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DAILY NZ P A G E 1A C O L O R P U B D A T E 07-15-02 O P E R A T O R JHERRERA D A T E // T I M E :

DAILY NZ P A G E 1A C O L O R P U B D A T E 07-15-02 O P E R A T O R JHERRERA D A T E // T I M E :

From theSan AntonioExpress-Newsand KENS 5. Get personalizednews and information.

S E R V I N G S O U T H T E X A S S I N C E 1 8 6 5

Todays WeatherThunderstorms

High 89, Low 72

Full weather report, Page 12D INDEXBusiness 1F Deaths 4B Movies 3C Sports 1D

Classifieds 1E Editorials 6B Puzzles 10C Science 6F

Comics 8C Metro/State 1B S.A. Life 1C TV listings 5C

137th year, No. 285,70 pages. Entirecontents copyright2002, San AntonioExpress-News.This newspaper isrecyclable.

D

Mexican airport protesters increase their demands / 7A

50

MONDAYJULY 15, 2002 METRO EDITION

Roadside assistanceBuff on mission to uncoverorigin of street, town namesS.A. Life/1C

Golf and businessExecutives see the sportas an essential toolBusiness/1F

A 24-page section recaps the

drought-busting rains of early

July, which forced lakes to

overflow and chased thousands

from their homes. Section G

INSIDE

settle into a typical July scena-rio, with a weak subtropicalhigh-pressure system buildingover the state, keeping rain outof the forecast this weekend.

But for now, residents can ex-pect more rain, and possibly afew inches of it, in a region thathas taken more than two weeksof wet or threatening weatherfueled by moisture from theGulf of Mexico and a series oflow-pressure systems that havedominated South Texas.

Storms continued to soakparts of the Hill Country for thesecond straight day Sunday, assome counties west and northof San Antonio were placed un-der flood warnings.

Comal County officials ad-

BY SCOTT HUDDLESTON

EXPRESS-NEWS STAFF WRITER

Another wave of torrentialrain could sop an already wa-terlogged South Texas, causingmore flooding and emergencyevacuations before the region fi-nally returns, at least briefly, toa normal cycle of hot, dryweather, forecasters predict.

By Thursday, the area could

vised residents of HorseshoeFalls, Rivers Edge and othersubdivisions downstream fromthe Canyon Lake spillway toevacuate voluntarily, since re-cent rain upstream along theGuadalupe River is expected toadd to flows from the spillway.

Water that flowed from thespillway at less than 5,000 cubicfeet per second (cfs) Sunday isexpected to reach 6,000 to 10,000cfs by this morning, possiblymaking River Road and otherroads in the area impassable, aspokeswoman with the ComalCounty Sheriffs Office said.

The National Weather Serviceforecast for San Antonio calls

More rain in store for soggy S. Texas

EDWARD A. ORNELAS/STAFF

A.J. Batey (right) helps his son, Richard, 10, reach Drew Browns(left) waiting boat. They were on the flooded County Road 73 inNueces County northwest of Corpus Christi on Sunday.

But dry and hotter

weather could be

moving into the area

by Thursday.

D

See BETTER/6A

BY JOHN LEICESTER

ASSOCIATED PRESS

PARIS A man described asan emotionally disturbed neo-Nazi allegedly tried to assassi-nate French President JacquesChirac on Sunday, pulling a ri-fle from a guitar case and firing

off a shot before being wrestledto the ground during a BastilleDay parade.

There were no reported inju-ries. It was not immediatelyclear how close the shot cameto Chirac, who was passingabout 130 to 160 feet away in anopen-top jeep near Paris Archof Triumph as he reviewedtroops in a military parade tocelebrate Frances national ho-liday.

As the gunman pulled a fullyloaded .22-caliber rifle out of abrown guitar case, the crowd

along the tree-lined edge of theChamps-Elysees began shout-ing, apparently alerting policewho rushed in and tackledhim.

Police did not identify him,but media reports gave hisname as Maxime Brunerie.

I saw a guy with a gun,said a witness, Mohamed Che-lali, who told LCI televisionthat he and other members ofthe crowd helped subdue theman. Another man knocked

ASSASSINATION THWARTED

JACQUES BRINON/ASSOCIATED PRESS

A man is subdued by police after allegedly firing a shot in the direction of French PresidentJacques Chirac. Chirac was riding in a Bastille Day parade Sunday and was not hurt.

Gunman fires at ChiracFrench president was

participating in

Bastille Day parade.D

See ASSASSINATION/6A

BY RICHARD SIMON

LOS ANGELES TIMES

WASHINGTON Amid ac-cusations that the WhiteHouse has failed to act aggres-sively enough to clean up cor-porate accounting abuses, thechairman of the Securitiesand Exchange Commission,Harvey Pitt, on Sunday de-fended the administrationsperformance and said hewould not resign.

For their part, Democratscalled for President Bush torestore integrity to the WhiteHouse by releasing informa-tion on his 1990 sale of stockin a Texas oil company priorto the companys announce-ment of a significant declinein earnings.

On the eve of todays Senatevote on a far-reaching ac-counting reform bill, Pitt took

aim at his critics, denouncingtheir politically crass soundbites.

I have absolutely no inten-

tion of step-ping down,the nationstop securitiesregulator toldCBS Facethe Nation.

I believe Ienjoy the con-fidence of thepresident,and Im cer-tain if I dont,hell let meknow.

But Sen.John McCain,R-Ariz., re-newed his callfor Pitts re-signation,

contending that the SECchairmans past work as alawyer for the accounting in-dustry makes him unsuitablefor the job.

We have now a crisis ofconfidence on the part of the

SEC chief

says hewont quitPitt defends his responseto accounting scandals

PITT

See SEC/4A

BY DICK J. REAVIS

EXPRESS-NEWS STAFF WRITER

President Bushs proposallast week to stiffen sentencesfor corporate crimes wontland guilty executives intough prisons, according tothe Federal Bureau of Prisons.

But if convicted book cook-ers and document shreddersdont wind up behind bars inmaximum-security lockups,they also wont spend time inClub Fed, because countryclub prisons dont exist,prison officials maintain.

The new punishment pro-posals, approved unanimouslyby the Senate and now beforethe House, increase the maxi-mum sentences for fraud andobstruction of justice in finan-cial cases from five to 10years.

Defrauding investors is aserious offense, and the pun-

ishment must be as serious asthe crime, Bush said in aTuesday speech calling for thechange.

But guidelines for assigninginmates to federal prisons as-sure that most white-collarcriminals with 10-year sen-tences go to low-security dor-mitories and minimum-secu-rity camps, said Cory Clark ofthe Federal Bureau of Prisons

Big business cheatersarent facing hard time

Most white-collar

criminals go to

low-security facilities.

D

See BUSINESS/4A

Investorsseek port in astorm/4A Coke tochange itsreportingsystem/5A Feds aregood at badaccounting/5A

BY KATHY GANNON

ASSOCIATED PRESS

HYDERABAD, Pakistan APakistani judge today convictedfour Islamic militants in thekidnap-slaying of the Wall Street

Journal corre-spondent DanielPearl and sen-tenced one ofthem to death.The others re-ceived 25 yearsimprisonment.

Lawyers forthe chief defend-

ant, British-born Ahmed OmarSaeed Sheikh, and the three oth-ers said they will appeal. Saeedwas sentenced to hang for hisrole in the Jan. 23 abduction ofPearl, 38, the South Asia corre-spondent for the newspaper.

Reporters were barred fromthe courtroom inside the heav-ily guarded jail here whenJudge Ali Ashraf Shah renderedthe verdict.

Deputy defense lawyer Moh-sin Imam informed journalists

of the decision against Sheikh,Salman Saqib, Fahad Naseemand Shaikh Adil.

Pearl disappeared in Karachiwhile researching Pakistanis Is-lamic extremist movement, in-cluding possible links to Rich-ard Reid, who was arrested inDecember on a flight betweenParis and Miami with explo-sives in his shoes.

A videotape sent to U.S. diplo-mats in February confirmedPearl was dead.

Security was heavy at theHyderabad jail as the verdictwas announced.

Sharpshooters manned roof-top positions across the streets,and police sealed off the streetin front of the walled com-pound.

The trial has fanned the an-

ger of Islamic militants againstPakistans government, whichmany extremists feel betrayedthem by abandoning the AfghanTaliban and supporting theUnited States after Sept. 11.

The government will imposethe decision at the behest of theUnited States, said Sheikh As-lam, Adils brother, as he ar-rived to hear the verdict.

All executive decisions in Pa-kistan are being imposed by theUnited States.

Militantsconvicted

in Pearlslaying

Judge sentences 1 to

death and the others

get 25 years in prison.

D

PEARL