The News Journal from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 1

Red Wings 3 Christmas Slam Dunking at the Beach Sports, C1 uw i-iyere i toivwanzaa Sports, C1 55hours uma 1993, The News Journal Co. A Gannett newspaper Wilmington, Del. 115th year, No. 256 35cents FRIDAY Dec. 24, 1993 FINAL EDITION Jhe News Jobless 2 Powerball winners set to split the 00 million In the spirit of Christmas rate up to 6.1 in Del.

I. em i i Dear readers, We called it The Christmas Weed of Claymont, a scraggly little thing decked with garland and ornaments. Now we know it was The Christmas Spirit growing in that crack where Philadelphia Pike crosses 1-495. For a week it had brought smiles to drivers. Last Friday, we shared that smile with everyone by running a Page One photograph.

That's when the saga began. That morning, DelDOT cut the tree down. Soon the elves of Claymont were at work. A tree, again, stood on the median. Then another Grinch (not DelDOT this time) stole the tree.

The elves If ir vfv 1, J. The News JoumaVTIm Shaffer Special Kris Guy stands to the tree as to Bud Tobin adds decorations We endorse their kindheartedness and now we them to rest easy. The News Journal has hired security guards to keep watch until Christmas Day. The first guard took his position at 11 a.m. Thursday.

We want to thank J.R. Gettier and his security company for sharing the costs with us. Our job is not to pinch the Grinch, but to protect The Christmas Spirit that the people of Claymont returned. The Grinch again. The elves again.

In all there have been eight trees. The "weed" is now quite grand. It's a sturdy little fir. Three-and-a-half feet in height. Brightly decorated.

And nailed convincingly to a concrete block. We want to thank the elves of Claymont. Their determined efforts to keep Christmas alive has made us giggle, honk our horns and cheer them on. We don't have all their names, but we know that Jack and Dorothy Lavin, Greg Starkey, Dorsey Lebeis, Robert and Beverly Talley, Bud Tobin and Colleen Cooper have done their part. By JENNIFER LOVEN Associated Press WASHINGTON A retired bricklayer with 17 children and 29 grandchildren said Thursday he plans to buy a country home for his wife with the $45 million lottery winnings that moved him to tears and trembling.

He will split the $90 million Powerball payoff with the holder of the only other winning ticket 17 Vl coirj Via PRIDGEN wantg tQ uge part of his $45 million to move to a place "with a lot of palm trees and a lot of umbrellas." Percy Ray Pridgen, 69, could speak only a short time before haying to bury his head in his hands to cry. After disclosing his plan to buy a house, he said, "Somebody's going to have to tell me" how to spend the rest $2.25 million a year minus taxes for the next 20 years. See POWERBALL A4 4 in Del. win $100,000 By CHRIS DONAHUE Staff reporter DOVER Four tickets worth $100,000 each were sold by the Delaware Lottery for Wednesday's $90 million Powerball drawing. Lottery Director E.

Wayne Lemons said three of the winners had their tickets validated at the lottery office Thursday and were given checks for $72,000 after federal taxes were withheld. The winners: Patricia Bromley, 33, of Freder-ica. Bromley bought six tickets at Nashold's Mini Market, Freder-ica. 1 Disabled by a back problem, Bromley has been out of work since 1988. She has four children.

Her husband is a mechanic at Alfred I. du Pont Institute. A 62-year-old retired couple from Florida who asked that their names not be released as allowed by state law. The man said he purchased the winning ticket at The News Basket in Bear. The couple is visiting relatives in Newark.

"This should cover the gas back' to Florida," the man said. Michael Fedak, leader of a group of 22 employees from Property Management in Philadelphia. Each of the employees gave money to Joan Brady, of Delaware, who bought 110 tickets at Mag-A-Book in Fairfax Shopping Center. Fedak said he will issue the other group members personal checks, ranging from approximately $1,600 to $6,500. I Lemons said the holder of the fourth winning ticket had not notified the lottery office.

Editorial AtO Comics 17-19 letters A10 Crossword 1 7 Obituaries B4 Movies 4-5 Public Diary B3 People Scoreboard C4 Television 14 52 -VV HIGH LOW 35 25 L. 1 Details on B2 Business B8 Sports CI Classified C6 55 Hours: By NEIL CORNISH Staff reporter WILMINGTON For some time, Delaware could take solace in knowing its job market was better than the national average. Now that advantage is slipping away. Or so it seems. November's unemployment rate jumped to 6.1 percent, up from 5.5 percent in October.

That brings the state's jobless rate within striking distance of the national average of 6.4 percent, down from 6.8 percent in October. Delaware's job market appears to have slumped considerably from the same time last year, when 4.6 percent of the work force was without jobs. The national unemployment rate for November 1992 was 7.3 Claims up nationally. B8 percent. As recently as June, Delaware enjoyed a 3 percentage point spread compared with the national unemployment rate.

But since then, job growth in Delaware has flattened. Edward L. Simon, labor analyst for the Delaware Labor Department, said the picture is not as bad as it may appear. Simon said November's data is a statistical "blip" that doesn't truly reflect the job market. The prime culprits for Delaware's rising unemployment rate from October are the contract construction and manufacturing sectors.

Led primarily by cutbacks in the chemical industry notably the DuPont Co. manufacturing employment lost 300 jobs. Contract construction lost 400 jobs, mostly among specialty trade contractors. In sheer numbers, 23,300 Del-awareans were without jobs last month, compared with 21,100 the previous month and 17,400 in November 1992. At the same time, the state's labor force inched up 1.8 percent year to year to 382,100.

The labor force is defined as those people 16 and older who are working or actively seeking work. Simon said the large month-to-month gain may be attributable to Delaware's small size. At the same time, the ongoing cutbacks in the chemical sector may have an impact on other industries. "There was no major layoff, no auto layoff," he said. "With a small state, a little change can be magnified." Another confusing aspect is the fact many of the country's economic indicators point to an expanding economy.

Yet Simon said many of those gains can be attributed to improved productivity as companies perform better with fewer people. go home v-. w- '-TV 7. 1 16 Astronomer: Magi saw series of planetary events have given us. then a series of three successive conjunctions between Jupiter and Regulus, the brightest star in Leo, then another, very close conjunction between Jupiter and Venus, "so close they would have appeared to merge into a single object one evening in 2 B.C." "Any astrologer worth his salt would have seen that as indicative of a coming new king of Israel," Chester said.

President of the Monterey Institute for Research in Astronomy, Chester said there has not been as close a conjunction between Venus and Jupiter since that one. "It is unheard of in modern times," he said. "It's nothing magical, but it's rare." guard Thursday. John N. Walston Executive Editor News Journal office closings for holiday The News Journal accounting, classified and other administrative offices will be closed today and Friday, Dec.

31. The circulation department will remain open until noon. Someone will be available in news and sports departments and news copy desk from 4 until 10 p.m. Circulation: 324-2700 General number: 324-2500 (voice mail) News: 324-2776 News copy desk: 324-2815 Obituaries: 324-2781 Police reporter: 324-2771 Sports: 324-2811 Waiting to Vy.i ft UK WS 4... 7, .0 Fund saves family from becoming homeless The Needy Family Fund is a private, nonprofit fund run by The News Journal.

"I had incurred some unexpected expenses due to medical problems of my husband and child. The help I received from The Needy Family Fund helped me avoid destitution and homelessness." How to give and today's list of donors, B3 Gender pay gap in Congress Glass ceiling exists in U.S. halls of power, survey says By JUDIETELFER Scripps Howard News Service MONTEREY, Calif. The star of Bethlehem wasn't really a star, but rather a series of five planetary events, said astronomer Craig Chester. Chester said the series of conjunctions among Jupiter, Regulus and Venus was predicted very accurately by the Magi, who as court astronomers and astrologers saw tremendous significance in the event.

The heavenly bodies that were involved in the conjunctions gave the event much of its significance, he said in an interview. First, Chester said, was a conjunction with Jupiter and Venus, First of two parts lie, and has no mechanisms to weed out gender bias. The result: Men dominate the decision-making roles on Capitol Hill, holding key jobs in the offices of senators and representatives where they oversee legislative and political issues that shape the nation. Women hold three out of five congressional jobs on lawmakers' personal staffs, but they mostly populate the back-office desks in clerical positions, the GNS study found. Many answer the phones and write letters to constituents, a largely thankless job that is nonetheless crucial to a boss's re- I I I By PAMELA BROGAN Gannett News Service WASHINGTON Congress has two classes of personal staff employees: highly paid men who hold most of the power, and lower-paid women whose careers can be stunted by an institutional glass ceiling.

Although there are exceptions to the rule women in high-paying positions, men in menial ones the general findings of a Gannett News Service study show a gender pay gap. Although Congress is doing more to narrow that gap than the private sector, it collects no job-force data, avoids anti-discrimination laws it mandates for the pub- election. "It's a public shame that the Capitol dome operates as a glass ceiling," says Judith Lichtman, president of the Women's Legal Defense Fund. "Glass ceiling" is a Labor Department term used to describe an artificial barrier that prevents qualified women from advancing into jobs and pay brackets traditionally held by men. The GNS computer study of about 11,500 members of the personal staffs of representatives and senators found: House members pay men on average $39,200 per year; women earn $32,000 a year, a difference See CONGRESS A6 A 1 APRICARDO MAZALAH Members ol the 561st Support Battalion, trom Fort Campbell, nap at Mogadishu's airport Thursday as they await their flight home.

All U.S. troops are expected to leave Somalia by March 31. Article, A3. SELL WITH CLASSIFIEDS: 324-2424 or (800) 427-2424 HOME DELIVERp324-2700 or (800) 235-9100.