Asheville Citizen-Times from Asheville, North Carolina • Page 1

i OU1N1NI A beautiful day with spring-like temperatures. HI 60 L0 38 Mustangs top Rams Smoky Mountain stays unbeaten The grungy look on the ski slopes. There's justification for moody teens. The winner of our trip to England. Stressing action Jesse Jackson Jr.

says reinvest in America. Page IB REALITY RETURNS: Mild weather won't last. 0 in league play. Page ID Details on page 10A ASHEVILLE MES i urn VOICE OF THE MOUNTAINS Multimedia Inc. Saturday, Jan.

23, 19-93 Panto! mi Dim 8 Is Clinton already out of touch? ') A I i 'it Alcohol figures in acid spill Tenn. driver jailed for Jackson mishap By Bob Scott WESTERN BUREAU SYLVA A tractor-trailer driver was. charged with drunken driving after his rig overturned Friday morning, spilling 500 to 1,000 gallons of sulfuric acid. The tanker was reportedly carrying 3,100 gallons of sulfuric acid. The accident occurred in dense fog on U.S.

23-74 around 9:10 a.m. in the Ochre Hill commu- nity of Jackson County, three miles east of Sylva. There were no evacuations, although people were kept nearly a quarter of a mile away during the cleanup. Sulfuric acid is poisonous if inhaled or swallowed. Contact causes severe burns to skin and eyes, and it reacts violently with water.

"It's very toxic. It will eat the lining of the nose and lungs. It's very corrosive," said regional Emergency Management 'Coordinator Thad Bryson. No one was injured during the cleanup, and the spill was kept from entering nearby Sutton Branch. Sam Jones Murray, 58, of -4 -J -4 By Carl Cannon KNIGHT-RIDDER ANALYSIS WASHINGTON Inside the Beltway, at least, Zoe Baird looked like a shoo-in to become attorney general.

She was a smart and successful woman nominated to serve in a Cabinet that was supposed to "look like America." Trouble was, she turned out to be what Washington's elite views as a fairly typical American a hard-working professional with enough money to hire nannies to take care of the kids. "Those of us with six-figure incomes and hired help around the house do not 'look like observed Michael Barone, political columnist for U.S. News World Report. "Ron Brown makes" $750,000 a year. Zoe Baird and her husband made $600,000.

That doesn't look like America to me. That looks like Northwest r. On Christmas Eve, when Bill Clinton announced his selection of Baird, a 40-year-old corporate attorney, he told reporters she would prove to be one of the best attorneys general in history. What he neglected to mention was that Baird had employed two BOB SCOTTCITIZEN-TIMES Balsam firefighter Johnny Nicholson, left, rubs his eyes as he and fellow firefighter Dean Coward walk away from an overturned tanker during efforts to stop spilling sulfuric acid Friday morning. The tanker, shrouded In heavy fog, is seen upper right.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Zoe Baird during testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. illegal aliens from Peru; one to care for her child, the other to be a chauffeur. Baird had disclosed that fact to Warren Christopher, director of the transition team and her -patron in the. Clinton camp. Christopher, a wealthy Los Angeles attorney, reportedly attached little significance to Baird's troubles with the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

He passed the information along to Clinton, a See Baird on page 6A Jackson County Jail under a $1,000 secured bond Friday afternoon. Traffic was re-routed onto old U.S. 19-23 while authorities kept all four lanes of U.S. -23-74 closed during the cleanup, 't' The cleanup of the spill will resume early Saturday morning. The contaminated soil will be removed and trucked to an EPA-approved disposal area.

More than 120 state and local Copperhill, was treated at the scene for minor injuries before being taken to the Jackson County-Jail, where a Breathalyzer test was administered. i Murray was charged commercial DWI laws, with a blood-alcohol level of .04 considered to be intoxicated. Regular DWI laws consider .10 blood-alcohol level to be intoxicated. Murray was being held in the emergency officials responded to the.scene. i Officials estimated the liquid spilled at a rate of three to five gallons a minute before the flow was Firefighters from the Balsam Volunteer Fire Department were joined by workers from Holston Remediation of Waynesville environmental consultants who often deal with hazardous materials See Spill on page 6A Clinton topples abortion restrictions demonstrated raucously outside the White House and the Supreme Court.

ii mi. i ii i jiiiiiii in i. ii in. iniimiiiniii i.H" hi 'i cf? Mr ,1 1, i mm. ii In Asheville, an anti-abortion group held a memorial service and several abortion rights organizations held a "commemoration" of the Roe decision.

No organized demonstrations by either group were AP AND STAFF REPORTS WASHINGTON On his second day as president, Bill Clinton fulfilled a campaign promise to women and wiped out most of the restrictions on abortion and family planning imposed by the previous Republican administrations. Until Friday, Clinton had dealt mainly in words and symbols, but the four executive orders, he signed in the Oval Office were the first things he has done that will bring real change to the lives of ordinary Americans. The actions came on the 20th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion that has been the focal point for passionate religious and political battles ever since. Clinton acted as thousands of happy supporters and frustrated opponents of abortion rights from around the country tion for Women, Planned Parenthood, American Civil Liberties Union and Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights.

Mourning to Morning, a "post-abortion outreach" of the anti-abortion group Life Advocates, sponsored a memorial service Friday evening "for children you may have lost through miscarriage, abortion or stillbirth" at Trinity Presbyterian Church. A prayer vigil will begin Saturday evening at St. Lawrence Catholic Church and will continue until Sunday morning. "I'm glad Clinton is in," said Debbie Oberman, of Newtown, an abortion rights supporter who came to Washington to mark the Roe anniversary. "Women voted for him, and now he's keeping his commitments to them." Joan Walsh, of Albion, who See Abortion on page 6A Western North President Clinton Carolina Citizens for Choice and four other groups met Friday afternoon at the Unitarian Universalist Church to observe the 20th anniversary of the Supreme Court Decision.

Other groups participating were the National Organiza- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Anti-abortion demonstrators march from the White House to the Supreme Court in Washington Friday to protest the 1973 decision to legalize abortion. LOOKING FOR TROUBLE Water Department workers sound off Inefficiencies cited in opinion survey THE MORNING REPORT A five-minute capsule of the day's news, business, sports and television. BUSINESS Page2A iwlMry RELIGION 7-8A BUSINESS 5-8B CLASSIFIED 6-16D COMICS 4-5C EXTRA 1C CROSSWORD 5C DEATHS 4B BILLY GRAHAM 4C DAVE BARRY 2A LOCAL NEWS IB MARKETS 5-8B MOVIES 3C OPINION 4-5A SPORTS 1-5P TELEVISION TV Spotlight STATE NEWS 2B Vol. 124, No. 23 40 Pagw By Clarke Morrison STAFF WRfTER Rampant favoritism and nepotism in the Asheville Water Department result in needless water line breaks, outages and other inefficiencies, some of the department's employees say through their attorney.

And at least the perception of such problems is confirmed by a recent employee opinion survey. But Assistant City Manager Charles Penny, who oversees the department, said the claims are not valid. He said, however, the perceptions must be addressed. Black Mountain lawyer Bob Warren last May said in a letter to Richard Wood, who at the time was chairman of the Asheville-Buncombe Water Authority, that he represents several dissatisfied water department employees. The employees hired him to express their concerns because they feared retribution from their supervisors and wanted to remain anonymous, Warren said.

"Apparently, part of the problem is that the water department's top managers are not rigorously managed by anyone," he said in the letter. "Employees under the managers see favoritism, nepotism, autocracy, racial and gender discrimination, and wasteful management practices daily." Warren said that access to jobs and promotions is affected by family relationships, and "family and clique factions" exist throughout the department. "For example, one superintendent has a son, a brother, a first See Water on page 6A Businesses are cautiously optimistic looking toward '93 as the economy shows signs of recovery. From the hearth care Industry to downtowns, from manufacturing to housing, the annual Business Industry review special section coming Sunday in the Citizen-Times gives an in-depth look at the direction of the Western North Carolina economy. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Marine Lance Cpl.

Jerry Dover, of Rome, watches for floating mines from the USS Kitty Hawk in the Persian Gulf Friday. Meanwhile, U.S. warplanes fired on a radar site In Iraq again. Slory, Page 3 A 1993, Asheville CHIren-Times Publishing Co..