6A
Friday, May 2, 1997
NATION/WORLD UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
YOE
Republic of Texas members back on phone to law officers
The Associated Press
FORT DAVIS, Texas — The leader of the besieged Texas secessionists finally answered the phone and resumed negotiations yesterday after giving law officers the silent treatment for a day and a half.
Armored personnel carriers also resumed carrying what participants in the 5-day-old mountain standoff called "diplomatic pouches" — documents exchanged between the leader of the Republic of Texas, Richard McLaren, and his lawyer.
An agreement to end the standoff apparently was in place Tuesday night, but then McLaren broke off communication with law officers and his attorney, Terence O'Rourke.
Telephone contact resumed around noon yesterday when negotiators called McLaren and he finally answered.
"So far the conversations have not been much more than chitchat," said Mike Cox, representative for the state Department of Public Safety. "As long as we have that communication, we think things are much more positive."
McLaren and about a dozen Republic of Texas members have been holed up since Sunday. Six of them are wanted on charges of kidnapping or other offenses in connection with a hostage-taking that started the siege.
Earlier yesterday, law officers trying to step up the pressure said they
would cut off the electricity at the trailer the Republic of Texas calls its embassy. But Cox said later, after contact with McLaren had resumed, that the electricity would be left on
as long as the conversations continued.
However, O'Rourke said that the electricity already had been cut off the night before.
Dozens of state troopers have ringed the area, while two armored vehicles, tracking dogs and horses also have been brought in.
The Republic of Texas, which has splintered into three factions, claims Texas was illegally annexed by the United States and wants a statewide referendum on independence.
The standoff, 175 miles southeast of El Paso, began Sunday after members took two neighbors hostage in retaliation for the arrests of two followers. Both hostages were released a day later in exchange for one of the jailed followers.
Audience, advertisers come out for special Ellen episode
The Associated Press
NEW YORK—Months of hype about the coming out episode of *Ellen* paid off handsomely for *ABC*.
The hour-long program scored a 23.4 rating and 35 share in Nielsen Media Research's overnight measurements — more than twice its usual audience and comparable to a typical episode of ER, the year's top-rated show.
Advertisers tailored special messages for Ellen — and paid special prices. Chrysler, a regular Ellen sponsor that pulled out of the episode, had to set up a phone line to deal with the calls about its decision.
At viewing parties across the country, people cheered when the show's star Ellen DeGeneres stam-
mered, "I'm gay," into an airport microphone during the show's clim ac tic moment. DeGeneres watched at a private party in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Ellen DeGeneres
The ratings indicated that 35 percent of the nation's TV sets on at the time were tuned to Ellen. ABC estimated 42 million people watched all or some of the show.
This compares to the show's average rating of 9.6 with a 16 share. The show sagged to 37th place in the ratings this season.
"ABC was very, very successful in positioning this as not simply a
gay television show but as a television event," Betsy Frank of Zenith Media said.
The ratings don't put Ellen anywhere near the highest-rated show ever, the final episode of $ M^{*} A^{*} S^{*} H $ , which had a 60.2 rating and 77 share in 1983. With cable, television viewers have far more choices today.
Still, it was ABC's highest-rated program of the year.
ABC declined to say how much it was charging for commercials on the episode, but people familiar with the matter said some 30-second commercials were sold for $300,000 to $350,000.
That was well below the $500,000 commanded by shows like **Steinfeld** and **ER** but above the $170,000 Ellen reportedly commanded before the season started.
One commercial for a home HIV test was tailored for Ellen. Home Access Health Corp.'s spot ran in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, San Francisco and Baltimore.
It began with the text, "Hey everybody, we came out this year, too."
People calling for Chrysler Corp. consumer information this week were given a specific phone line if they wanted to talk about the company's decision against advertising on Ellen Wednesday night.
"It was a matter of efficiency to weed out the opinion calls from those we need to respond to about our automobiles and trucks," representative Megan Giles said. She said the calls "have been a wash" on the issue but could not provide any numbers.
Witnesses testify that McVeigh had motivation
The Associated Press
DENVER — Six months before the Oklahoma City bombing, Timothy McVeigh was so eager to buy a detonator for a bomb that he was willing
"H e needed it," bad, "Greg Pfaiff, recalling a phone call
Timothy McVeigh
arm McVeigh that came about the same time he purportedly told Lori Fortier of his plans to blow up a federal building to avenge the government siege at Waco, Texas.
McVeigh, who was calling from Arizona, said he would personally pick up the detonator from Pfaff, who had mostly given up the arms business and was running a deli in Harrisonburg, Va.
Paffa was the first in a line of prosecution witnesses who suggested McVeigh had the instructions, materials and hateful motivation to build a large truck bomb before the April 19, 1995, blast that killed 168 people.
David Darlak, a high school friend from upstate New York, testified that he hadn't heard
from McVeigh in two years when he got a call from him in 1994 asking where he could buy some racing fuel.
Prosecutors say nitromethane fuel, often used in drag racing, was mixed with ammonium nitrate fertilizer to make the truck bomb.
A publisher of military how-to books testified the recipe was in a book McVeigh ordered in 1993 that gives step-by-step directions on how to build bombs that can destroy bridges, shatter steel and derail tanks.
In other testimony, McVeigh's cousin Kyle Kraus testified that in 1991 McVeigh sent him a copy of the "The Turner Diaries," a racist novel that describes a bombing of FBI headquarters. Prosecutors have called it a blueprint for the Oklahoma City bombing and numbered it Exhibit 1.
Kraus said he discussed the book with McVeigh, telling him "It would be very frightening if it really did come to this." He said McVeigh had replied: "It could possibly come to this."
Kraus said when he heard about the Oklahoma bombing and realized it was "right in line with 'The Turner Diaries,'" he immediately had called the FBI and had turned the book over.
McVeigh, a 29-year-old Gulf War veteran, could get the death penalty if convicted of murder and conspiracy in the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S. soil.
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