28 YEARS AGO — 1996
• Bob Hughes met him in the city. He is 17 years old, but no typical teenager. For the last few years, before joining the Bosnian Luge Team, he would wake up in the morning under the comfort of warm blankets in the bedroom of his home. His mother would help him prepare for the day, making sure he ate something, making sure he was dressed warmly enough, and then would give him a kiss goodbye. But unlike other kids his age around the world, he wasn’t on his way to school. He was on his way to war. With a machine gun strapped over his shoulder, he would walk a few blocks away to the front lines, where the blood of Muslims, Croats, and Serbs spilled daily for four years. Then, at night, he walked back home. “This kid was shot four separate times,” Hughes said, shaking his head. “And to look at him now, you’d think he was just a normal teenager.” Hughes has visited Sarajevo more than 20 times. But what he found last week during his most recent trip to the war-ravaged city was that nothing is normal there anymore. Hughes, marketing director for U.S. Luge, traveled to Sarajevo on Oct. 12 to inspect the city’s Olympic luge run. The Serbian military converted the sports venue into a fortress during the gruesome civil war, lobbing shells and horror on the city below.
• If all goes according to plan, Lake Champlain will be protected for generations to come. Gov. George Pataki and Vermont Gov. Howard Dean signed an agreement Monday for both states to work cooperatively in cleaning up the lake’s major environmental problems. Several dozen people representing a variety of environmental, business, and political leaders joined the pair during a ceremony at Valcour Conference Center on the shores of Lake Champlain. “As I look out at this magnificent lake, I’m very pleased to be signing this agreement,” Pataki said, a brisk wind whipping off the gray waters. “What we’re agreeing on is a plan to protect the environment, but one that goes hand in hand with economic growth.”
50 YEARS AGO — 1974
• Lake Placid, which tried unsuccessfully last year to be the host for the 1976 Winter Olympics, won the 1980 Winter Olympics on Wednesday. Moscow, the overwhelming favorite for the Summer Games, won the right to stage the games and became the first city in a Communist country to be chosen as an Olympic host. Lake Placid’s bid was the only one for the Winter Games. Lord Killanin, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), declined to state the margin of Moscow’s majority among the 61 IOC members who voted, but one IOC source gave the unofficial count as 39-22 in favor of the Soviet capital over Los Angeles. The Russians were strongly favored to get the Summer Games from the start. They only narrowly missed getting the 1976 Olympics, which went to Montreal, and, having dominated the overall medals standings at the Games for the past 10 years, laid a strong claim to host them. The Winter Games will return to Lake Placid after 48 years and to the United States for the first time since Squaw Valley, Calif., hosted in 1960. It was also the second consecutive time the IOC had given the Winter Olympics to an American town. Denver won the right four years ago for 1976 but then turned it down when the people of Colorado voted against the Games. The Austrian resort of Innsbruck was chosen as a substitute site.
• Area cable television viewers may someday be able to attend college classes in their homes or have their homes or places of business placed under police surveillance, according to John J. Faubert, manager of Au Sable Communications in Plattsburgh. Faubert said that due to technological advances in recent years, the amount of overall service available to viewers with cable television is as varied as the number of channels a viewer may choose from. He said the present cable system in the area is a one-way system in which all signals must be sent to all cable subscribers. He pointed out that Au Sable Communications expects to opt for a two-way system in 1977. According to Faubert, a two-way system would make it possible to send selected transmissions to subscribers. If a person wanted to keep his place of business under televised surveillance, he could accomplish this with closed-circuit television and the two-way cable system. With the two-way system, the images picked up by the surveillance camera could be sent to the businessman’s home.
75 YEARS AGO — 1949
• Hailing it as a “major victory” for his administration, President Truman yesterday signed the bill increasing the national minimum wage from 40 cents to 75 cents an hour. The new minimum—expected to cost employers about $300,000,000 annually—does not go into effect, however, until 90 days from now. At that time, an estimated 1,500,000 workers are due to have from five to 15 cents added to their hourly earnings. Government officials said the pay raise in most cases will not exceed 15 cents since they said most workers now receive more than the old 40 cents an hour minimum. The new Fair Labor Standards Act, which was adopted just before Congress adjourned, makes various changes to the old law, which went into effect just 11 years ago last Monday. Besides raising the pay “floor” for workers engaged in interstate commerce, among other things, it tightens the ban against the use of child labor and gives added enforcement powers to the wage and hour administrator.
• Samuel Mashtaire of Point au Roche yesterday picked a large spray of ripe raspberries in his garden, despite the fact that mercury hovered considerably below the freezing mark in the early morning. Mr. Mashtaire, who displayed the spray at the office of the Press-Republican, said that he and members of his large family have been enjoying raspberry shortcake regularly throughout the fall season and that he still has strawberries of the everbearing variety about ready for a shortcake before the weekend.
100 YEARS AGO — 1924
• Slot machine thieves are running wild throughout the county, knowing the owners cannot well complain to the authorities, since their devices are illegal. The latest robbery was not far from the courthouse. The thieves bored holes through a rear door with an auger, wrenched off two iron bars, and made off with a nickel and a quarter machine. This was Thursday night. The proprietor of another establishment nearby heard a noise during the night. He lit the light and investigated but could discover no one at the door. Rum Row has also sustained the loss of several machines, and sporadic losses have been reported from other parts of the city. Machines have been stolen from two places in Champlain and from stores in other parts of Clinton County.
• About 20 couples attended the dance of the R.O. Club, held at the Young Women’s League rooms last night for the benefit of the club basketball team. The chaperones were Mrs. Hinds, Miss McDowell, Mrs. Langdon, and Mrs. Morgan. Dancing was from eight until eleven. Punch was served for refreshments, and decorations were orange and black.
— Compiled by Night Editor Ben Rowe