to promote
economic development.