MONDAY Montessori in demand Look, no hands! Education technique gaining Tales abound on how Irish dance popularity. — Arkansas, 1B style got its start. — ActiveStyle, 1E

A RKANSAS’ NEWSPAPER Copyright q 2008, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.

Printed at Little Rock • Monday, March 17, 2008 ArkansasOnline.com 48 Pages 6 Sections 50¢

In the news Still set to dance m Former President Clin- Bear Stearns buyout ton met with actor Brad Pitt and hundreds of volunteers in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward for a groundbreaking at the site where a foundation gets Fed’s speedy OK headed by Pitt plans to begin building affordable homes for DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE PRESS SERVICES The Federal Reserve and financial institutions and for in- Hurricane Katrina victims. JPMorgan Chase said Sun- the U.S. government swiftly ap- dividuals.” m Gary Lehman, who made day that it will acquire rival proved the all-stock deal, show- The Fed will provide special his Metropolitan Opera debut Bear Stearns in a deal valued at ing the urgency of completing financing to JPMorgan Chase for as Tristan in Tristan und Isolde $236.2 million, or $2 a share, a the deal before world markets the deal, JPMorgan Chase said. in place of ailing tenor Ben stunning collapse for one of the opened. Early indications, The central bank has agreed to Heppner, will reprise the role world’s largest and most vener- though, pointed to continued fund up to $30 billion of Bear at least once, Met officials said, able investment banks. fear about the stability of the U.S. Stearns’ less liquid assets. although who will play the role The last-minute buyout was market, as the dollar dropped At almost the same time as in a matinee that will be broad- aimed at averting a Bear Stea- against the euro and yen, gold the deal for control of Bear Stea- cast worldwide in high-defini- rns bankruptcy and a spreading broke through $1,015 an ounce, rns was announced, the Federal tion has yet to be announced. crisis of confidence in the global and Asian stocks sank. Reserve said it approved a cut in m Ralph Archbold, Philadel- financial system sparked by the “This is going to go down in its lending rate to banks to 3.25 phia’s best-known portrayer of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/MICHAEL WOODS collapse in the subprime mort- very historic terms,” said Peter percent from 3.50 percent and Benjamin Franklin, and fellow Sonny Weems (left) and Patrick Beverley of Arkansas watch from the gage market. Bear Stearns was Dunay, chief investment strat- created another lending facility actor Linda Wilde, who’s been bench as the Razorbacks lose the SEC Tournament final 66-57 to the most exposed to risky bets egist for New York-based Me- for big investment banks, avail- at his side lately portraying Georgia on Sunday in Atlanta. The Razorbacks received an at-large on the loans; it is now the first ridian Equity Partners. “This is able starting today. flag-stitcher Betsy Ross, have bid as the No. 9 seed in the East Regional of the NCAA Tournament major bank to be undone by that about credit being overextend- “These steps will provide fi- announced their engagement. and will face Indiana on Friday in Raleigh, N.C. Articles, 1C market’s collapse. ed, and how bad it is for major See ECONOMY, Page 4A m Jaime Lusinchi, Venezu- ela’s former president, was summoned to appear in court to face claims he is linked to the 1986 killings of nine people in McCain to meet the western town of Yumare, described at the time as a clash with guerrillas but since then portrayed by victims’ families as with brass in Iraq an execution without a fight. m Joe Scola, owner of Scola’s Place restaurant in Gloucester, Pope: ‘Enough with the slaughters’ Mass., drove away a would-be BY RYAN LENZ March 2003 U.S.-led invasion, thief by slamming a frozen ham THE ASSOCIATED PRESS said the trip to the Middle East into the perpetrator’s face after BAGHDAD — Sen. John and Europe was for fact-finding the man, who had been trying McCain, the likely Republican purposes, not a campaign photo to get away with his arms full of presidential nominee, arrived opportunity. meat from the restaurant freez- But he expressed public wor- er, raised a 5-pound log of fro- in Baghdad on Sunday for a visit with Iraqi and U.S. diplomatic ries that militants in Iraq might zen Italian meat over his head try to influence the November as if to use it as a weapon. and military officials. The trip by McCain, who general election. m Amanda Rouse, 15, a Ma- has linked his political future “Yes, I worry about it,” he rina High School student who to U.S. military success in the said, responding to a question caught a ride on a bus with 40 war, coincided with the 20th an- during a campaign appearance elementary students after feel- niversary of a horrific chemical in Pennsylvania. “And I know ing sick at her Seaside, Calif., weapons attack in northern Iraq they pay attention, because of school, jumped up and applied and Pope Benedict XVI’s Palm the intercepts we have of their the brakes on the out-of-control Sunday Mass, where the pontiff communications.” vehicle after the driver fell out McCain, the senior Republi- of her seat and hit her head, but denounced the 5-year-long Iraq war, saying it had provoked the can on the Senate Armed Ser- Rouse still got a Saturday de- vices Committee, was accompa- tention for skipping class. complete breakup of Iraqi civil- ian life. nied by Sens. Joe Lieberman, an m Cardinal Ivan Dias pre- McCain met with Deputy independent from Connecticut, sided over the consecration of Prime Minister Barham Saleh and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Qatar’s first Christian church, and planned to meet with Gen. two top supporters of his presi- the Roman Catholic parish of David Petraeus, the top U.S. dential ambitions. Our Lady of the Rosary, in a commander in Iraq, according The week-long trip will take ceremony that ended decades to the U.S. Embassy. Further McCain to Israel, Britain and of underground worship in the France and include his first largely Sunni Muslim nation. details of McCain’s visit, which had been anticipated, were not meeting with British Prime m Bill Wengert, a 35-year being released for security rea- Minister Gordon Brown. He veteran of Wyoming’s Game sons, the embassy said. also is expected to meet with and Fish Department, said the AP/RICCARDO DE LUCA Before leaving the United French President Nicolas Sar- clipped fin on a 23-inch Macki- Pope Benedict XVI holds his papal staff as he walks in procession before the start of an open-air Palm Sunday States, McCain, one of the kozy, Israeli Prime Minister naw trout he caught while ice Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. foremost proponents of the See IRAQ, Page 2A fishing in the Flaming Gorge Reservoir leads him to believe it is among the 12,000 fish he helped stock on April 14, 1983, adding that studying the catch Dalai Lama fears cultural genocide as Tibet unrest builds will allow biologists “an oppor- BY CARA ANNA Demonstrations widened to rective not to gather in groups, of Gansu and Qinghai provinces Phuntsok, said Monday that 13 tunity to learn more about fish AND TINI TRAN Tibetan communities in Sichuan, marched to a hill where they by police who told them it was civilians were killed and dozens genetics, age and growth of lake THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Qinghai and Gansu provinces, set off fireworks and burned for their “safety.” were wounded in violence that trout in the reservoir.” TONGREN, China — Protests forcing authorities to mobilize incense in what one monk said Meanwhile, police in the Ti- broke out in Lhasa on Friday. m Benjamin Netanyahu, spread from Tibet into three security forces across a broad was a protest, according to an betan capital, Lhasa, searched China’s state media said earlier Israel’s former prime minister, neighboring provinces Sunday expanse of western China. Associated Press reporter at the buildings as a deadline loomed that 10 civilians were killed. has filed a libel lawsuit in a Tel as Tibetans defied a Chinese In Tongren, riot police sent scene. today for people who took part Speaking from India, the Da- Aviv court demanding damages government crackdown, while to prevent protests heightened In a sign that authorities were in a violent anti-Chinese upris- lai Lama, the spiritual leader of from the country’s Channel 10 the Dalai Lama decried what he tensions when they took up preparing for trouble, AP and ing last week to surrender or Tibetans, called for an interna- broadcaster over a report that called the “cultural genocide” positions outside a monastery. other foreign journalists were face severe punishment. tional investigation into China’s claimed he ran up a huge tab in See TIBET, Page 4A London while the country was taking place in his homeland. Dozens of monks, defying a di- ordered out of the Tibetan parts Tibet’s governor, Champa at war with Lebanon in 2006, calling the report inaccurate 3 missing in NYC crane collapse and politically motivated. List for child-care help Drone strike WEATHER said to target LITTLE ROCK grows as funds fall short Today Partly to mostly cloudy with a chance of thunderstorms. Federal aid level has been static for 6 years Pakistan site; High 70, with southeast winds at 10 to 15 mph. BY CHARLOTTE TUBBS family of four, to 85 percent up to 20 die Tonight ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE of the median state income, or Showers and A shortage of child-care as- $41,000 for a family of four. BY BASHIRULLAH KHAN thunderstorms sistance funds has prompted The U.S. Senate passed a AND LAUREN FRAYER likely. state administrators to place spending plan Friday that pro- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS posed a $440 million increase Low 60. thousands of parents on a wait- MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan ing list and to consider restrict- to the Child Care and Develop- — Missiles that witnesses say ing eligibility. ment Block Grant, which funds came from an unmanned drone INDEX State officials are also con- states’ child-care assistance flattened a suspected militant ActiveStyle 1E Editorials 6B sidering not renewing some programs. safe house Sunday in Pakistan’s Arkansas 1B Heloise 5E parents’ child-care vouchers as The House’s budget plan did tribal area along the Afghan Business 1D Movies 6E early as June, said Tonya Rus- not include such an increase, border. State television said the Classifieds 1F Sports 1C sell, director of the state agency said Linda Smith, executive di- strike killed about 20 people. Comics 4E Television 2E that administers the child-care rector of the National Associa- Witnesses said a drone Crossword 4E Voices 7B assistance program. tion of Child Care Resource and dropped seven missiles on Deaths 4B Weather 4D No children from low-in- Referral Agencies. the sprawling, mud-brick come families have been added The Virginia organization compound about three miles Home delivery to the program since Septem- works with more than 800 state outside Wana, the main town 378-3456 ber, causing a waiting list to and local child-care resource in South Waziristan. Only Outside Pulaski County grow to nearly 5,000. and referral agencies to ensure U.S.-led coalition forces in 1-800-482-1121 The shortage of funds stems that families in every local com- Afghanistan are known to op- from six years without an in- munity have access to high- erate unmanned drones in the crease in federal funding and quality, affordable child care. region, and they have launched an expansion of state income Arkansas’ voucher program AP/SETH WENIG attacks over the Pakistani bor- eligibility standards. In 2007, in- provides assistance for the care Construction workers search for three people in the rubble of a col- der before. come eligibility was increased of about 13,000 children in Ar- lapsed crane Sunday in New York. At least four people were killed in Osama bin Laden and other from 60 percent of the median kansas, including 1,867 children Saturday’s accident. Article, 5A senior al-Qaida and Taliban state income, or $29,000 for a See VOUCHERS, Page 2A See PAKISTAN, Page 4A