Panel to ponder Medina’s farmland PAGE 1-B NEWSSTANDS OHIO’S LARGEST NEWSPAPER 35¢ & MACHINES MEDINA COUNTY CLEVELAND, TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 1999 ME * * * Clinton A new lesson plan for Ohio files first defense documents Taft says education is key By JAMES BENNET NEW YORK TIMES Kids’ reading WASHINGTON — President Clinton formally defended him- self yesterday for the first time is focus of against removal from office by the Senate, arguing that he had first address committed no crimes and that the charges against him are so vague By BENJAMIN MARRISON and muddled that they are uncon- PLAIN DEALER BUREAU CHIEF stitutional. COLUMBUS — Challenging Hours later, prosecutors drawn Ohioans to make a difference in from the House of Representa- the lives of the state’s children, tives released a scorching memo- Gov. Bob Taft yesterday devoted randum mapping out the case for most of his inaugural address to an illegal presidential coverup championing such causes. that they will begin to present on The place to start, he stressed, Thursday. is by teaching youngsters to read. The dueling documents, filed in ‘‘Let’s pledge today that we will response to deadlines imposed by not give up on a single one of our the Senate, drew on the same schoolchildren,’’ the great- body of evidence to provide night- grandson of the nation’s 27th and-day versions of whether Clin- president told those packing the ton lied under oath and ob- Ohio Theatre. To his right sat his structed justice to hide his affair wife, Hope, and their 19-year-old with Monica Lewinsky — and whether the charges against him could warrant ejecting a presi- R An optimistic Taft looks to fu- dent from office for the first time. ture. 8-A None of the wrongdoings of R which the president is accused, The buzz from the balls. 5-B his lawyers argued, reaches the level of “high crimes or misde- daughter, Anna; to his left was Lt. meanors,” the constitutional stan- Gov. Maureen O’Connor and her dard for removal from office. two sons. “The charges in the two articles of impeachment do not permit the ‘‘There is no single education conviction and removal from of- challenge of greater urgency than fice of a duly elected president,” the need to make sure every Ohio they wrote in their 13-page brief. student learns how to read,’’ Taft But the House prosecutors took said, echoing a campaign theme a far different view of the charges that helped propel him to victory and the stakes. “If the president in November. ‘‘No matter how ad- is not convicted as a consequence vanced our technology in the next of the conduct that has been por- frontier, reading is the key. trayed,” they wrote, reprising ar- ‘‘If we want higher academic guments made before the House achievement for our students, Judiciary Committee, “then no reading is the key. If we want suc- House of Representatives will ever be able to impeach again and cess in attracting the high-tech no Senate will ever convict. The jobs of the future, reading is the bar will be so high that only a ASSOCIATED PRESS key. And, if we want less crime on convicted felon or a traitor will Bob Taft takes the ceremonial oath of office yesterday from his wife, Hope, center, and his daughter, Anna. The oath was a public event in our streets and less poverty in our state, reading is the key.’’ need to be concerned.” Columbus. The new governor already had been formally sworn in shortly after midnight in a private ceremony at the governor’s residence SEE DEFENSE/7-A in Bexley. SEE READING/8-A Rush-hour storm conver ts Growth of Medicare at vir tual halt By ROBERT PEAR does not fundamentally alter the spending rose by an average of NEW YORK TIMES long-term outlook for Medicare, $12.8 billion, or 10 percent, a which will incur immense new year. But in 1998, it grew just $3.1 WASHINGTON — The growth downtown into parking lot costs as baby boomers become el- billion, to a total of $213.6 billion, of Medicare slowed last year to a igible after 2010. according to recent statements of Half-hour commutes virtual halt as spending in the gi- federal spending from the Trea- ant health insurance program for For the first time, Medicare sury Department. become 2-hour treks the elderly rose by just 1.5 per- spending last year grew more “While we are all rightly con- cent, the smallest increase since slowly than the federal budget as cerned about the growth of future By ZINA VISHNEVSKY the beginning of the program in a whole, which increased by 3 costs, Medicare right now is PLAIN DEALER REPORTER 1965, new government data show. percent. amazingly well behaved,” said A rush-hour storm yesterday Robert Reischauer, former direc- The slower rate of growth prob- The slowdown shows the ef- slowed traffic to a crawl down- fects of congressional curbs on tor of the Congressional Budget town, turning half-hour com- ably will add a few years to the Office. “Nobody is really sure life of the Medicare trust fund payments to hospitals and home mutes home into trips that lasted health care agencies and the re- why Medicare spending has more than two hours. that pays hospital bills for the eld- slowed down quite as much as it erly. It may temporarily relax the sults of a federal crusade against Cleveland’s rush hour wasn’t Medicare fraud. has. The only thing we can be over until around 8 p.m. For pressure on Congress to redesign sure of is that it won’t last.” much of the evening, jammed the program. But officials said it In the last decade, Medicare SEE MEDICARE/8-A freeways looked more like park- ing lots. Cleveland police said traffic at E. 9th St. and St. Clair Ave. was still bumper-to-bumper at 7:15 Prairie dogs: p.m., with no sign of clearing. ‘‘It’s terrible. That’s what all Are they cute Inside the zone cars are saying,’’ said one Cleveland police dispatcher. Downtown motorists appeared to or nuisance? Executives share the perks have waited to leave work, ex- By RICK LYMAN A growing number of local firms are trying to give a morale boost to pecting traffic to be lighter, in- NEW YORK TIMES secretaries and support staffers who traditionally haven’t shared in stead of leaving early to avoid the BILL KENNEDY / PLAIN DEALER PHOTOGRAPHER the office perks. 1-C AMARILLO, Texas — On the rush. Three children and two adults on a Cloverleaf District school bus Earlier in the day, in Chippewa very cold morning of Sept. 7, Lake in Medina County, a car suffered minor injuries when the bus was rear-ended by a car on 1804, Meriwether Lewis and Wil- The woman who wouldn’t die skidded into a Cloverleaf School Briarwood Ave. in Chippewa Lake yesterday. Chippewa Lake Fire liam Clark climbed to the domed After a weekend of domestic abuse, Sandy Manning finally got up her District bus, injuring three chil- Capt. Brad Winter checks out the school bus. top of a 70-foot Nebraska mound nerve to flee, straight down Florida’s Interstate 95 with nothing but dren and two motorists. They overlooking the Missouri River, her children and the promise of a safe house. A few weeks later she where they ‘‘discovered a Village were treated at Medina County of Superior Ave. and E. 9th St., were running up to 15 minutes went to court to renew a restraining order against her husband, and hospitals for minor injuries, Chip- causing motorists trying to cross late. of Small animals,’’ their journal that afternoon he forced her into his car at knifepoint. 1-F pewa Lake Fire Capt. Brad Win- Superior Ave. to honk horns. ‘‘An Alberta Clipper managed says. ter said. Heading east on the Shoreway, to bring a quick shot of 1 to 3 In their travels all the way to By early evening, snow- traffic was stop-and-go until inches of snow to the area,’’ mete- the Rocky Mountains, they saw Ann Landers .......... 4-F Deaths ................... 6-B News summary ..... 2-A covered roadways in Cleveland Eddy Rd., where it sped up — to orologist Brad Vrcek of the Na- millions of the little yapping Classified ............... 1-G Editorials............... 8-B Obituaries ............. 7-B made traveling a short distance 20 mph. After that, speeds were tional Weather Service said. things, which they first called Classified, local..... 4-B Entertainment ...... 1-E Sarah Crump......... 5-B seem like a journey. normal for the conditions, slow- Overnight snows were expected ground rats, then barking squir- Comics ................. 12-G Movies ................... 3-E Television .............. 5-E Paul Mancino of Rocky River ing again at the Euclid spur. to be more sporadic with an addi- rels and eventually prairie dogs. said it took him and hour an a half It was similar going west, tional 1 to 2 inches overnight. Almost two centuries later, to drive from E. 9th St. to E. 14th where speeds began to pick up at Today, snow may mix with seated behind the battered metal St. on the Inner Belt. He had left Clague Rd., only to slow again in freezing rain and accumulate an desk in his office on old U.S. 66 his job at Medical Mutual at 5:50. Avon. More than a dozen cars inch. High will be 30 degrees. just west of Amarillo, George Weather ‘‘It was the worst I’ve ever seen,’’ skidded off the road onto the me- Cleveland’s snow parking ban, Carlisle, an exterminator who has he said.