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———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— [ WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2004 ] ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

DDLY 122204 A1

Dayton Daily News

Today on DaytonDailyNews.com: LATEST LOCAL NEWS UPDATES | ARCHIVE OF RECENT LOCAL NEWS STORIES

DaytonDailyNews.com

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Comes to filmDave Larsen reviews the movie versionL I F E , E 1

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Volume 128, Number 73Copyright ©2004 Cox Ohio Publishing

INDEX

TOP STORIES

DELPHI EMPLOYEES VOTE FOR WAGE FREEZE

Delphi workers at the Vandalia Thermal & Interior plant on Tuesday voted to freeze their wages in lieu of losing their jobs. Story, D1

FANNIE MAE EXECS FORCED OUT

Two executives at mort-gage giant Fannie Mae were forced out of the company Tuesday as it struggled to deal with revelations of financial reporting problems. Story, D1

MAN QUESTIONEDIN ERICA BAKER CASE

A longtime figure in the Erica Baker case was ordered transported from state prison to the Kettering jail Tuesday for questioning in the girl’s 1999 disappearance.Story, B1

HEART-RISK CONCERNS RAISE MORE QUESTIONS

Patients taking drugs linked to heart problems are urged to discuss the risks and benefits with their physicians. Story, A8

THIEVES GET $39M IN ONE OF TOP HEISTS

Thieves took the families of two top bankers hostage and forced the bosses to help them steal more than $39 million from the vaults of a Belfast bank’s main office. Story, A7

BOARD OF ELECTIONS SEEKS LEGAL AID

An elections board director’s failure to inform board members about a candidate’s plans to retire prompts inquiry. Story, B3

HOME DELIVERYCall (937) 222-5700 or visit

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Christian JohnGabriel:Police would not discuss Springfield resident’squestioning.

COMINGSATURDAY

Christmas story

Enjoy ‘A Cat for Christmas,’our annual

holiday-themed tale written by reporter

Jim DeBrosse.

In the Dayton Daily News

Here comes Harry, but not until summer

Associated Press

NEW YORK — Get ready for publishing’s ultimate blockbuster sequel: Harry Potter VI.

Setting the stage for another round of midnight bookstore par-ties and marathon readings into the morning, the penultimate nov-el in J.K. Rowling’s mega-sell-ing series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, will go on sale at 12:01 a.m. July 16 in the Unit-ed States, Britain and four other countries, publishers said Tues-day.

With the previous works avail-able in 62 languages, many other countries are sure to follow.

The news should be celebrat-ed by Rowling’s millions of fans and by the struggling publishing industry.

Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble Inc. and Borders Group Inc. announced 40 percent dis-counts on the book’s $29.99 sug-gested retail price.

Half-Blood Prince is already No. 1 on Barnes & Noble.com’s best seller list and was in the top 10 on Amazon.com.

Patients reeling from Premier, Anthem fight

By Kevin Lambklamb@DaytonDailyNews.com

Robin Mobley was recovering from one surgery and planning another when the letters started arriving. They said she’d have to find new doctors, new rehabilita-tion therapists and a new hospi-tal next month if Premier Health Partners didn’t sign a new con-tract with Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield by Dec. 31. “I was just devastated,” she said. Her primary-care doctor of 15 years works for Premier. Her re-

hab from November foot sur-gery has six more weeks to go at Premier’s Miami Valley Hos-pital. She’s scheduled for Janu-ary thumb surgery there, too. The facilities she’d be able to use next year aren’t nearly as convenient to her Jefferson Twp. home, and she still relies on family to drive her places.

Like so many of Anthem’s roughly 100,000 enrollees who are Premier patients, Mob-ley is both angry and scared at the growing prospect of having

ED ROBERTS/DAYTON DAILY NEWS

ROBIN MOBLEY may have to find new health care providers if Premier and Anthem don’t agree.Please see ANTHEM on A4

Attack on mess hall kills 20 Americans

Troops turned their lunch tables upside down, placed the wounded on themand gently carried them into the parking lot.— Embedded Reporter Jeremy Redmon —

DEAN HOFFMEYER/ASSOCIATED PRESS

U.S. SOLDIERS tend to the wounded after an apparent insurgent mortar attack on a dining facility during lunchtime on Forward Operating Base Marez in Mosul, Iraq, on Tuesday. Related story, Page A10

By Slobodan LekicAssociated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq — An ex-plosion tore through a soft-sid-ed mess tent where U.S. soldiers were eating lunch Tuesday at a military base near the northern city of Mosul, blowing a hole in the ceiling and leaving the floor littered with trays of food and puddles of blood. Officials said at least 22 people were killed in one of the most devastating attacks against Americans in Iraq since the start of the war.

The dead included 20 Amer-icans — 15 of them service-members and five civilian con-tractors. Two Iraqi soldiers al-so were killed. Sixty-six people were wounded, including 42 U.S. troops, Capt. Brian Lucas, a mili-tary spokesman in Baghdad, said early Wednesday.

Inside the tent, U.S. soldiers reacted quickly. With people screaming and thick smoke bil-lowing, soldiers turned their lunch tables upside down, placed the wounded on them and gen-tly carried them into the park-ing lot, said Jeremy Redmon, a reporter for the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch embedded with the troops in Mosul.

A radical Sunni Muslim group, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, claimed responsibility for the at-tack, which officials said wound-ed about 60 people — the latest in a week of deadly strikes across Iraq that highlighted the unwav-ering power of the insurgents in the run-up to the Jan. 30 nation-al elections.

President Bush said the explo-sion should not derail the elec-tions and that he hoped rela-tives of those killed know that their loved ones died in “a vital

Please see IRAQ on A10

Kaus denied early releaseIllinois senator asks

for clemency forher, 6 Ohio reservists

By Timothy R. GaffneyDayton Daily News

and Bob DartCox News Service

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin has written President Bush seeking clemency for six Army reservists from Ohio who were court-mar-tialed for taking equipment to car-ry out their mission in Iraq.

Meanwhile, Army Maj. Cath-erine Kaus, one of the six, won’t get out of prison a few days early to allow her to spend Christ-mas with her family, ac-cording to an Army spokes-man, despite two requests from U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio.

In his letter to Bush, Durbin, a Democrat, said the members of the Army Reserve 656th Trans-portation Company may have committed a technical violation and an error in judgment, but the military should not have treated it as a felony.

“The punishment is completely out of step with the violation,” he wrote. “Soldiers have been scav-enging for equipment on battle-fields from the time of the Ro-mans to the present day. ... Yes, they made a mistake, but it was not so someone could get rich; these soldiers were trying to pro-tect their unit and accomplish their mission.”

Kaus, 46, a Dayton resident, has been in prison since August after pleading guilty to charges

Catherine Kaus

Please see KAUS on A10

Valley braces for stormBy Mandy Zatynski

mzatynski@DaytonDailyNews.com

If the weather forecasters were correct Tuesday in predicting the arrival of today’s winter storm system, expect six to eight inches of snow to blanket the Miami Val-ley by Thursday evening.

The system, which developed over the lower Mississippi Valley, is heading northeast across Ohio, according to the National Weath-er Service in Wilmington.

Whatever the outcome today, road crews throughout the re-gion spent Tuesday preparing for

a tough time.“If it hits like they are saying

it’s going to hit, it’s going to be a mess, but we are going to do the best we can,” said Jim Pile, Fair-born’s acting street foreman.

Montgomery County workers spent the day stocking and servic-ing their 21 trucks. County Engi-neer Joe Litvin said he planned to call the trucks out shortly af-ter midnight and no later than 4 a.m., depending on the severity of

ED ROBERTS/DAYTON DAILY NEWS

KENT BETZ (left) and Bryan Sharp load snow removal equipment into their truck at Heil Brothers, 2218 Wilmington Pike. They are with Advanced Window Cleaning Services Inc., which offers snow removal.Please see SNOW on A6

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