-------------------------------------------------------------------
Wounded laborer seeks city settlement (The Oregonian says Ron Barton of
Portland is suing the city and three Portland police officers for nearly $3.5
million, contending police illegally entered his apartment while he was
asleep and shot him, crippling his left arm. Barton also alleges in the
lawsuit that he was falsely prosecuted because the two officers involved in
the shooting conspired with Officer Wayne Svilar, who investigated the
incident.)
The Oregonian
Contact: letters@news.oregonian.com
1320 SW Broadway
Portland, OR 97201
Fax: 503-294-4193
Website: http://www.oregonlive.com/
Forum: http://forums.oregonlive.com/
Wed. Dec. 23, 1998
p. C3, Portland extra
* Ron Barton's lawsuit contends two Portland officers illegally entered his
apartment and shot him, crippling his left arm
By Henry Stern
and Stuart Tomlinson
of The Oregonian staff
A laborer whose left arm was crippled last year when he was shot by a
Portland police officer is suing the city and three officers for nearly $3.5
million.
Ron Barton said in the lawsuit that Officers Kyle Nice and Clifford
Bacigalupi Jr. illegally entered his Southeast Portland apartment on Aug.
24, 1997, and unlawfully shot him. Barton also alleged in the lawsuit that
he was falsely prosecuted because the two officers conspired with Officer
Wayne Svilar, who investigated the shooting.
The grand jury that examined the shooting found insufficient evidence to
indict the police officers, who said Barton pointed a loaded shotgun at
them. As for Barton, a jury acquitted him in March of two counts of reckless
endangerment.
Barton's attorney, Larry Peterson, said Tuesday that his 52-year-old client
remains in vocational rehabilitation with no prospects of resuming his
livelihood. Barton, whose left arm is encased in a device that keeps his
fingers from clenching into a fist, used to work a jackhammer, use a shovel,
drive a truck and push a wheelbarrow.
"He went from being a confident left-handed laborer to a one-armed man with
no skills," Peterson said. "What they're trying to do is wash their hands
and sanitize the actions of their police officers."
Detective Sgt. Derek Anderson, a Portland police spokesman, said Tuesday
that the department does not comment on civil lawsuits. City Attorney
Jeffrey Rogers also said he could not comment because his office had not
been served with a copy of the lawsuit.
The lawsuit filed Friday in Multnomah County Circuit Court is the latest
chapter in a story that began when a neighbor of Barton called police to the
five-unit apartment complex in the 13900 block of Southeast Division Street.
The neighbor, Sandy Miller, had argued with Barton two days before. Miller
told police that Barton came to his house drunk to complain to his mother
about a parking dispute. Miller also said Barton threatened to use a gun.
Barton was asleep on the couch with a 12-gauge shotgun stuck between his
body and and the couch cusions when police arrived. He said he always slept
with the gun after a series of burglaries during which thieves stole
jewelry, rare coins, a gold nugget watch, a television set and stereo.
Bacigalupi, then a rookie cop still considered a trainee, arrived about 9:35
p.m. and called for backup. Nice, then a 5 1/2-year veteran, responded to
the call.
The two officers said they approached Barton's apartment and saw the front
door open, but the screen door locked. They could see Barton snoring loudly
on his couch like someone who was drunk.
The officers said they tried to get the door open and had no choice other
than to storm the apartment. According to the officers, they both knocked
three times and loudly said, "Portland police! Portland police."
Bacigalupi told investigators that Barton's head stirred a little, and then
"it was bam, the next thing I know the shotgun barrel is doing a swing right
in our direction to the point where it's pointing at us."
The time between the officers' first shouts, three knocks and the shot being
fired was five seconds. One neighbor said he heard the officers shout, "Drop
the gun!" before the shot was fired. But both officers said the shot was
fired just after the third knock. The .45-caliber bullet slug from Nice's
handgun entered Barton's left bicep and tore a path into his upper back.
An OHSU Hospital nurse testified at Barton's trial that he did not appear
intoxicated when he was brought into intensive care that night. The nurse
also said Barton had a hearing problem.
Peterson said the jury acquittal of his client was significant because
jurors were asked to consider only whether Barton pointed the shotgun at the
officers.
One juror, Barbara Schleuning, said she sympathized with the officers
because of the stress they are under. But she said Barton had done nothing
wrong.
Barton's lawsuit seeks $3 million for pain and suffering, $300,000 for past
and future wage loss, $150,000 in past and future medical expenses, and
$23,012 in legal costs for criminal trial.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Baltimore Police in Spotlight - Almost everyone agrees that drugs represent
the city's biggest hurdle (The Associated Press says the apparent inability
of Baltimore, Maryland, to bring its homicide count down below 300 per year,
even as other types of violent crime have declined, has thrust a national
spotlight on the city's dark side. Baltimore, the nation's 14th-largest city
with 650,000 residents, has about 46 homicides per 100,000 people -
more than four times the rate such larger cities as New York.)
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1998 21:23:05 -0800
From: Paul Freedom (nepal@teleport.com)
Organization: Oregon Libertarian Patriots
To: Cannabis Patriots (cp@telelists.com)
Subject: [cp] Baltimore Police in Spotlight-Almost everyone agrees that drugs
represent the city's biggest hurdle.
DECEMBER 23, 03:06 EST
Baltimore Police in Spotlight
- Almost everyone agrees that drugs represent the city's biggest hurdle.
By TEDDIE WEYR
Associated Press Writer
BALTIMORE (AP) - For four breathless days, the number stood at 299.
Would the Baltimore police be able to hold the number of homicides this year below
300 for the first time in nine years?
Mayor Kurt Schmoke had said keeping a lid on the murder rate was a major
priority. Three hundred was a threshold he didn't want to cross again.
Officers were pulled from desk jobs and called in on overtime. Many of the
department's administrative functions were put on hold while a new flood of cops
worked the streets.
The reply came in the form of 16-year-old Donte Brooks, who was found bleeding
to death from multiple gunshot wounds early Monday. He became murder victim
No. 300.
``If you just look at our murder rate compared to New York City, it really makes
you sick,'' said Gary McLhinney, president of Baltimore's police union. ``The bodies
in Baltimore are stacking up higher and higher.''
Baltimore's apparent inability to bring its homicide count down, even as other types
of violent crime have declined, has thrust a national spotlight on the city's dark
side.
Schmoke recently went on NBC's ``The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' to defend
his city's reputation after Leno spent a week taking potshots at Baltimore for its
other unhappy claim to fame - the highest syphilis rate in the country.
Just this week, the public learned that the Equal Opportunity Employment
Commission had ruled the Baltimore Police Department discriminated against its
black officers, who have long complained they were disciplined more harshly for
infractions.
Officials defend the city by pointing out its achievements - the development of the
Inner Harbor, once a rusting manufacturing area and now a tourist destination; the
demolition of dilapidated public high rises to make way for cozier low-income
neighborhoods; and successes in public health, such as declines in teen births,
infant mortality and AIDS.
Baltimore was giddy about its recent acquisitions of such pop-culture attractions as
the Hard Rock Cafe, Planet Hollywood and the nation's first ESPNZone, a Walt
Disney venture.
And homicides aside, violent crime is down more than 30 percent over the past 2
1/2 years, said police spokesman Rob Weinhold. Property crime also has
decreased significantly.
Yet beyond the new glitter on the waterfront, Baltimore's rowhouse-lined streets
still harbor poverty-locked neighborhoods and a rampant drug trade that fuels the
murder rate.
Baltimore, the nation's 14th-largest city with 650,000 residents, has about 46
deaths per 100,000 people - more than four times higher than the murder rate in
larger cities like New York. Homicide No. 301 was recorded Tuesday and detectives
think a decomposed body found in a field may be No. 302.
City politicians bicker over how to reduce the number of murders, which hit 310
last year - down from 325 in 1995 and 331 in 1996.
``If there was an easy answer to this problem, we certainly would have
implemented it by now,'' Schmoke said.
Police Commissioner Thomas Frazier's management style has come under fire.
Critics say that by rotating homicide detectives to other assignments, Frazier
forced out the most experienced officers.
The commissioner also has been accused of massaging statistics to show a greater
drop in gun violence. Police officials deny the allegations.
Author David Simon, who spent a year researching his latest book, ``The Corner,''
about the city's drug culture, said police are having a hard time gaining control over
many of Baltimore's drug corners.
Inexperienced officers often grab the first suspect they can find, he said.
``Everyone would watch as they walked past the guy who shot four people in the
last month,'' said Simon, whose book on detectives spawned the TV crime series
``Homicide: Life on the Street'' - filmed by NBC in Baltimore.
Almost everyone agrees that drugs represent the city's biggest hurdle.
Crack came to Baltimore a little later than its entry into larger, more cosmopolitan
cities, and the crack-for-sex trade fueled many sexually transmitted diseases.
Health Commissioner Peter Beilenson noted gonorrhea is down 50 percent from
1991 and said he expects to reduce syphilis cases by increased testing and
treatment.
``The crime situation in Baltimore is completely driven by drugs,'' Beilenson said.
``It's what's clogging the courts, taking up police time, filling the jails. Unless you
do something about drugs, you're not going to solve the problem.''
-------------------------------------------------------------------
RJR Subsidiary Pleads Guilty To Smuggling (The New York Times
says a unit of RJR Nabisco Holdings Corp. pleaded guilty on Tuesday
and agreed to pay $15 million in penalties to settle federal criminal charges
stemming from a scheme to smuggle cigarettes into Canada
through an Indian reservation in upstate New York. Authorities said
the guilty plea, filed in Federal District Court in Binghamton, N.Y.,
marked the first time that a tobacco company has been convicted of complicity
in the shadowy and growing world of international cigarette smuggling.)
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1998 20:30:03 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US NY: RJR Subsidiary Pleads Guilty To Smuggling
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Jim Galasyn
Pubdate: Dec 23, 1998
Source: New York Times (NY)
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Copyright: 1998 The New York Times Company
Author: Christopher Drew
RJR SUBSIDIARY PLEADS GUILTY TO SMUGGLING
A unit of the RJR Nabisco Holdings Corp. pleaded guilty on Tuesday to
federal criminal charges stemming from a scheme to smuggle cigarettes into
Canada through an Indian reservation in upstate New York and agreed to pay
$15 million in penalties.
The authorities said the guilty plea, filed in Federal District Court in
Binghamton, N.Y., marked the first time that a tobacco company has been
convicted of complicity in the shadowy and growing world of international
cigarette smuggling.
Experts estimate that nearly one-fourth of the billions of American
cigarettes sold overseas pass through smuggling rings set up to evade taxes
and sell major brands at a discount. Critics have long contended that this
trade could not go on without the industry's knowledge and support.
But while previous criminal investigations have led to charges against
several mid-level managers, top executives at the large, multinational
tobacco companies have always denied allegations that they encouraged or
condoned any dealings with the contraband rings.
In entering the guilty plea, the RJR Nabisco subsidiary, Northern Brands
International Inc., admitted that it helped distributors evade $2.5 million
in U.S. excise taxes on shipments that, the authorities said, were
ultimately smuggled into Canada to avoid high taxes on cigarettes there.
But the company's plea also could have sweeping repercussions in Washington,
where Congress has debated whether to raise the taxes on domestic cigarette
sales to discourage smoking.
Industry executives have argued that any significant increase in the taxes
would immediately create a black market for cigarettes in the United States,
much as it did in Canada.
But the guilty plea "shows that the emperor doesn't have any clothes in
making that argument," said Gregory N. Connoly, the director of the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Tobacco Control Program.
"The companies have always said that they are not directly involved, and
they have used the threat of smuggling to dissuade Congress from raising the
taxes," he said. "But now we have evidence that the industry is complicit
with organized criminals when it comes to smuggling."
Thomas J. Maroney, the U.S. attorney in Syracuse, N.Y., said the
four-year-old investigation was continuing. But he declined to say whether
any high-level officials at RJR Nabisco's main tobacco operation, R.J.
Reynolds Tobacco Co., or other tobacco companies were under scrutiny.
Top executives and spokesmen at R.J. Reynolds, based in Winston-Salem, N.C.,
could not be reached for comment on Tuesday night. But Maroney said that the
company had agreed to cooperate with investigators and had taken steps to
insure that similar violations do not happen again.
Bloomberg News quoted a R.J. Reynolds lawyer, C. Stephen Heard Jr., as
saying that the company "regrets this episode." According to the news
service, Heard said that Northern Brands' actions were "inconsistent with
the way Reynolds does business" and that Reynolds had closed Northern
Brands.
The charges against Northern Brands arose from an investigation that has led
to guilty pleas by more than 20 people involved in smuggling hundreds of
millions of dollars worth of alcohol and cigarettes into Canada.
Court documents released during the investigation showed that R.J. Reynolds,
the second-largest American cigarette maker next to the Philip Morris Cos.,
sponsored trips to a luxury Canadian fishing resort for several distributors
who lived in upstate New York and smuggled cigarettes into Canada. One R.J.
Reynolds sales manager even joked with the dealers about the smuggling, the
documents said.
The smuggling took off after Canada raised taxes in the 1980s and the early
1990s to discourage cigarette consumption, one of the first countries to try
this approach. The taxes did not apply to exports, and affiliates of the
three biggest companies -- Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds and BAT Industries
PLC -- started shipping large amounts of Canadian brands, like Players and
Export A, to the United States even though few Americans smoke them.
Maroney said that without paying either the Canadian or the American taxes,
distributors then moved the cigarettes back into Canada through the St.
Regis Mohawk Indian Reservation in upstate New York, with the help of some
Indian leaders who also have been convicted in the case.
In Tuesday's guilty plea, R.J. Reynolds' Northern Brands unit admitted to
participating in one crucial part of the scheme.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
U.S., Mexico Admit Drug War Is Failing (According to a New York Times
News Service article in The Chicago Tribune, officials from both
the United States and Mexico say an ambitious U.S. effort to help train
and equip Mexico's armed forces to pursue drug smugglers is a shambles,
as are relations with an ally that Washington has worked intensely to court.)
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1998 20:52:27 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: U.S., Mexico Admit Drug War Is Failing
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Steve Young
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Contact: tribletter@aol.com
Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Forum: http://www.chicagotribune.com/interact/boards/
Copyright: 1998 Chicago Tribune Company
Pubdate: Wed, 23 Dec 1998
Author: New York Times News Service
Section: Sec. 1
U.S., MEXICO ADMIT DRUG WAR IS FAILING
An ambitious U.S. effort to help train and equip Mexico's armed forces to
pursue drug smugglers is a shambles, officials of both countries say,
souring American relations with an ally that Washington has worked
intensely to court.
Three years after the Pentagon began donating dozens of helicopters to the
Mexican army and training hundreds of Mexican soldiers in the United
States, officials have seen only a handful of the anti-drug operations
intended in the program.
The helicopter fleet has been grounded by mechanical problems, and angry
Mexican generals are sharply cutting the number of troops they will send to
train.
According to U.S. intelligence reports, the drug flights that the plan was
designed to combat have virtually ceased. But that appears to be because
the traffickers turned to smuggling schemes like containerized shipping
before the enforcement strategy ever got off the ground. The flow of drugs
into the United States has continued apace.
Tensions over the failed strategy, the faltering equipment and continuing
reports of Mexican military corruption have grown serious enough, U.S.
officials said, that they have asked Mexico's commanding generals to
reassess the program altogether.
"The question, basically, is: How do we get out of this box?" a Clinton
administration official said. "We will talk about the plan that they come
up with, and we will talk about whether we want to support that plan."
The conflict underscores the competing agendas that the Pentagon and the
CIA have encountered in Latin America as they have tried to use the fight
against international drug traffickers to remake their old alliances with
military forces in the region.
Like its counterparts in Colombia and Peru--and like the Pentagon
itself--the Mexican military seized on the drug fight as a mission of
growing importance and as a way to protect its budgets after the Cold War.
But the Mexican commanders have pursued the effort with secrecy and
independence, raising questions about whether the United States is
strengthening powerful and sometimes autonomous military forces at the
expense of civilian institutions such as the courts and the police.
"The answer here is that there is no silver bullet," said Jan Lodal, who,
until his recent retirement as the principal deputy undersecretary of
defense for policy, oversaw the Pentagon's anti-drug cooperation with
Mexico. "You are going to have to build an effective civilian
law-enforcement structure, and you're going to have to build it from the
ground up."
Administration officials contend that, despite the tensions, the United
States' relationship with the Mexican armed forces is better than it was
several years ago. They say the CIA's collaboration with a small
drug-intelligence unit of the Mexican army, although largely secret, has
been reasonably successful.
And they emphasize that they turned to the Mexican military only after
President Ernesto Zedillo did so himself, giving his generals a new
public-security role because the corrupting influence of the drug trade had
so paralyzed the federal police.
Clinton administration officials still are quick to say any long-term
solution to Mexico's criminal-justice problems must focus on civilian
institutions.
But they also continue to spend considerably more on anti-drug training for
the military than they have on court officers and the police, and they have
largely approved the steady expansion of the Mexican armed forces'
influence over a range of law-enforcement programs.
"From the start, all of us have believed that, if you don't have a judicial
system and a police force that are responsive to the elected civilian
leadership, you're in trouble," the White House drug policy director, Gen.
Barry McCaffrey, said in an interview.
But he added, "You don't produce the Swiss police in a year."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
U.S. Plan to Help Mexican Military Fight Drugs Is Faltering (A lengthier
version)
From: "Bob Owen@W.H.E.N." (when@olywa.net)
To: "_Drug Policy --" (when@hemp.net)
Subject: Plan to Help Mex Military Fight Drugs Falters
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1998 20:24:28 -0800
Sender: owner-when@hemp.net
December 23, 1998
U.S. Plan to Help Mexican Military Fight Drugs Is Faltering
By TIM GOLDEN
An ambitious U.S. effort to help train and equip Mexico's armed forces to
pursue drug smugglers is in a shambles, officials of both countries say,
souring U.S. relations with an ally that Washington has worked intensely to
court.
Three years after the Pentagon began donating dozens of helicopters to the
Mexican army and training hundreds of Mexican soldiers in the United States,
officials have seen only a handful of the anti-drug operations intended in
the program. The helicopter fleet has been grounded by mechanical problems,
and angry Mexican generals are sharply cutting the number of troops they
will send to train.
According to U.S. intelligence reports, the drug flights that the plan was
designed to combat have virtually ceased. But that appears to be because the
traffickers turned to smuggling schemes like containerized shipping before
the enforcement strategy ever got off the ground. The flow of drugs into the
United States has continued apace.
Tensions over the failed strategy, the faltering equipment and continuing
reports of Mexican military corruption have grown serious enough, U.S.
officials said, that they have asked Mexico's commanding generals to
reassess the program altogether.
"The question, basically, is: How do we get out of this box?" a Clinton
administration official said. "We will talk about the plan that they come up
with, and we will talk about whether we want to support that plan."
The conflict underscores the competing agendas that the Pentagon and the CIA
have encountered in Latin America as they have tried to use the fight
against international drug traffickers to remake their old alliances with
military forces in the region.
Like its counterparts in Colombia and Peru -- and like the Pentagon
itself -- the Mexican military seized on the drug fight as a mission of
growing importance and as a way to protect its budgets after the Cold War.
But the Mexican commanders have pursued the effort with secrecy and
independence, raising questions about whether the United States is
strengthening powerful and sometimes autonomous military forces at the
expense of civilian institutions like the courts and the police.
"The answer here is that there is no silver bullet," said Jan Lodal, who,
until his recent retirement as the principal deputy undersecretary of
defense for policy, oversaw the Pentagon's anti-drug cooperation with
Mexico. "You are going to have to build an effective civilian
law-enforcement structure, and you're going to have to build it from the
ground up."
Administration officials contend that despite the tensions, the United
States' relationship with the Mexican armed forces is better than it was
several years ago. They say that the CIA's collaboration with a small
drug-intelligence unit of the Mexican army, while largely secret, has been
reasonably successful. And they emphasize that they turned to the Mexican
military only after President Ernesto Zedillo did so himself, giving his
generals a new public security role because the corrupting influence of the
drug trade had so paralyzed the federal police.
Clinton administration officials are still quick to say any long-term
solution to Mexico's criminal-justice problems must focus on civilian
institutions. But they also continue to spend considerably more on anti-drug
training for the military than they have on court officers and the police,
and they have largely approved as the Mexican armed forces have steadily
expanded their influence over a range of law-enforcement programs.
"From the start, all of us have believed that if you don't have a judicial
system and a police force that are responsive to the elected civilian
leadership, you're in trouble," the White House drug policy director, Gen.
Barry McCaffrey, said in an interview. But he added, "You don't produce the
Swiss police in a year."
U.S. officials said that when they first offered to support the Mexican
military's drug-enforcement efforts in early 1995, they imagined a narrower
role. Colombian drug traffickers had begun flying huge loads of cocaine into
Mexico on stripped-down passenger jets, easily outrunning Mexican police
aircraft, and U.S. officials started by asking Mexican commanders to use
their small fleet of F-5 fighter jets to intercept the smugglers.
The F-5 plan was unsuccessful, but Pentagon officials soon proposed a more
elaborate one. That October, when William Perry became the first defense
secretary to visit Mexico in years, Mexican generals agreed to begin U.S.
training for special-forces troops that would chase traffickers to
clandestine air strips and remote safe houses.
To transport the soldiers on their raids, the Pentagon eventually donated 73
aging UH-1H helicopters, part of an equipment transfer worth about $58
million. The United States also gave Mexico's air force four C-26
surveillance planes and sold the Mexican navy two Knox-class frigates.
Finally, the two militaries agreed to consider further cooperation in areas
like disaster relief, education and force modernization.
Since late 1995, however, U.S. officials say they have not detected a single
jetload of cocaine flying into Mexico. In fact, they say, drug flights into
Mexico have stopped altogether as the traffickers have shifted to maritime
shipments through the Gulf of Mexico, into the Yucatan peninsula and up the
Pacific coast, and to overland transportation, mainly by truck.
With no planes to chase, Mexican commanders have used the helicopters for
everything from troop transport to spraying herbicides on drug crops. But
the Vietnam-era aircraft have been plagued by mechanical problems and a lack
of spare parts, and Mexico announced in March that it would ground the
entire fleet after the U.S. Army found engine problems in all the UH-1H
models.
Mexican officials have complained privately that they were given scrap.
Pentagon officials say the problems stem from excessive and improper use of
the helicopters by the Mexican army.
Mexican officials also complain that the frigates they bought two years ago
for $7 million have been unusable until recently because they were delivered
without needed equipment. A long-promised system set up to share the
Pentagon's drug intelligence directly with the Mexican military has been
kept off-line because of lingering U.S. fears that sources of the
information might be compromised.
And despite U.S. hopes that anti-drug programs would bring the two
militaries closer together, Mexican generals have told the Defense
Department that they are no longer interested in other joint projects like
disaster-relief planning.
For their part, Pentagon officials have questioned the Mexican army's use of
the special-forces troops they helped to design and train. In September, the
attorney general's office announced the arrest of nine special-forces
soldiers after an investigation linked them to alien-smuggling and other
crimes. While their unit was not trained in the United States, U.S.
officials were nonetheless critical of its mission: they had been seconded
to the federal drug-enforcement police, to check luggage at the Mexico City
airport.
"That's certainly not what we're training them for," a Pentagon official
said.
Pentagon officials say that there is no practical way they can monitor how
Mexican troops trained by the United States are deployed, although such a
plan has been required in Colombia to try to keep U.S. aid and training from
going to counterinsurgency troops or human rights violators.
But the greatest frustration for U.S. officials may be the way that Mexican
commanders have responded to the difficulties in the program and the public
scrutiny that has come with it.
Saying they do not need or can no longer afford training for many of the
helicopter mechanics, sailors and special-forces troops they had planned to
send to U.S. bases, Mexican military officials have said they will cut the
flow of troops by about 40 percent over the next year. Mexico's only cost
for the program is a meal allowance for each soldier of $25 a day, U.S.
officials said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
[End]
to the 1998 Daily News index for Dec. 17-23