Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, October 17, 1994                   TAG: 9410180059
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN THE NATION

George Bush concluded that Dan Quayle was hurting his bid to be re-elected president, but refused to force him off the ticket, according to a new book excerpted in Newsweek magazine.

The book, ``Quest for the Presidency 1992,'' includes quotes from unidentified sources who discuss what Bush said and thought during the campaign.

``Quayle had become the mouthpiece for the party's farther right,'' Bush thought, and pressure was heavy to push him out, according to excerpts in the magazine's Oct. 24 issue.

Two top campaign officials, Bob Teeter and Fred Malek, were behind the dump-Quayle campaign, and even former presidents Ford and Nixon told Bush that Quayle should go, according to the book.

``He hadn't objected in principle to the idea of doing Quayle in,'' an unidentified source said of Bush. ``He didn't want his fingerprints on the weapon. ... He could not bring himself to be more than a passive actor in the drama, hoping against hope that Quayle would jump without having to be pushed.''

- Associated Press

Inspector criticizes airport

DENVER - An inspector at Denver's new airport who says he quit after refusing to sign off on shoddy work has photographs documenting potentially dangerous construction.

Dean Hill, who spent 35 years as a construction supervisor, said he saw workers at the airport cutting corners that could lead to collapsing floors, buckling walls and falling ceilings.

Hill said he spoke to federal investigators about falsified inspections. However, he has not been invited to testify before the federal grand jury investigating allegations of wrongdoing at the $3.7 billion airport, which is scheduled to open Feb. 28.

Problems, including a high-tech, baggage-chewing luggage system, have repeatedly delayed its opening. The city is currently served by Stapleton International Airport.

Hill says he complained to a supervisor but got nowhere. So he turned over photographs of the construction to Denver's district attorney, who is investigating allegations of falsified tests and fraudulent contracting and construction practices.

Bob Storck, the airport's head of construction, promised a full investigation. He said Hill's photos do show potential construction problems.

- Associated Press

Tours end after nuclear mishap

WISCASSET, Maine - A nuclear power plant has discontinued tours after 10 members of a college chemistry club were exposed to radioactive gas.

A spokesman for the Maine Yankee plant said there was no health threat, but a radiology expert said the exposure could put the students at greater risk of developing several forms of cancer.

The students from a University of Southern Maine chemistry club were exposed to radioactivity Tuesday in an area in which rubidium gas had been released, said Joseph Quattrucci, the club's president.

Maine Yankee spokesman Marshall Murphy said the gas dissipated quickly and posed no health threat.

However, Ernest Sternglass, professor of radiology at the University of Pittsburgh, said the danger lies in the likelihood that the students inhaled a radioactive substance.

- Associated Press