DAILY NZ

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P U B D A T E 07-11-02 O P E R A T O R CCI

D A T E 07/11/02

T I M E 00:06

Man gets life in murder of San Antonian at college for deaf / 1B

The winner is . . .
Derek Jeter too much for Chris Ross at ESPY Awards
Sports/1C

THURSDAY
JULY 11, 2002 METRO EDITION
SERVING SOUTH TEXAS SINCE 1865

Street smarts
Art lovers make their own fashion statements
S.A. Life/1F

50

Muscle added to rules on fraud

Senate OKs making tough prison terms part of accounting bill.
D BY MARCY GORDON
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Council game for golf vote

More than enough signatures verified, but deal could prevent ballot
BY JAIME CASTILLO

VILLAGE
D E BAT E

PG A

Carlos

Guerra: City may have

EXPRESS-NEWS STAFF WRITER

other choices/1B all but calling an end to attempts to modify the current agreement. If the PGA wants to look at different ways of approaching this project, Im looking forward to hearing from them. The citys hand was forced Wednesday when the inevitable was pronounced a certainty: Anti-PGA

A majority of City Council members is ready to let voters decide the fate of the PGA Village golf resort this fall unless a separate deal with developers can be arranged by early August. Theres really no option from a taxing district standpoint but to call an election, Mayor Ed Garza said,

forces had gathered more than enough names of registered San Antonio voters to trigger the referendum process. City Clerk Norma Rodriguez, in a report to a special meeting of the council, said opponents gathered 77,419 valid signatures over two, high-drama petition drives, far surpassing the 63,006-signature threshold set forth in the City Charter. Now, the council has 30 days to de-

cide whether to repeal the ordinance it passed in April establishing a taxing district for the 2,861-acre project or let the public vote on the issue Nov 5, the same day as the states . general election. The council, which is in the midst of a monthlong break, is expected to consider the issue at one of its first two meetings in August. See COUNCIL/4A

FLOOD OF 2002: THE CLEANUP CONTINUES

WASHINGTON A unified Senate approved harsh new penalties Wednesday for corporate fraud and document shredding, adding enforcement teeth to President Bushs plan to curb a growing wave of accounting scandals. In a series of unanimous votes, senators added the penalties to an accounting oversight bill moving toward passage against a backdrop of eroded public confidence in corporate America. Underscoring that sentiment, the Dow Jones industrials lost BUSH more than 280 Bush once points and got kind of closed below loan he now 9,000 for the first seeks to time since Octoban/4A ber on Wednes Analysis: day a day after , Plan lacks Bush delivered teeth/1E a speech on cor Dow sinks porate responbelow 9,000 sibility aimed at mark/1E shoring up investor confidence. A stream of revelations of accounting misdeeds at big corporations in recent months has scared investors and prompted concern about the fragile economic recovery . Tens of thousands of workers have been laid off 17,000 at WorldCom alone and millions of people have lost retirement savings, putting Bush and his Republican Party on the defensive with congressional elections approaching. The Senate measures would create new 10-year prison terms for securities fraud and give federal protection to company whistle-blowers. Chief executive officers and chief financial officers who certify false financial reports would be slapped with prison terms of five to 10 years and fines of $500,000 to $1 million. See SENATE/4A

James Byrd uses a front loader to clear debris from the Gruene River Co. building at the Gruene crossing of the Guadalupe River. Byrd said Wednesday the damage was much greater than in the 1998 flood.
TOM REEL/STAFF

INSIDE TODAYS PAPER

Detailed tips on how to safely clean and restore flood-damaged homes and their contents as well as how to find help
Full-page information graphic/6A Stories/7A

Fingers pointed over dam alert

Fridays Medina warning illustrates communications flaws.
D BY JERRY NEEDHAM AND TOM BOWER
EXPRESS-NEWS STAFF WRITERS

1998

flooding wont lose its No. 1 damage rating/7A

The near panic caused late Friday when Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff cautioned in a live televised news conference that Medina Dam could

fail illustrates flaws in the communications system set up to warn residents of public safety threats, several area officials said Wednesday . Although it was Wolff who sounded the public warning, a review of the process preceding his remarks highlights a series of communication missteps that only fueled the confusion over the already-chaotic situation along the Medina River.

The incident left some Medina County residents and officials with hard feelings toward Wolff, who they said overstepped his authority . But Wolff has defended his actions, saying he was acting on information communicated to him from area emergency officials affiliated with the Department of Public Safetys Emergency Operations Division. Central to the communicaSee MEDINA/4A

Slick oilman charged in game of hot wheels

Local auto dealerships were conned out of six new vehicles.
D BY IHOSVANI RODRIGUEZ
EXPRESS-NEWS STAFF WRITER

Oldest just got older

Skull found in Africa pushes back fossil record of pre-human ancestors.
D BY GUY GUGLIOTTA
WASHINGTON POST

A New Braunfels man is accused of using Texas charm rather than fancy hot-wiring tricks to drive away from area automobile dealerships with six vehicles valued at almost $200,000. Lennie Christie, 60, posed as a plain-talking Texas oilman complete with boots, a hat and nicely pressed Wranglers, according to witnesses.

With the stroke of a pen, he paid for the cars with checks that ultimately bounced, prosecutors said. Basically he , CHRISTIE talked big about oil wells and being this big oilman, but in the end, he was nothing more than a con man, said Sandra K. Ruedrich, chief of the Bexar County district attorneys check section. Police allege that between February and December 2001, he drove off with two Cadillacs, a 2002 Dodge Ram pickup and a See THEFT/13A

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Toumai skull was found in Chads desert in central Africa.

In what may be the most startling fossil find in decades, anthropologists working in the bleak desert of Northern Chad say theyve unearthed the oldest trace of a pre-human ancestor a remarkably intact skull of an apelike species that walked upright as far back as 7 million years ago. Scientists hailed the discovery a nearly complete skull, two lower jaw fragments and three teeth as a breakthrough that could revolutionize the study of human prehistory introducing ,
4B 6B 1B Movies Puzzles S.A. Life 3F 12F 1F Sports Stocks TV listings

researchers to a new region of Africa and a time period about which virtually nothing is known. It takes us into another world, of creatures that include the common ancestor, the ancestral human and the ancestral chimp, George Washington University paleobiologist Bernard Wood said. Scientists said the newly discovered skull probably belonged to an adult male with a chimpanzee-sized brain, heavy brow ridges and a relatively flat, humanlike face. Unquestionably this is one of the most impor, tant fossil discoveries of the last 100 years, Harvard University anthropologist Daniel Lieberman said. It is the oldest skull by far of a human ancestor. This will have the scientific impact of a small nuclear bomb. The new discovery pushed the fossil record backward for the third time in the past two years, moving scientists closer to a dimly understood moment somewhere between 5 million and See SKULL/8A
1C 4E 5F
137th year, No. 281, 92 pages. Entire contents copyright 2002, San Antonio Express-News. This newspaper is recyclable.

Todays Weather
Chance of storms High 95, Low 74 Full weather report, Page 8C

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INDEX

Business Classifieds Comics

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Deaths Editorials Metro/State

DAILY NZ

P A G E 1A

C O L O R CMYK

P U B D A T E 07-11-02 O P E R A T O R CCI

D A T E 07/11/02

T I M E 00:06