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LA122489-0017_16 | time of greater concern about ethics, not only in genetic therapy but also in the area of health care and what is appropriate treatment. It's possible genetic therapy could be useful in the treatment of cancer and AIDS, but it won't start there. It will start with a specific disorder where there is a known single genetic defect. One exciting area is the expanding knowledge of cancer through the genetic regulation of oncogenes, the genes identified as causing cancer in humans. This is particularly exciting in offering a promise for prevention as well as treatment for cancer. This includes a better understanding of the way environmental agents -- some of the toxins we are exposed to -- alter genetic regulation and therefore predispose a person to cancer. As a cardiologist, I'm very excited about the expanding understanding of cholesterol, metabolism and the way in which fat gets deposited in blood vessel walls. There'll be many new ways to prevent the blockage of blood vessels by fat. People are living healthier life styles. Life expectancy has gone up over the past 20 years. There is a good chance that a successful vaccine against AIDS will be developed in the next decade. People are beginning to get clues to the way the virus behaves. It's a virus that changes its colors very frequently. There are some outstanding minds working on the problem, and I think they are making progress. FASHION: ANNA WINTOUR Wintour became editor of Vogue nearly a year and a half ago. A former editor-in-chief of British Vogue, she also has been an editor at Harper's Bazaar, New York magazine and American Vogue. IN LOOKING AHEAD to the '90s, it's important to look at what happened in the '80s. First of all, there was the enormous influence of fitness. Whether you're looking at Jane Fonda or the New York Marathon, the fitness boom has had a tremendous influence in terms of fabrics and ease of clothes -- whether women were wearing sneakers in the street, with the way women were feeling much better about the way their bodies look. Azzedine Alaia is kind of the king of stretch or body-fitness clothes -- sexy and fashionable and desirable at the same time. That's going to go on into the '90s. We first saw the power suit during the '80s. That came out of the Italian designers, kind of an aggressive look; | SLOUCHING TOWARD THE MILLENNIUM; PROGNOSTICATIONS, PROPHECIES AND JUST PLAIN GUESSES ABOUT WHAT THE LAST DECADE OF THE 20TH CENTURY WILL BRING |
LA122489-0017_22 | will be a problem even if the shrinking defense budget causes fewer scientists to gravitate toward defense research. In terms of science itself, on every front there are simply spectacular developments. What's happening in the neurosciences is absolutely mind-boggling. Information that's being accumulated about the nature of the neuron and the molecular processes involved in neurotransmission is going to open up a totally new view of the nature of the human mind and of psychological issues. Every psychological mood and condition will probably relate to some aspect of the transmitters, allowing us to research and study every facet of an individual's personality. Molecular and cellular biology is simply revolutionary in terms of its impact on medicine. Our neurosurgeons at UCSD, for example, are anticipating implanting into the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease genes that would generate an increased level of certain neurotransmitters that we believe are related to the disease. There's no question that this can happen during the coming decade. Things are rolling at such a fast rate that to make predictions is very difficult. It's clear that in fields such as physics, the superconducting supercollider will be a major scientific instrument. Also, I think there's a renewed interest in nuclear fusion as a source of energy. Then you've got this whole development of new techniques for visual imaging -- the ability, through nuclear magnetic resonance and other procedures, to literally image the structure of a molecule or something even smaller. We can image the activities of the brain. In physics and chemistry, in the neurosciences, billions and billions of observations can be put together by a computer to provide images. We can literally see the structure of particular molecules, the form they are and why they interact the way they do. If we can understand the structure of a molecule, we can create chemicals that mimic the structures found in the body. When the space telescope gets up there next spring, we may find ourselves with a completely new view of the universe. It will have the capacity to see farther and in more detail than we've ever been able to before. Everywhere along the way the excitement is spectacular. WORLD AFFAIRS: WARREN CHRISTOPHER Christopher is chairman of the L.A. law firm of O'Melveny & Myers. As deputy secretary of state in the Carter Administration, he was chief negotiator in freeing the U.S. hostages in Iran. THE | SLOUCHING TOWARD THE MILLENNIUM; PROGNOSTICATIONS, PROPHECIES AND JUST PLAIN GUESSES ABOUT WHAT THE LAST DECADE OF THE 20TH CENTURY WILL BRING |
LA122489-0031_3 | fell to Police Chief Carmine Lanza, who just last month was promoted from captain after former Chief Richard Hoskin was fired. "For many months in 1989, there appeared to be conflicts in City Hall," said Lanza, who is doing double duty as both police chief and acting manager. "But I think we've weathered those storms and come out in good shape. Change isn't necessarily bad." Indeed, rather than dwell on the turmoil, many in City Hall prefer to view the transition as a process in which the cream rises to the top. Three of the department head vacancies have been filled from within. "I'm not saying it's been easy," said Mayor Pro Tem Bette Lowes. "But our staff has pulled in and filled the ranks without missing a beat. I'm amazed and proud of everyone." Lowes, who has been running council meetings since Leo King resigned last month to be with his family in Oklahoma, will continue in the post until the city's mayoral election in April. Officials hope that the spate of rapid personnel changes will also help turn around the city's financial picture. Anticipating a budget deficit earlier this year of $500,000 to $1 million, the council was forced to eliminate several staff positions as well as the entire code enforcement team, responsible for enforcing the city's health and safety laws. There are no auto rows or large shopping malls to generate sales tax revenues for the city. So the opening June 1 of a 200-room Hilton Hotel was for most officials the fiscal highlight of the year. To make the most of existing businesses, the Chamber of Commerce has begun a program to encourage residents to shop in town. Motorists around the city spotted with a "Be Part of Baldwin Park" bumper sticker have been awarded gift certificates good for $10 to $25 at local stores. Yet a plan to ease the pinch by imposing a 3% utility tax for the next five years was soundly rejected by voters in November. And local tax crusader Herschel Keyser, who led a successful recall effort against two councilmen in 1987 because of their support for a previous utility tax, was elected for the first time to the council in the same vote. There's still hope for balancing next year's budget, though, joked another member of the council. With so many departures, think of all the money saved in payroll. | A SKELETON CREW AT CITY HALL CARRIES ON; BALDWIN PARK: IT IS NOT BUSINESS AS USUAL IN A CITY THAT HAS LOST SO MANY OFFICIALS. IN FACT, SOME HOPED-FOR FUNDS MAY HAVE GONE BY THE WAYSIDE. |
LA122489-0035_3 | had a stomach virus linked to AIDS. The phone rings and is answered elsewhere by the hospice director, Mary Nalick, 45. She is working in her makeshift office in one of four garages in an apartment building behind the hospice. In the other three garages, she collects donations for the regular garage sale that raises about half of each month's $13,000 in expense money. The rest of the budget comes from fund-raising efforts, like the Sparkletts water bottle, and patients' insurance. The hospice property was bought last year for $220,000 with a grant from a foundation established by junk-bond financier Michael Milken. After being renovated by volunteer workers, it opened in December, 1988. Nalick has managed to stay about two months ahead of the bill collector since. There is room for five patients, but since the average patient dies within three weeks, there are frequent vacancies. On this particular day, there are four patients in the hospice, and they are all sleeping. There is a kitchen and two bathrooms, one for patients and another for staff. The living room has leather sofas on hardwood floors and a big-screen TV. Ringled explains that AIDS tends to be a drawn-out, accelerating disease. He is typical in that although he learned that he was infected with the human immunodeficiency virus probably between six and 10 years ago, he did not have any symptoms until recently. His experience treating AIDS patients has taught him that, once AIDS becomes active, "you get one virus, you get over it, and a couple of months later you get another one and another one, until you get weaker and weaker. "All of a sudden you have pneumonia, you have skin cancer, you have chronic diarrhea, you have vomiting, all happening at once." Today, he is strong enough to work three days a week at City of Angels. "I'm totally addicted to the job," he said. "I couldn't stop if I wanted to." Anger keeps him going, he said. "I get angry. I'm hurt at how we all handle this as a race of people. How can we let people get this sick and do nothing? "The biggest problem is loneliness. If you can give them a pill for anything, that would be the one pill I'd want. "On a day that somebody dies, it hurts. I'm not going to say it doesn't. I think what hurts worse is | A PLACE WHERE FEAR IS VANQUISHED; AIDS: DESPITE DEATH AND SUFFERING AROUND THEM, TOM RINGLED AND WORKERS AT THE CITY OF ANGELS HOSPICE INSIST THEY'RE NORMAL PEOPLE BLESSED WITH AN UPLIFTING JOB. |
LA122489-0059_0 | December 24, 1989, Sunday, Home Edition If you're like most airline passengers, you board your airplane, stow your carry-on baggage, take your seat and fasten your seat belt. About two to three minutes into most flights, the captain will turn off the "Fasten Seat Belt" sign. Being an obedient passenger, you unbuckle your seat belt. That could be a big mistake. When you least expect it, the plane could be buffeted by moderate to severe turbulence, and you could seriously injure yourself. Although most airlines don't like to publicize it, there is a real danger of passenger accidents resulting from in-flight turbulence. On Nov. 24, 1983, an Air Canada L-1011 flying above South Carolina encountered turbulence. Twenty-five passengers were injured, five of them seriously. On March 3, 1986, near Honolulu, nine passengers were hurt (two seriously) on a United Airlines 747 that was hit by turbulence. On July 13, 1986, an Eastern Airlines A300 flying near West Palm Beach, Fla., was rocked by turbulence. Thirty passengers were injured. On Nov. 11, 1987, a Pan Am A300 flying across the Atlantic was also hit by severe turbulence. Thirty-five passengers were hurt. In almost every case, the passengers injured were not wearing seat belts when the turbulence occurred. Officially, these are classified as "Part 121" accidents, meaning an accident in which there are passenger or crew injuries or substantial damage to an aircraft. There are, of course, different kinds of turbulence. Turbulence can be created by weather fronts and storms, by the vortices of exhaust from airplanes in front of you, or the most severe -- and usually unexpected -- kind: CAT, or clear-air turbulence. Weather experts say that turbulence occurs when warm and cold air masses collide near the jet stream at the cold/warm air boundary. They will also tell you that turbulence occurs more often during the winter months, due to seasonally colder air temperatures. "Still, forecasting turbulence is an iffy business," according to Ken Plunkett, director of research for the nonprofit Aviation Safety Institute in Worthington, Ohio. "The FAA will issue reports of suspected turbulence, but more often than not they are general in nature." For example, the FAA might warn pilots of suspected turbulence in a large geographic grid stretching from Michigan to Florida at altitudes 18,000 to 47,000 feet. Other turbulence warnings come from "Pireps" -- pilot reports filed by captains flying either immediately in front of | THE SAVVY TRAVELER: IF THE PLANE BUCKS, IT'S BETTER TO BE BUCKLED-UP; AIRLINES: THE REAL DANGER WHEN FLYING IS FROM UNEXPECTED MODERATE TO SEVERE IN-FLIGHT TURBULENCE. |
LA122489-0061_1 | military superiority over potential enemies. But nowadays betting on such superiority is extremely dangerous and illusory, politically counterproductive and economically ruinous. If in the past military force was the main instrument of Realpolitik -- and war was its continuation by other means -- now it has become impossible to achieve political aims by resort to force in any conflict larger than Grenada or the Falklands. In the Soviet view, a shift to consistent realism has implied, among other things, an understanding that our own interests will not be served by American difficulties, especially in the regions that are especially sensitive to the United States. In recent months Americans have begun to think more seriously about this, particularly in regard to Eastern Europe. There are few nations in the world other than the Soviet Union and the United States whose joint and parallel interests outweigh any real causes for conflict, tension and confrontation between them. Economically, the Soviet Union and the United States complement rather than oppose each other. As for ideological differences, I have never thought of them as an imperative source of divisions and collisions between the two nations. Ideology may play such a role only at the primitive levels of societal development, when fanaticism and prejudice get the upper hand. We should not forget, however, that ideology was frequently used as casus belli for conflicts and wars to cover up for other much more fundamental and deep-rooted causes. The idea of "de-ideologizing" international relations and overcoming dogmatic stereotypes and prejudices in world politics has already been introduced into official Soviet foreign-policy doctrine and has become a key element of Mikhail S. Gorbachev's New Thinking. By the same token, it appears that fascination with ideology and ideological "crusades" is falling out of fashion in the United States, while pragmatism begins to play a more important role in foreign policy. However, as Panama reminds us, there still exists an area of Soviet-American relations that during the postwar period was a constant and often highly dangerous source of conflicts and tensions: our positions in controversies and conflicts that flared up in various regions of the world. It is on this ground that the worst crises in Soviet-American relations took place. It is here that the foundations for mutual trust were undermined. But looking at world politics of the last four years, we see that the number of arenas for Soviet-American confrontation | A SOVIET VIEW OF USING FORCE AS FOREIGN POLICY; PANAMA: U.S. INTERVENTION SEEMS ANOTHER MANIFESTATION OF AMERICAN PROVINCIALISM -- BELIEF THAT REGIONAL POLICIES CAN BE SEPARATED FROM GLOBAL POLICIES. |
LA122489-0063_2 | broadcasting an appeal for resistance from a clandestine radio station. The PDF did not lay down its arms, nor did the paramilitary "Dignity Battalion." Washington, despite its familiarity with Panama, seems to have ignored the fact that Noriega's top officers and their soldiers had close ties, military and financial, to the general. Washington also seems to have ignored Panamanian pride in independence. While the middle class is uniformly opposed to Noriega -- especially after he annulled the results of last May's presidential election -- the general enjoys considerable support among the poor. He is a demagogue -- and an effective one, full of populist pretensions. The Bush Administration should have realized that an invasion would inevitably trigger a nationalist reaction. No amount of prior experience seems to have taught proper lessons about the quality of intelligence or the cultural gap between peoples. The U.S. government still cannot comprehend how Latin American societies respond to events of this kind, not even how these societies function. After the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, the CIA admitted having believed the entire island would rise against Fidel Castro the moment the U.S.-organized brigade of Cuban exiles came ashore. In reality, even Cubans who had turned against Castro saw the invasion as an attack on national sovereignty and consequently stood behind their "Maximum Leader." In the 1983 invasion of Grenada, the intelligence failure was underestimating the readiness of a tiny island army, bolstered by armed Cuban workers who were building a new airport. They could not repel the United States but they could embarrass it -- and they could cause an unacceptable number of U.S. casualties. In Panama, what was to be a "clean surgical strike" (in the words of a Pentagon briefer) turned into nasty and costly urban warfare. PDF positions in the capital had to be bombed Thursday night, an action not previously deemed necessary. An attack on Noriega headquarters in the middle of a densely populated working class barrio caused considerable physical damage -- and a number of civilian casualties. The paradox was plain outside Panama. Military action by the world's most powerful democracy was killing innocent civilians while the security forces of now-dethroned Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu were gunning down pro-democracy demonstrators. The White House has now acknowledged that U.S. military presence in Panama is "open ended." Whatever happens to Noriega, restoring order in the republic will take weeks, probably months. | PANAMA: DIGGING A U.S. HOLE; POLICY: GEN. NORIEGA IS GONE BUT U.S. TROOPS REMAIN. INVOLVEMENT MAY HAVE BEEN THE RIGHT IDEA IMPLEMENTED IN A FAULTY WAY. |
LA122489-0064_3 | refugees in Geneva in June -- to give voluntary repatriation more time to work. There are also grave doubts about Hong Kong's system of determining whether the boat people are genuine refugees or merely migrants seeking a higher standard of living. The colony's immigration officers -- using a controversial procedure introduced in June, 1988 -- tend to screen out applicants without a thorough investigation into their motives for leaving Vietnam. "The screening of asylum-seekers is so inadequate that there is a danger that individuals at risk of human-rights violations could be sent back to Vietnam," said an Amnesty International study team. For ethnic Chinese, the majority population here, forcibly repatriating people back to a communist regime is no worse than the treatment given to the thousands of Chinese nationals -- many of whom have relatives in the colony -- who sneak into Hong Kong each year. Up to 90 illegal immigrants from China are unceremoniously sent back each day. Even illegal immigrant mothers caught visiting their husbands and children living in colony are immediately repatriated. What worries refugee officials is that other Southeast Asian countries will follow Hong Kong's lead and begin sending boat people back to Vietnam -- or worse, turning boatloads of Vietnamese back to sea. In recent months, Thailand, Malaysia and Taiwan have forcibly towed boat people from their shores, exposing them to the danger of pirate attacks and drowning. The decision to repatriate such a small group was clearly a trial balloon designed to test international reaction and ultimately the willingness of the Vietnam government to honor its promise of not punishing returnees. As part of a secret agreement with Vietnam, Britain says it has secured rights to monitor the treatment of those sent back. Although the government of Vietnam has assured Britain it will not punish anyone, Vietnamese law stipulates that a person who leaves the country without permission commits a criminal offense. Quyen Vuong, 24, who lived in Orange County for a time after she fled Vietnam in 1981 with her family, has spent long hours helping boat people amid the corrugated tin and barbed wire of Hong Kong's camps. Now a student in Hong Kong, she says it is unreasonable to assume that the returnees will not be subjected to harsh treatment back home. "The local authorities can make their life unbearable. The stigma for those who left will stay with them forever." | NO HONG KONG HAVEN FOR VIETNAM'S BOAT PEOPLE; REFUGEES: DESPITE ANGRY INTERNATIONAL REACTION, HONG KONG OFFICIALS PLAN TO CONTINUE SHIPPING VIET REFUGEES BACK TO VIETNAM. |
LA122489-0067_1 | the White House for a televised speech, the tone of the campaign is overblown hype. Like some grainy 1950s science-fiction potboiler, the real purpose seems to be the search for an evil. It's them -- outsiders, non-Americans and nonwhite Americans. The drug war is Washington's crusade to find an enemy, an excuse. We are making friends with the Russians and have lost the effort to overthrow the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. We need a convenient enemy. But if we find that enemy in our own cities, in the despair of a long-neglected underclass, America risks going to war with itself. I listen to rap music for clues to the drug war. Listen to the groups Public Enemy or NWA, rappers whose rage explodes right onto the surface, youngsters who say they don't take drugs but sell them to affluent customers in exchange for access to the good life. Then listen to Bush. These people are barely inhabiting the same planet. Americans take drugs in massive amounts -- alcohol, crack, cocaine, speed, heroin, marijuana, pills to lose weight, pills to get smooth. Just add that insatiable demand to a poor, urban population that has had most government programs and opportunities curtailed or eliminated since the Reagan Administration, and the roots of the current "war" are obvious. We should be honest with ourselves and realize that the answer to the crisis presented by the illegal drug industry is not going to be found in more prisons and larger police budgets. If only Americans could look at themselves and the consequences of past failures, we might find that instead of a drug war, we need a period of reconstruction and recovery from the damage already wrought by a social war of neglect that has left the nation dismembered and confused, divided more than ever by a great gulf of class, race and opportunity. If we believe the typical profile of the affluent drug customer, he or she seems to be the kind of younger person who has benefited most from the pro-business climate of the last several years: the high-achieving, fast-track, get-it-quick success story. What a strange symmetry that the suppliers, the street dealers in the cities, seem to be the exact opposite: those left behind and locked outside the brave world of success at any cost. As long as that profile continues, the symbiosis between the user and the supplier will likely continue. | GOING TO WAR WITH OURSELVES; DRUGS: LIKE SOME SCI-FI POTBOILER, THE CRUSADE SEEMS TO BE A SEARCH FOR A CONVENIENT ENEMY IN THE WAKE OF A DIMINISHED COMMUNIST THREAT. |
LA122489-0068_3 | myth. The money is being used to finance today's government expenses. Next year's Gramm-Rudman deficit target, for example, is $64 billion. Even if we hit it, the real deficit -- not counting that $75 billion FICA surplus -- will be more than double. There is no way society as a whole can save money for its future retirement. The resources retirees consume in the year 2025 will have to be produced in the year 2025 or thereabouts. All we can do is take steps now to increase our future productive capacity. That way, retirees' claims on 2025's resources needn't reduce the claims of then-current workers. If the Social Security surplus was increasing productive investment -- even indirectly, by reducing the government's demand for credit -- it would be achieving that purpose. But it clearly isn't. It's enabling the government to avoid fiscal reality. When it is time to draw down the kitty, taxes will have to be raised to pay off the IOUs it contains. (Or the promise to retirees will have to be broken.) The situation will be exactly the same as if the kitty didn't exist and taxes had to be raised to pay retirement benefits directly. With this difference: For a generation, the government will have been financed in large part by a regressive tax. Of course, if you cut FICA taxes by $75 billion, you still need to replace the money, or you will only have made matters even worse. It's tempting to say the magic words, "peace dividend." But that's already been spent several times over on the nation's Op-Ed pages. An across-the-board 10% income-tax surcharge would almost pay the bill, and would leave 19 of 20 families better off (which shows you how unfair the FICA tax is). Or we can start hitting the fiscal wish list. Every revenue buff's got one. Mine is available on request. Responsible people may be thinking it wouldn't be a bad idea to raise some new revenue without squandering the money on a tax cut. But Ronald Reagan and George Bush have relieved the Democrats of any obligation to be responsible in fiscal matters. The past decade has not been one of tax cuts. It has been one of replacing taxes on high incomes and capital with taxes on low-income workers. Rectifying the abuse without actually increasing the deficit is as responsible as anyone reasonably needs to be. | LOOK FOR SOME BAD NEWS IN JANUARY PAYCHECKS; TAXES: THE MOST UNFAIR OF THEM ALL, FICA, RISES AGAIN, NATURALLY HITTING WORKERS THE HARDEST. |
LA122489-0069_0 | December 24, 1989, Sunday, Home Edition Recently there has been a rash of abandoned babies in the Southland, who have been left in trash bins or on doorsteps. Instead of being chastised, women who do this should be treated with empathy and compassion, as they are often young girls who are scared, desperate and without any family support. How can we bring hundreds of thousands of additional children into the world, which is what anti-abortionists advocate, when we can't even properly care for those we already have? KENNETH L. ZIMMERMAN Cypress | POLITICS OF ABORTION |
LA122489-0073_0 | December 24, 1989, Sunday, Home Edition If the planet could look under its own tree Christmas morning to find gifts of human progress, one package -- unimaginable several years ago -- would contain the political achievements that are thawing the Cold War. If the wrapping paper had newspaper headlines printed on it, those headlines might read: "Berlin Wall Down" or "Non-Communist Government in Poland." Another package -- perhaps at the top of the planet's wish list -- would hold a reprieve for our suffering environment. The headlines on the wrapping paper might announce, "Agreement on Global Warming" or "Recycling on the Increase." But a third package would lie hidden in the back, unlikely to be opened or even seen. This package could provide a remedy for another calamity -- the needless deaths of 40,000 Third World children each day from hunger and poverty. It's wrapping paper would be blank, because there have been no headlines. But if this gift came with an instruction booklet, it would certainly be the United Nations Children's Fund's 1990 report, "the State of the World's Children." The report tells us that even with the current rate of progress, 100 million children will die during the 1990s from illness and malnutrition. These deaths won't come from floods or famine. They won't be covered by television; an outraged public will not demand action. The world will hardly notice as young lives are lost to diseases that were once killers in developed countries. As the report states, "They will die in the sunken-eyed coma of dehydration, or in the gasping extremities of pneumonia, or in the iron grip of tetanus, or in the fever of measles, or on the rack of whooping cough." Most important, the report reveals that these deaths are needless and could be prevented at low cost. UNICEF has proposed a World Summit for Children next year, at which heads of state would make this situation the world's highest priority. The UNICEF report outlines several major opportunities to protect the lives and normal growth of children: Universal immunization. The increase in immunizations this decade saves about 2 million lives each year from measles, tetanus, whooping cough and other deadly diseases, yet 3 million youngsters continue to die yearly because about one-third of the world's children haven't been vaccinated. The vaccines cost less than $1.50 per child. Oral rehydration therapy. A 10-cent packet of oral rehydration | WE COULD GIVE THE GIFT OF LIFE THIS CHRISTMAS; CHILDREN: THE MEANS EXIST TO STOP NEEDLESS DEATHS FROM HUNGER AND DISEASE IN THE THIRD WORLD. BUT DO WE HAVE THE WILL? |
LA122489-0073_1 | 1990s from illness and malnutrition. These deaths won't come from floods or famine. They won't be covered by television; an outraged public will not demand action. The world will hardly notice as young lives are lost to diseases that were once killers in developed countries. As the report states, "They will die in the sunken-eyed coma of dehydration, or in the gasping extremities of pneumonia, or in the iron grip of tetanus, or in the fever of measles, or on the rack of whooping cough." Most important, the report reveals that these deaths are needless and could be prevented at low cost. UNICEF has proposed a World Summit for Children next year, at which heads of state would make this situation the world's highest priority. The UNICEF report outlines several major opportunities to protect the lives and normal growth of children: Universal immunization. The increase in immunizations this decade saves about 2 million lives each year from measles, tetanus, whooping cough and other deadly diseases, yet 3 million youngsters continue to die yearly because about one-third of the world's children haven't been vaccinated. The vaccines cost less than $1.50 per child. Oral rehydration therapy. A 10-cent packet of oral rehydration salts saves about 1 million lives each year, but only one out of three families in the Third World uses the solution. Acute respiratory infections. Hundreds of thousands of children could be saved each year if community-health workers were trained to administer simple antibiotics, which cost about $1 per course. Breast feeding. Bottle-fed infants contract many more illnesses and are as much as 25 times more likely to die in childhood than infants who are breast-fed exclusively for the first six months of life. Making today's low-cost solutions available to the world's children would cost about $2.5 billion a year. That's what the Soviets spend on vodka each month, or American companies spend on cigarette advertising each year. It's also 10% of the European Community's annual agricultural subsidy. Half of the developing nations' annual expenditures are allocated for military spending and debt servicing. The developed world devotes more than six times this much -- about $855 billion -- to military spending. UNICEF asserts that the industrialized world has a major role to play in helping the developing world by "opening up the debt trap, renewing investment, liberalizing trade, compensating for steep falls in commodity prices and increasing the level of | WE COULD GIVE THE GIFT OF LIFE THIS CHRISTMAS; CHILDREN: THE MEANS EXIST TO STOP NEEDLESS DEATHS FROM HUNGER AND DISEASE IN THE THIRD WORLD. BUT DO WE HAVE THE WILL? |
LA122489-0085_7 | they will be required to lay down their arms," he added. He even indicated a sense of mercy for the usually despised Dignity Battalions, members of which nearly beat him to death with iron bars last May. "We don't want repression nor reprisals," Ford said. "But we have to have them turn in their weapons." Times Washington Bureau Chief Jack Nelson contributed to this story. U.S. Sees Long Pull U.S. forces face "weeks and months" in Panama. A5 Noriega Aide Defects Noriega officer ends resistance "to avoid a massacre." A5 Vigilantes Rule Armed Panamanians take back the streets from looters. A6 MILITARY ACTION IN PANAMA 1. David -- Panama Defense Forces soldiers in provincial capital of David, a city of 80,000, were told by the new U.S.-installed government of Panama to keep their arms and assume responsibility for maintaining public order in region. 2. Coiba Island -- U.S. Southern Command reports that prisoners at island prison on Coiba overcame pro-Noriega guards and radioed for help from American forces. Prisoners reportedly included some former Panama Defense Forces officers who led a failed coup attempt against Noriega on Oct. 3. 3. San Miguelito -- Air Force planes bomb hilltop redoubt of Noriega loyalists in working-class suburb of San Miguelito. Residents say eight houses were destroyed in attack aimed at house where weapons for Noriega supporters were reported cached. Later, U.S. troops descend on neighborhood, which has been site of strong resistance. 1. Howard Air Base -- 2,000 fresh American troops began arriving from Army's 7th Light Infantry Division at Ft. Ord., Calif. Reinforcements include helicopter company. 2. Bridge of the Americas -- President Guillermo Endara asks that Bridge of the Americas, controlled by U.S. forces, be opened to civilian traffic. Bridge is main crossing of Panama Canal, which splits Panama in two. 3. Central Avenue -- Amid relative calm in downtown area, U.S. forces comb Central Avenue, conducting house-to-house searches for snipers. 4. El Chorrillo -- About 28,000 people reportedly are homeless in neighborhood around Panama Defense Forces headquarters, destroyed by U.S. forces in initial assault Wednesday. 5. Cuban Embassy -- Lazaro Mora, Cuba's ambassador to Panama, said U.S. has tightened military net around Cuban Embassy, increasing number of armored cars there to eight. 6. Marriott Hotel -- CBS News reports that pro-Noriega forces released Jon Meyersohn, producer seized Wednesday at Marriott, and a U.S. businessman not previously identified as a hostage. | LAST NORIEGA TROOPS SURRENDER; PANAMA: BUT SOME VIOLENCE IN THE STREETS CONTINUES. ENDARA BEGINS TO ORGANIZE HIS GOVERNMENT. |
LA122489-0087_6 | side. Recently, a visitor clocked McFail and two other clerks at the window: 12 transactions in 15 minutes. The pace was slower in the back room, where mail is sorted. One clerk was re-sorting miss-sorted mail. One was hand-counting pieces of stamped business-reply mail for refunds of excess postage to the recipient. Another was trying to trace missing packages. Another was hand-stamping letters, "Insufficient address." Work life is complicated because the postal hierarchy is superimposed over workers who have more formal education than their predecessors and may feel they have a right to more direct control of their workday. "Back in the 1970s, we never told the union anything other than what we were required to do," said Deputy Postmaster General Michael S. Coughlin. The Letter Carriers' Sombrotto said that in the past, "Management had goals and objectives. They sprung it on you, you grieved, went to arbitration and litigation; ultimately, they won if they were right." To try to overcome the us-versus-them attitude, the Postal Service set up what it calls employee involvement teams. There are also management involvement groups for supervisors. But progress has been uneven. The process, said William Burrus, American Postal Workers Union executive vice president, is an instrument to weaken the bond between employee and union, and "a way to get around the collective bargaining process by talking directly to employees." Post offices and union locals have found ways to cooperate. It was the union that pushed for and won training for new window clerks, and that set up a nationwide task force on child care. In San Diego and northern Virginia, the local presidents meet regularly with top managers and join in occasional pep talks or gripe sessions on the work floor. Since 1982, the National Assn. of Letter Carriers has allowed its rank and file to participate in employee involvement groups, of which there are now about 5,000. The number of grievances has been dramatically reduced. While the major contribution of some of these groups has been as simple as getting microwave ovens for post offices, there are also experiments in self-managed work. At one Washington post office, employee teams have taken on the jobs of their supervisors. For a year, employees have come up with work schedules and monitored daily performance and the general administration. Their post office was recently honored as the only one in the district to have twice exceeded | POOR EMPLOYEE RELATIONS, RIGID WORK RULES IMPAIR IMPROVEMENT IN MAIL SERVICE |
LA122489-0088_2 | New Orleans installed across the country in the last two years, the post office's total work force declined by only 1.1%. In the area most affected by automation, mail processing, the worker pool actually increased by 5,131 people, according to postal figures. Work-force reductions are complicated by union contracts that provide postal workers with wages and benefits worth about $20 an hour and contain strict work and assignment rules, strong seniority rights, restrictions on the use of part-time employees and bans on layoffs. The New Orleans post office is one example of how poor planning from above and labor restrictions from below can play havoc with efforts to cut costs. Within an eight-month period, the facility received seven new 60-foot-long letter-sorting machines, had two others taken away and another four already in the plant retrofitted with new equipment. To make room, concrete walls were knocked down overnight and some of the new equipment was used to hold down still-drying floor tile. Despite drastic decreases in the volume of mail handled, the service had to hire additional employees: technicians to run the new machines. Postal managers were unable to lay off people whose jobs were made redundant by technology. Instead, they transferred employees to areas where there was more work and adjusted work hours to better coincide with the new mail flow. Morale Plummets The changes affected workers' personal lives and depressed morale. "You're talking upheaval," said postmaster Charles K. Kernan, general manager of the New Orleans division. About 550 processing clerks on the late-night shift downtown were told to begin work at midnight instead of 10 p.m. This meant a 10% pay cut because more of the shift occurred in daylight hours. The change also made it impossible for many parents to get home in time to send their children to school. Wayne Cola, who works the letter-sorting machine, said his three children now must spend the night with his mother-in-law because he gets off later in the morning. "The kids don't like it," he said. Postal officials in New Orleans also centralized mail processing so they would have more mail to feed into the machines. As a result, 22 of the 34 manual clerks in a nearby suburb were forced into the downtown processing center because there was no work for them elsewhere. They were put in one corner of the facility where they spend the day under-employed, sorting | U.S. POSTAL SERVICE MIXES TECHNOLOGY WITH ANTIQUITY; MAIL: AUTOMATION WAS SUPPOSED TO IMPROVE SERVICE. BUT EFFORTS TO AUTOMATE HAVE BEEN PLAGUED BY POOR MANAGEMENT AND PLANNING, COSTLY CHANGES OF DIRECTION AND SCANDAL. |
LA122489-0089_0 | December 24, 1989, Sunday, Bulldog Edition In 1976, Trudy Pembroke weighed 325 pounds. She was divorced, unemployable, estranged from her family and confined to a state hospital in Rochester, N.Y. Her grim history included a feeling at age 9 that something was terribly wrong with her. At that age, she did not know that she was a victim of severe depression and its devastating consequences. But she was to learn soon enough. She attempted suicide half a dozen times, beginning at age 16. She was frequently hospitalized for her mental illness. She had her stomach stapled to lose weight and was admitted to a group home. But the demons of overwhelming depression won again. Her spirit was broken, her fragile self-esteem shattered. She was hospitalized yet again. Life in a state hospital seemed her destiny. Today, Pembroke is 41 and weighs 155 pounds. She has her own apartment with new furniture. She earned an associate degree in college, bought a new car she calls "Baby" and has a new job. She is out of therapy and off all medication. Was it a miracle? No, it was nature's medicine -- friendship. Janice Wittmershaus, 33, a research physicist, was the friend. She befriended Pembroke until Pembroke was well enough to be her own friend. But Wittmershaus' and Pembroke's paths probably would never have crossed if not for an unusual nonprofit organization called Compeer. "Compeer is the best antidepressant in the world," Pembroke said. Its premise is simply the power of friendship. Headquartered in Rochester, Compeer began with 10 patients and 10 volunteers and was called "Adopt-A-Patient." In 1976, Bernice Skirboll answered a help-wanted ad and took over. She found the name too patronizing and thumbed through her dictionary. She found "compeer." The definition: "equal, companion, friend, peer." In 1977, Skirboll registered the name with the federal government, began raising money and expanded the group to an organization that has helped more than 10,000 mentally and emotionally handicapped people in 119 cities in 37 states and Canada. The compeer contracts to spend one hour a week with the client for a year. The volunteers undergo brief training. They meet with a therapist if indicated and submit written monthly reports. Skirboll said the backup support for each volunteer costs about $450 a year, about what it would cost to keep a patient in a hospital for three days. The program exists from Gainesville, Fla., | GROUP PROVIDES NATURE'S THERAPY: FRIENDSHIP; COMPEER: THE WORD MEANS "EQUAL, COMPANION, FRIEND, PEER." IT'S ALSO THE NAME OF AN ORGANIZATION THAT MATCHES VOLUNTEERS WITH CLIENTS FOR ONE-ON-ONE GET-TOGETHERS EACH WEEK FOR A YEAR. THE PROGRAM SEEMS TO BE SUCCESSFUL. |
LA122489-0089_5 | to talk about a mentally ill person. She then gives her own life story. Compeer has become more sophisticated than it was in the early days and tries to match people with something in common. Wittmershaus and Pembroke really had nothing in common, but one example in Harlem reflects the extent to which Compeer now tries to make these friendships work. The volunteer and the client were originally from Jamaica and both were very interested in music, especially reggae, the music of the island. So John Bent, 39, a victim of schizophrenia, became the friend of Howard Clarke, 22, a senior at Lehman College. The Rev. Robert Smalls of the Macedonia Baptist Church and the Compeer director at the Upper Manhattan Mental Health Clinic brought the two together a few months ago. Bent, whose disease dates from his student days in Manchester, England, has few friends and is frightened to leave the house. The voices that bedevil him, despite medication, get louder; the hallucinations become three-dimensional. If he is with someone, however, it is easier. Clarke brings records and videos to the four-story walk-up that Bent shares with his wife and five children. Despite the age difference, both are students in their own way. On one of their recent visits, Clarke asked if Bent knew anything about the Dutch philosopher Spinoza, the subject of one of his classes that afternoon. It turned out he did. So instead of listening to music as usual, the two chatted about philosophy. Neal Brown, director of community support for the National Institutes of Mental Health in Rockville, Md., said Compeer "seems to be very effective." "Everybody who has been involved with them has nothing to say but good about them," Brown said. He added, however, that the program has not been evaluated objectively and scientifically. The studies in Rochester, where the program began, indicate that Compeer significantly cuts the rate of a patient's re-entry into an institution. Sixty percent of previously hospitalized patients return at some point, mental health professionals say. Among the Compeer clients, that number has dropped to 15%, Skirboll said. Although Compeer gets some government money, it also gets donations from such corporations as Xerox, Citibank, Eastman Kodak, Honeywell, AT&T, General Motors and Merrill Lynch. Dr. Martin von Holden, executive director of Rochester Psychiatric Center, said he has 80 Compeer volunteers working in the hospital, a facility with 500 patients and | GROUP PROVIDES NATURE'S THERAPY: FRIENDSHIP; COMPEER: THE WORD MEANS "EQUAL, COMPANION, FRIEND, PEER." IT'S ALSO THE NAME OF AN ORGANIZATION THAT MATCHES VOLUNTEERS WITH CLIENTS FOR ONE-ON-ONE GET-TOGETHERS EACH WEEK FOR A YEAR. THE PROGRAM SEEMS TO BE SUCCESSFUL. |
LA122489-0094_2 | to strike at installations deep in enemy territory without fear of immediate retaliation. Its 1981 bombing of an Iraqi nuclear reactor outside Baghdad was a celebrated example. Now, an Israeli preemptive air strike can be countered with the push of a button, although Israel's nuclear capability still poses a telling deterrent. Hedging their bets for a non-nuclear confrontation, the Israelis have embarked on a U.S.-supported program to develop an anti-missile system called Arrow, another notch on the gear of escalation. Outside the Arab-Israeli tensions lies the threat that missile proliferation poses to the Arab states and Iran themselves. While battlefield missiles were first used in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, long-range missile warfare was introduced to the region during the nine-year conflict between Iraq and Iran, which ended in a fragile truce in the summer of 1988. Each side threw every available type of missile, from every possible source, at the other. Soviet-made Scud B rockets, adapted for greater range by reducing the weight of the warhead, fell on both Baghdad and Tehran. The Iran-Iraq War also reintroduced another ominous weapon, poison gas, which had not been used so extensively since during World War I in Europe. "The use of missiles was legitimized during the Iran-Iraq War," said Shai Feldman, a researcher at the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv. French-supplied Iraqi fighters pounded Iranian shipping in the Persian Gulf with French-made Exocet missiles (and accidentally hit the U.S. frigate Stark in 1987, with the loss of 37 American lives). The Iranians countered by deploying Chinese-made Silkworm anti-ship missiles along the gulf's strategic Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Arabia, alarmed by the buildup, went on the market and bought the ponderous Chinese CSS-2 East Wind missiles, which have a range of up to 1,800 miles, depending on the warhead. The East Wind can carry nuclear warheads to the maximum range, but the Saudis insist they have no intention of becoming a nuclear power. Independent observers say the missiles are being retrofitted with conventional warheads, which would limit the range to 1,000 miles, still sufficient to hit targets in Iran, Israel or elsewhere in the Middle East, though without pinpoint accuracy. Kopietz, the London analyst, labeled the Saudi weapons a "psychological cosmetic," but added that that is what spurs proliferation. "The Saudis are telling Iran, 'We can buy these and we can use them,' " he explained. "The Iraqis are building | COUNTRIES IN MIDDLE EAST ADDING NEW MISSILES TO THEIR ARSENALS; ARMS RACE: THE THIRD WORLD MAKES MANY OF THE WEAPONS. MAJOR POWERS ARE UNABLE TO CURB A BUILDUP. |
LA122489-0100_0 | December 24, 1989, Sunday, Bulldog Edition Seven young West German army reservists celebrating the end of their military service were killed when the overcrowded car in which they were traveling smashed into a truck, Munich police said Friday. The men, all in their early 20s, died when their car swerved out of control on the Salzburg-to-Munich highway during the night and hit a Romanian truck. The driver of the truck was uninjured. | 7 W. GERMAN SOLDIERS KILLED IN CAR CRASH |
LA122489-0116_1 | And at a sobriety checkpoint from about 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Thursday night, Torrance police stopped 1,066 drivers along Torrance Boulevard, Sgt. Ron Traber said. Of those, 15 were investigated for drunk driving and four were eventually charged, Traber said. "I really don't think (the checkpoint) came as a surprise to anybody," Traber said, adding that Torrance police used the checkpoint primarily as an opportunity to educate people about the dangers of drinking and driving. Police handed out leaflets that recommended designating a non-drinking person as a driver. "The idea was to deter people," Traber said. "For our purposes, it went very well." Palos Verdes Estates police have added an extra patrol car to look for drunk drivers, cruising mostly along Palos Verdes Drive West and Palos Verdes Drive North, Sgt. Ron Echols said. And sheriff's deputies have added two patrol cars to be on the lookout for drunk drivers in Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes and Lomita, said Lt. Stephen Huss of the Lomita Sheriff's Station. The Sheriff's Department provides law enforcement for those cities. Elsewhere in the South Bay, seven cities and the California Highway Patrol are working in concert to ferret out drunk drivers. Police departments in Gardena, El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Inglewood, Hermosa Beach and Hawthorne are pooling resources and officers with the CHP to patrol streets throughout those cities. Each department contributed one or two officers and a patrol car, said Lt. David Morgan of the Gardena Police Department. In addition to the joint task force efforts, most departments said they are beefing up patrols within their own city boundaries, particularly on New Year's Eve. "I would say if you're planning on drinking and driving, plan on bringing a toothbrush and a change of underwear," said Morgan, explaining that such drivers risk spending a night in jail. This year, sobriety checkpoint and special patrols in Gardena, Redondo Beach and Inglewood were held earlier than usual to target revelers headed home after office Christmas parties, police said. Lt. Ken Kauffman of Redondo Beach said studies have shown that police departments concentrate their efforts to arrest drunk drivers during evening and late night hours, but drunk drivers are also on the road during the period just after working hours. "Apparently a trend has emerged where we were missing dangerous periods, the hours after office parties being one of them," Kauffman said. | POLICE LOOK FOR MOTORISTS TOO FULL OF HOLIDAY CHEER |
LA122489-0119_2 | the parents did only slightly more good than harm in dosing their sick kids. One would think that prescription drugs would be more carefully administered, but parents are apparently no more likely to read a doctor's directions than they are those on the back of a box of cough drops, and instructions from physicians and pharmacists are not notably adequate. The report found that medicating mistakes centered on four major categories: * Stopping a medicine too soon. Grown-ups do this too. The minute they feel better, they stop taking the medicine. The minute the kids feel better, the parents stop giving the medicine. This can be a serious mistake with serious consequences. Take antibiotics, for example. The child feels better, and the infection appears to have cleared up. However, if the medicine is stopped too soon, not only is the child vulnerable to re-infection, but the organisms that have survived the first onslaught of the antibiotic will, in the best Darwinian tradition, likely have built up a resistance to the medicine so that the next infection will be much harder to stamp out. The specialists also cited anti-epileptic medicines, which may need to be taken even during seizure-free periods to prevent a recurrence of the attacks. * Not taking enough of a medicine. Doses may be skipped or forgotten. Medicines that must stay in the blood at a specific level in order to be effective -- medications for people with asthma, for instance -- will not work properly if they are not given promptly and precisely around the clock. This may mean waking the child up for medicine at least once a night. Any parent whose asthmatic child is sleeping peacefully at last simply doesn't want to wake him or her. (One study cited in the report found that among patients required to take the asthma medicine theophylline every eight hours, compliance was poor -- there was only 25% adherence. Compliance was much better when once-a-day doses were provided.) The report also noted that liquid medicines cause special problems. If they are not shaken, for example, the active ingredient may not get into the spoon. What's more, the measurements may be inexact. * Refusing to take a medicine. Studies found a variety of reasons for this -- including objection to the taste and bothersome side effects. As another factor, the report cited "a covert expression of parental resistance" that led | A PRESCRIPTION FOR ADOLESCENT MEDICINE MISUSE |
LA122489-0119_3 | prevent a recurrence of the attacks. * Not taking enough of a medicine. Doses may be skipped or forgotten. Medicines that must stay in the blood at a specific level in order to be effective -- medications for people with asthma, for instance -- will not work properly if they are not given promptly and precisely around the clock. This may mean waking the child up for medicine at least once a night. Any parent whose asthmatic child is sleeping peacefully at last simply doesn't want to wake him or her. (One study cited in the report found that among patients required to take the asthma medicine theophylline every eight hours, compliance was poor -- there was only 25% adherence. Compliance was much better when once-a-day doses were provided.) The report also noted that liquid medicines cause special problems. If they are not shaken, for example, the active ingredient may not get into the spoon. What's more, the measurements may be inexact. * Refusing to take a medicine. Studies found a variety of reasons for this -- including objection to the taste and bothersome side effects. As another factor, the report cited "a covert expression of parental resistance" that led to refusal of the medicine. * Taking too much of a medicine. The if-a-little-is-good-more-is-better school of dosing is a serious medical problem among adults as well as kids more frequently with over-the-counter medications than with prescription drugs. Parents, the report found, also may be overly casual in giving children small portions of over-the-counter medicines prepared for adults. Children are not just smaller versions of adults, and sometimes adult medicines (cough and cold preparations, for example) are suspended in alcohol, which can be particularly dangerous to children. Children may react in vastly different ways than adults do to certain medicines. Parents come in for the most criticism in the report -- in not seeing to it that their children take the medicines properly, regularly and religiously -- but physicians, pharmacists and care-givers also are faulted for failing to talk to the children themselves and explain adequately the importance of taking medicines the right way. "The parents can hear, but they should be talking directly to the kids," noted Robert M. Bachman, executive director of the council. Sidney Wolfe, a physician and director of the Public Citizen Health Research Group, said a better approach would have been the printed inserts that were | A PRESCRIPTION FOR ADOLESCENT MEDICINE MISUSE |
LA122489-0119_4 | inexact. * Refusing to take a medicine. Studies found a variety of reasons for this -- including objection to the taste and bothersome side effects. As another factor, the report cited "a covert expression of parental resistance" that led to refusal of the medicine. * Taking too much of a medicine. The if-a-little-is-good-more-is-better school of dosing is a serious medical problem among adults as well as kids more frequently with over-the-counter medications than with prescription drugs. Parents, the report found, also may be overly casual in giving children small portions of over-the-counter medicines prepared for adults. Children are not just smaller versions of adults, and sometimes adult medicines (cough and cold preparations, for example) are suspended in alcohol, which can be particularly dangerous to children. Children may react in vastly different ways than adults do to certain medicines. Parents come in for the most criticism in the report -- in not seeing to it that their children take the medicines properly, regularly and religiously -- but physicians, pharmacists and care-givers also are faulted for failing to talk to the children themselves and explain adequately the importance of taking medicines the right way. "The parents can hear, but they should be talking directly to the kids," noted Robert M. Bachman, executive director of the council. Sidney Wolfe, a physician and director of the Public Citizen Health Research Group, said a better approach would have been the printed inserts that were scheduled to be required in many prescription drug packages in the early 1980s until the regulation was killed by the Reagan Administration. The council, formed shortly after that action, "is an inferior replacement for a guaranteed automatic flow of information to the patient," Wolfe said. Bachman said the council's report did not deal specifically with the problems involved in testing drugs for pediatric use. "It is a complicated problem," he said. On the one hand, especially in drugs specifically targeted for diseases of children, it seems essential that there be full and appropriate testing. However, the ethical considerations involved in using children in research protocols makes such testing an especially difficult and expensive proposition. The FDA is wrestling with regulations that would permit testing of drugs to treat pediatric AIDS on children without waiting for thorough tests to be completed in adults. AIDS researchers have expressed concern that lives are being lost because of the delays caused by the current rules. | A PRESCRIPTION FOR ADOLESCENT MEDICINE MISUSE |
LA122489-0191_2 | symbolized that more than U2." Other partisans of the quartet caution that we shouldn't separate the band's activism from its art. "They have combined music that sounds great with music that says something," wrote Cathy Orth of La Mesa. And Matt Proietti of Crestline believes that "kids will listen to songs like 'Bad,' 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' and 'Bullet the Blue Sky' like we look back to the best of the Who, the Stones and Led Zep." Springsteen inspired similar sentiments from his voters, while Jackson and Madonna earned much of their support simply for being successful, and for forging themselves into pop-culture icons. As Mark Andrew of La Habra put it, "The pop artist of the '80s wasn't the best singer, songwriter, musician or performer, but the Best Package . . . Madonna." Fittingly, the contradictory Prince inspired the most wide-ranging and provocative comments, touching on his technical virtuosity, his influence on commercial pop music, his own sales success, his versatility and his mystery. Summarized LeClair Pearson of Long Beach: "He was prolific, he was unpredictable, he was his own man. There is only one Prince." THE TOP 20 AND THEIR VOTES 1. U2 313 2. Michael Jackson 295 3. Bruce Springsteen 125 4. Madonna 123 5. Prince 109 6. Guns 'N Roses 76 7. The Cure 68 8. Police/Sting 56 9. George Michael 54 10. The Clash 52 11. Van Halen 51 12. R.E.M. 50 13. Elvis Costello 48 14. Bon Jovi 47 15. Def Leppard 26 16. Metallica 26 17. Peter Gabriel 25 18. Duran Duran 18 19. Talking Heads 18 20. Depeche Mode 15 Artists receiving 5-14 votes: Paul Simon, the Go-Go's, the Pretenders, the Smiths, Randy Travis, New Kids on the Block, Boy George. Artists receiving 1-4 votes: Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman & Howe, the Bangles, the Beatles, the B-52's, Black Sabbath, Bobby Brown, Kate Bush, Tracy Chapman, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Harry Connick, Jr., Terence Trent D'Arby, Brian Eno, Erasure, Eurythmics, Foreigner, Bob Geldof, Debbie Gibson, Heart, Don Henley, Robyn Hitchcock, Billy Idol, INXS, Janet Jackson, Jesus and Mary Chain, Billy Joel, the Kinks, L.A. Guns, k.d. lang, Led Zeppelin, John Lennon, Huey Lewis, Barry Manilow, Martika, Johnny Mathis, Paul McCartney, Midnight Oil, New Order, OMD, Graham Parker, Tom Petty, the Ramones, Lionel Richie, the Rolling Stones, Diana Ross, Todd Rundgren, Run-D.M.C., Rush, Suicidal Tendencies, Til Tuesday, UFO, Lawrence Welk, Ricky Van Shelton, X, ZZ Top. | THE READERS' PICK FOR ARTIST OF THE '80S: U2; THE IRISH QUARTET'S INFLUENCE ON THE DECADE HAS BEEN SUBSTANTIAL AND INARGUABLE |
LA122489-0193_2 | that matched -- at times even exceeded the top choices -- in the area of boldness, but were less consistent. The Mary Chain, the London-based rock group, still works wonders with its strikingly arranged tales of romantic obsession, though "Automatic" fails to displace 1985's "Psychocandy" as the band's masterpiece. N.W.A's gangster narratives were year's most controversial and powerful tracks, but the rest of the album was too thin for it to rate higher than fifth. Rounding out the Top 10, in order: the Fine Young Cannibals' "The Raw & the Cooked" (short on substance, but otherwise sensational mix of rock instincts and soul textures); Neneh Cherry's "Raw Like Sushi" (wonderfully frisky attitude and an underlying thematic bite that is rare in dance pop). The Pixies' "Doolittle" (a challenging mixture of frequently comforting, if hyperactive arrangements and troubling themes from the promising Boston rock group); De La Soul's "3 Feet High and Rising" (the Long Island trio delivers the year's most varied and inventive rap package), and Terence Trent D'Arby's "Neither Fish Nor Flesh" (the controversial American ex patriot over-reached in trying to make a contemporary version of "Pet Sounds," but the highlights offer some of the freshest soul-rock-pop of the year). The most graphic way to discuss the relative merits of the albums is to assign them points -- on the traditional 0 to 100 scoring system. Under that system, "Freedom" deserves 92 -- which leaves it well below the 95 and above score registered by such key '80s albums as Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska," U2's "The Joshua Tree" and Paul Simon's "Graceland." While Case and Reed would also deserve 90 or more on my score card, the remaining five albums would all fall into the 85 to 90 range. The runners-up, also in the 85 range: Soul II Soul's "Keep on Movin"' (some of the most stylish dance floor music of the '80s), Thelonious Monster's "Stormy Weather" (Bob Forrest writes about maturity without tears), the Cure's "Disintegration" (the British band's ode to the proposition that bleak can be beautiful). Also, Paul McCartney's "Flowers in the Dirt" (surprising gentleness and warmth in this major artistic recovery), Boogie Down Productions' "Ghetto Music: the Blueprint of Hip Hop" (KRS-One's socially conscious looks at inner-city problems and challenges are making him the Curtis Mayfield of rap) and Tone Loc's Loc'ed After Dark" (the liveliest rap party album since the Beastie Boys' "Licensed to Ill"). | NEIL YOUNG'S 'FREEDOM' TOPS 1989'S ALBUMS |
LA122489-0194_0 | December 24, 1989, Sunday, Home Edition Urban music and urban concerns dominate the 1989 Times pop music critics poll, in which veteran Neil Young's feisty "Freedom" led the way, with Fine Young Cannibals' neo-English soul "The Raw & the Cooked" and L.A. rap group N.W.A's controversial "Straight Outta Compton" right on its heels. Five of the 13 voters named "Freedom" on their year-end top 10 lists for a total of 38 points in a system that awards 10 points for each first place vote, nine for second and so on. A total of 70 albums received votes. "Freedom," mixing angry songs condemning societal indifference with tenderly longing ballads, represents Young's first poll appearance in the '80s after an erratic, sometimes confusing stretch of stylistic diversions that left some fans and critics behind. But "Freedom" snarls and crackles and points some very specific fingers. As such it pairs well with Peter Case's No. 8 entry, an angry though hopeful document of urban despair. But most significant in the top 10 this year is the solid showing of the sound of the inner city: rap. In prior polls a total of only two rap albums ever made the consensus lists; this year alone there were three -- four if you count Neneh Cherry's rap-influenced debut. "Compton" was among the most-debated albums of the year. Its brutal, profanity-filled accounts of life in L.A.'s ghettos drew fire from, among others, an FBI agent who sent the group a letter admonishing it for what he perceived to be encouraging violence against law enforcement officers. The L.A.-produced "Loc-ed After Dark" (which features "Wild Thing" -- the biggest-selling single since 1985's "We Are the World," with more than 2 million copies sold) and the giddy but thoughtful and fresh New York sound of "3 Feet High" are tame by comparison, but their placing is recognition of rap's increasing breadth. Here are The Times pop music critics' first-place choices for 1989 album of the year (Robert Hilburn's top 10 appears above): Mike Boehm -- "Freedom," Neil Young; Richard Cromelin -- "3 Feet High and Rising," De La Soul; Jonathan Gold -- "Straight Outta Compton," N.W.A; Patrick Goldstein -- "Don't Tell a Soul," the Replacements; Paul Grein -- "Nick of Time," Bonnie Raitt (Capitol); Steve Hochman -- "Kite," Kirsty MacColl (Virgin import); Dennis Hunt -- "Keep on Movin'," Soul II Soul (Virgin); Connie Johnson -- "Neither Fish Nor Flesh," | URBAN CONCERNS, DANCE FLOOR VITALITY DOMINATE CRITICS' CHOICES |
LA122489-0198_4 | emotional life," what does the industrial screech of heavy metal tell us about psychic structure and range, or the relentless pile-driver rhythm of rap that makes no allowance for melodic possibility? Which may be the point: The rapper's world is not a melodic place. Is the rise of MTV a tacit confession that the bulk of our pop music is aesthetically insupportable without a series of mannered and pretentious visual images to lend it appeal? How much of that stuff can we sing in the shower? True, the '80s didn't get off to a great start. The national mood was sour from the murky spillover of the '70s, which saw the fall of Saigon and the resignation of a disgraced President. OPEC's control of the world's oil pipelines, American embassy officials still held hostage in Tehran, and a threatened 18% inflation rate gave credence to the portents of minimalism: American power was on the wane. Summing up, Lance Morrow wrote in Time magazine, "Mostly the air in the '70s was thick with the sense of aftermath, of public passions spent and consciences bewildered. The American gaze turned inward. It distracted itself with diversions, trivial or squalid; primal screaming, disaster movies, jogging, disco, Perrier water. The U.S. had lost a President and a war. . . . Many of the themes were woven around diminution. Paul Volker, head of the Federal Reserve Board, said last fall that in his view the American standard of living would have to decline -- a serious crack in traditional capitalist optimism. . . . The '70s were given over to building private, not public, morale. Est, Arica, Esalen, transactional analysis, set about fumigating the American psyche." The odd thing is that, materially speaking, the country had never had it so good. The '70s spillage into the '80s were characterized by what seemed a spate of death and dying plays such as "Whose Life Is It Anyway?" and, later, " 'night, Mother," which were gloomy not because of their subject but because they seemed false, spiritually hollow. They were really plays about capitulation. Our bookshelves bulged with paranoid fantasies of urban guerrilla terrorism, such as Robert Ludlum's "The Bourne Identity" and Bill Michaels and Lewis Orde's "The Night They Stole Manhattan." Movie attendance slumped. Some blamed inflation, but more to the point, it seemed, nobody wanted to go out anymore. It was the start of the | THE '80S A SPECIAL REPORT; PUTTING THE '80S BEHIND US; WHY HAS A DECADE THAT FOR A FEW MOMENTS WAS SO BUOYANT ENDED IN SUCH SEETHING MEAN-SPIRITEDNESS? |
LA122489-0209_1 | the Almanac of American Politics 1990: The 38th District: "A new America has been created within the Orange County grid in the most rapid metropolitan growth of the post-World War II era. . . . (But) to its critics, Orange County came to be synonymous with the white middle class and its values, among which were assumed to be racism and callousness toward the poor, a mindless nationalism and hawkishness, and a lamentable taste for middlebrow kitsch, symbolized by Disneyland in Anaheim and Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral with its drive-in annex in Garden Grove. "There was some basis to these characterizations as Orange County was growing. . . . But as time went on, Orange County turned out to be less homogeneous and more open to change than its critics supposed. " . . . As Vietnamese refugees began arriving in large numbers after the fall of Saigon, many headed for the county which had always staunchly supported fighting for their freedom from Communism. The refugees have proved themselves hard workers, with every family member pitching in. . . . The largest concentration of Vietnamese in America today can be found along the Garden Grove and San Diego freeways in Orange County." The 39th District: "What kinds of suburbs are these? It's a mistake to think of Orange County as just a collection of suburbs. . . . In their grid patterns and square moral outlooks, in their comfortable but far from showy affluence and their industriousness, in their apparent ethnic homogeneity and their adherence to traditional family patterns, they resemble those Midwestern towns 40 and 60 miles away from Chicago, which are classified as part of the Chicago metropolitan area by the Census Bureau but in their own residents' minds are places apart. "These places also share a strong allegiance to the Republican Party and a conviction that they represent the typical American community." The 40th District: "Near Newport Beach are the 1,000 acres the Irvine developers donated for a local branch of the University of California; at the edge of the property a once-small airstrip has become John Wayne Orange County Airport; just to the east is Costa Mesa's South Coast Plaza, the highest-volume, upscale shopping center in Southern California. . . . " . . . This is almost uniformly an affluent area. The subdivisions are walled off from the surrounding roads and freeways. . . . | REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: OUTSIDERS ANALYZE THE COUNTY |
LA122489-0211_0 | December 24, 1989, Sunday, Orange County Edition A first-ever coordinated drunk-driving crackdown in North Orange County resulted in 39 arrests Friday night and early Saturday morning. About 70 police officers in Buena Park, Fullerton, La Habra, Brea and Placentia were assigned to search for drunk drivers. The officers covered about 85 square miles of the county north of the Riverside Freeway. La Habra police arrested 11 people suspected of driving drunk, the highest number among the five departments. Brea police arrested 10 of 3,096 motorists stopped at a sobriety checkpoint. Fullerton police arrested four people, less than a typical holiday weekend night, Sgt. Douglas Cave said Saturday. "We look at this as a success," Cave said. "The people obviously got the word and stayed off the streets." Before the crackdown, police distributed 2,500 flyers to bars, restaurants and shopping centers warning of the special police effort. Fullerton made one of the earliest arrests, Lt. Bud Lathrop said. Police arrested a man at noon Friday who apparently had left a holiday office party, he said. "He got an early start," Lathrop said. "His driving was so alarming, people were calling us . . . from pay phones and car phones. It didn't take any clever police work to catch him." In addition to the arrests resulting from the crackdown, four of the nine traffic collisions in the North County area Friday night and Saturday morning ended with a driver being arrested on suspicion of drunk driving, Cave said. | COUNTY IN BRIEF: NORTH COUNTY; DRUNK-DRIVING CRACKDOWN NETS 39 |
LA122489-0217_2 | and solvents -- and of the notorious ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). * Establish new rules for the proper handling of medical wastes. * Mandate that much of the regular trash produced by businesses and residences be recycled. The impact of these measures on business is far from uniform, hitting some small manufacturing firms in businesses such as metal plating and painting very hard while leaving some larger, cleaner industries relatively unscathed. But few will escape entirely. "I don't know that next year will be a turning point, but there will be more regulations, more restrictions, and costs are going to escalate," said Duane Jordan, an active member of the Industrial Environmental Coalition of Orange County and an environmental manager at a large local manufacturing company. One of the most important measures to take effect in 1990 is the final phase of a state and federal prohibition on the land disposal of certain untreated hazardous substances. Known as the "land ban," the rule will require that all hazardous materials be treated even if they are being dumped in regulated hazardous waste landfills. Many dangerous substances are already subject to the land ban, but the third phase of the rule, set for implementation on May 8, will affect a number of materials -- such as heavy metal sludges -- that are not acutely toxic but are produced in great volume by industries such as electronics and metal finishing. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Department of Health Services are now scrambling to develop treatment standards for the various affected substances. If no standards have been established by May, or if adequate treatment capacity is not available, some wastes could be exempted from the ban. Forms of Treatment Treatment often involves a process called "fixation," in which the waste is solidified so that it will not leak into ground water, and some of the wastes affected by the land ban can be treated relatively easily. The cost burden on some smaller firms could nonetheless be significant enough to cause serious disruptions, or even desperate and illegal solutions. "I fear (the land ban) will lead to an increase in illegal dumping," said Robert Merryman, chief of the Environmental Health Division of the Orange County Health Care Agency. To help small companies cope with the land ban, the Orange County Fire Department is developing an education campaign to help disseminate information on alternatives, said | INDUSTRIES THAT POLLUTE ARE FACING LOTS OF DIRTY WORK |
LA122490-0006_2 | account for more cases than all other felonies put together -- serious crimes have gone up by half in the last decade. But the ranks of the criminal justice system, from judges to uniformed patrols to prosecutors and police lab technicians, have grown nowhere near that fast. Los Angeles couldn't afford it. In only five years, the number of gang members has doubled to 90,000. Of 182 defendants in narcotics cases that turned up in a random computerized Times search, only 3% got the highest sentence prescribed by law. In another random batch of cases, 98% were settled without trial because the defendant pleaded guilty, often to a reduced charge. That is 6% higher than the national average of cases settled by plea bargaining, or "case management," as it is called by prosecutors fighting a riptide of fresh arrests. Plea bargaining helps hold the system together, but it is often attacked as a road to lenient sentences. One severe critic is Donald Burkes of Bakersfield, whose son, Rick, died in a one-car accident. The driver, charged with vehicular manslaughter, drunk driving and hit-and-run, escaped with a two-year prison sentence in exchange for pleading guilty. "Two years for a life," Burkes says. "All they care about is the numbers, processing the numbers." Under siege, the working parts of the system -- courts, prosecutors, police, probation officers, jailers and others -- seem to cling together for dear life in a complex web in which no one is really at fault. The frustration mounts. The strain on the system begins to show when Freed asks such questions as why only 17% of all felons are caught and less than 1% of all felony crimes result in the felon serving a maximum prison sentence. Then police say the judges are too soft. Prosecutors point to police failures to produce hard enough evidence to get convictions. Prosecutors are criticized for plea bargains that let too many suspects spend too little time in jail. Criminologist Charles E. Silberman wrote in 1978 that expecting police alone to stop criminal violence is "quixotic." So may be Sheriff Block's notion of getting back to the basics of civil society. But Los Angeles must make the effort. Where L.A. Ranks Sworn police officers per 1,000 population Washington D.C.: 6.8 Detroit: 4.6 Chicago: 4 New York: 3.5 Miami: 2.9 Dallas: 2.5 Los Angeles: 2.3 Seattle: 2.3 Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation | JUSTICE DENIED: A SYSTEM UNDER INCREASING STRESS; TIMES SERIES REVEALS THE PROBLEMS -- AND LIMITS -- OF LAW ENFORCEMENT |
LA122490-0010_1 | of foreign affairs for four decades. But Gromyko was a knowledgeable person imbued with a certain world view -- he would have called it "revolutionary" -- that emerged in often surprisingly humane and comical ways in his memoirs, as when he recalled how sad he and his colleagues were at the death of Elvis Presley, whom he considered a gifted talent distorted by capitalism and a rapacious manager. It's unlikely that Shevardnadze's autobiography, should he come to write one, will contain such pleasing moments. The most striking image he leaves behind as foreign minister is of him smirking from behind Baker like a compliant equerry. It would be unfair to tax Shevardnadze with decisions doubtless made by Gorbachev, or the Gorbachev faction overall, but it was not necessarily a favor to his country or to a more supple foreign policy for him to come across as a yes-man for a NATO take on what the structure of the post-Cold-War world should be. In the Western press, everything happening in the Soviet Union is reconstructed in cartoon terms as a battle between "radicals" and "conservatives," but it is worth getting a taste of the debate in the Congress of Peoples' Deputies in the hours after Shevardnadze had thunderstruck the audience by his sudden and somewhat hysterically phrased resignation. "You, Shevardnadze," shouted the Byelorussian writer Alexander Adamovitch, "together with (Alexander) Yakovlev and Gorbachev, you started perestroika. You had no idea that these hordes of bastards would throw themselves at you?" Hardly had Adamovitch sat down before Col. Viktor I. Alksnis, a particular target of Shevardnadze's wrath, was on his feet: "In front of you there is a reactionary; in front of you there is a bastard. I understand the accusation. Yes, I am a reactionary when I'm concerned about the baby thrown out of a burning building . . . Yes, I am for the resignation of Eduard Shevardnadze. I am not against foreign policy. No. We should leave Eastern Europe. But I'm against the way it is conducted." Alksnis went on to criticize Shevardnadze's handling of the gulf crisis, which did indeed leave much to be desired. Baker was able to stampede, cajole and bribe the U.N. Security Council into a resolution universally construed as sanctioning the use of force only because Shevardnadze signaled his support at the critical moment. A responsible position, though one that would have involved him in | COLUMN LEFT; LOOK WHO'S CALLING HIM A GOOD GUY; PRAISE FOR SHEVARDNADZE IS MOSTLY FROM THE WEST BECAUSE HE WAS ITS PATSY. |
LA122490-0020_4 | see the need for a women-only unit. "I hope people go to hospitals for better reasons than for being women," he said. Specialized units of this type are often little more than marketing tools, he said. Although Thurston stressed that he was not referring specifically to Charter, he pointed out that public psychiatric clinics never need to advertise because they are overpopulated. "The distortion is that we have mentally ill people sleeping under bridges while certain sectors of health care are advertising for services for women's needs," he said. Five years ago, Ventura County had no private psychiatric hospital. Today, at least four are competing for people's insurance dollars, Thurston said. That competition forces private hospitals to tailor programs to interest specific types of people. "The commercial hospitals do direct advertising on the radio to people with insurance money to spend," Thurston said. Pine Grove Hospital in Canoga Park opened the San Fernando Valley's first women's unit almost two years ago. The 14-bed unit charges about $1,000 a day and offers programs similar to those provided by Charter. Pine Grove patients "get exactly what we're marketing," said Donna Burns, program director and founder of the hospital's women's program. "It was my goal to develop a women's program for women who would never come into a hospital environment because of the stigma." Like Charter, the unit employs an all-female nursing staff with male therapists available for those patients who request them. "We believe that there should be a healthy balance, but we want to make sure that the nursing staff is female so they can come out at night in their pajamas and feel OK," Burns said. Governmental and private agencies that monitor psychiatry do not keep data on the number of women's units throughout the country, but those in the profession believe that hospitals began specializing care toward women about five years ago. The trend seems to parallel the evolution of women's roles, which now include careers as well as primary responsibility for children and aging parents. It also comes at a time when medicine in general has become more specialized, often focusing on individual areas of study. "Part of the advantage of grouping patients at all is having patients with common problems together," said Dr. Nada Logan, chairwoman of the American Psychiatric Assn.'s committee on women and director of psychiatric education at the University of Chicago. "There are certain | PSYCHIATRIC WARD TREATS WOMEN ONLY; HEALTH: ADMINISTRATORS DESCRIBE THE UNIT AS A HAVEN FOR RAPE VICTIMS AND OTHERS WITH GENDER-RELATED PROBLEMS. CRITICS SAY IT'S A MARKETING GIMMICK. |
LA122490-0020_5 | said. Pine Grove Hospital in Canoga Park opened the San Fernando Valley's first women's unit almost two years ago. The 14-bed unit charges about $1,000 a day and offers programs similar to those provided by Charter. Pine Grove patients "get exactly what we're marketing," said Donna Burns, program director and founder of the hospital's women's program. "It was my goal to develop a women's program for women who would never come into a hospital environment because of the stigma." Like Charter, the unit employs an all-female nursing staff with male therapists available for those patients who request them. "We believe that there should be a healthy balance, but we want to make sure that the nursing staff is female so they can come out at night in their pajamas and feel OK," Burns said. Governmental and private agencies that monitor psychiatry do not keep data on the number of women's units throughout the country, but those in the profession believe that hospitals began specializing care toward women about five years ago. The trend seems to parallel the evolution of women's roles, which now include careers as well as primary responsibility for children and aging parents. It also comes at a time when medicine in general has become more specialized, often focusing on individual areas of study. "Part of the advantage of grouping patients at all is having patients with common problems together," said Dr. Nada Logan, chairwoman of the American Psychiatric Assn.'s committee on women and director of psychiatric education at the University of Chicago. "There are certain kinds of symptoms, disorders and stresses that are much more common in one gender than in another," Logan said. "Depression is very common in women. Eating disorders are much more common in women than men. Women still bear the vast majority of responsibility for care of dependent persons in families, be they children or be they elderly. That's an enormous life demand." If specialized programs can make psychiatry more "user friendly," more people may feel comfortable asking for help, said Joel Yager, a professor in the department of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at UCLA's School of Medicine. "If, in fact, it attracts and provides good service to people who need it . . . then that's a benefit," Yager said. "If there are women who for whatever prejudices believe they'll be more comfortable" in an all-women's unit, "they're more likely to go." | PSYCHIATRIC WARD TREATS WOMEN ONLY; HEALTH: ADMINISTRATORS DESCRIBE THE UNIT AS A HAVEN FOR RAPE VICTIMS AND OTHERS WITH GENDER-RELATED PROBLEMS. CRITICS SAY IT'S A MARKETING GIMMICK. |
LA122490-0025_0 | December 24, 1990, Monday, Valley Edition A controversy over potential cancer risks from electromagnetic fields is stirring opposition in the San Fernando Valley to two proposals to expand the city's electrical transmission and distribution systems. In Arleta, angry residents are signing petitions against a plan by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to build a new electric distributing station along the 13200 block of Branford Street. A few miles west, some neighbors are criticizing plans to install a third transmission tower and two more high-voltage power lines on an existing transmission line corridor linking Granada Hills and Northridge. DWP officials say both projects are needed to meet growing electric demand. But opponents say the projects may be dangerous, citing studies that show a small increase in the risk of cancer risk among children living near high-current power lines. A variety of studies have also found higher rates of cancer among workers in electrical occupations, such as utility linemen, electricians and power station operators. Other research has found no cancer link, and it remains uncertain if there is any hazard from electric and magnetic fields. The EM fields are invisible lines of force that radiate outward from every wire and device that carries electric current, dropping off sharply with distance from the source. In a draft report earlier this month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency described EM fields "from power lines and perhaps other sources in the home as a possible, but not proven, cause of cancer in humans." Despite the ambiguous conclusion, there were delays in releasing the report due to White House concern that it would panic the public. Concern already has run high in communities across the country. In the San Fernando Valley, residents in two neighborhoods accuse the DWP of irresponsibility for pushing ahead with expansion plans while the controversy rages. For their part, DWP officials contend that even if EM fields pose a risk, the two proposed projects will not increase human exposures to the fields. The Arleta project has brought turmoil to a neighborhood of modest, single-family houses, where at least two families close to the station site vow to move away if it is built. "I'm happy with the area and I can't even afford to move anywhere else," said George Heidlberg, who has lived for a dozen years across from the proposed Branford Street site. But he said there is no | NEIGHBORS FEARING RISK OF CANCER OPPOSE 2 DWP EXPANSION PROJECTS; ENVIRONMENT: FOES CITE STUDIES LINKING HIGH-CURRENT POWER LINES TO AN INCREASED THREAT TO CHILDREN. THE UTILITY SAYS BOTH PLANS ARE NEEDED TO MEET DEMAND. |
LA122490-0037_0 | December 24, 1990, Monday, Home Edition A 17-year-old girl sits in a child's chair in a house a few miles from the Capitol. A 5-month-old boy lies in her lap. SWEET, reads the confetti-patterned sweat shirt pulled over his chubby chest. A tear rolls down the girl's cheek. She lost her first baby at age 16, she is telling a visitor. She was unhappy, neglecting meals, five months pregnant. Newly arrived from El Salvador, she had no family and no doctor. Alone at home one day, she realized she had had a miscarriage. Call an ambulance, a neighbor insisted. The girl balked: I had no money. How would I pay? She spent three days in a hospital where no one spoke Spanish. Don't cry, the baby's father kept saying. You'll have another baby. A year ago, Andrea Diaz was pregnant again. This time, she learned of a clinic for poor Latino women, one of a number of programs that have sprung up recently as the District of Columbia has grappled with an infant death rate more than twice the national average. Andrea began going regularly to the townhouse on Columbia Road, descending into the little waiting room hung with Gauguin prints, where other Spanish-speaking women gathered, some pregnant, some not, their bundled and snow-suited babies in tow. Social workers comforted and supported Andrea. Nurse-midwives guided her through her pregnancy. She learned about health, nutrition, breast feeding and parenthood. She met other pregnant Salvadoran teen-agers. And last summer, she gave birth to a son. The clinic, known as Mary's Center, is founded on principles that many say could be the key to reducing infant death in the United States, a country where the infant death rate has gone from one of the best in the developed world in the 1950s to one of the worst. These principles already form the foundation of maternal and child health programs in more than a dozen foreign countries. Such countries have reduced their infant mortality rates in recent decades from well above that of the United States to well below. Those tenets include guaranteed access for all women and infants to maternity and pediatric care, reduction of the obstacles often involved in getting care, aggressive outreach and public education, and easy access to related services such as drug abuse treatment. So far, the new programs appear to have made little or no dent in Washington's | COLUMN ONE; TRYING TO SAVE THE BABIES; A WASHINGTON CLINIC SEEKS TO HELP REDUCE THE U.S. INFANT MORTALITY RATE. ACCESS IS GUARANTEED FOR ALL WOMEN AND INFANTS. |
LA122490-0037_5 | about infant mortality in the United States, where some experts believe that up to a third of the 40,000 infant deaths a year could be prevented simply by making sure that all women got care. Look to Western Europe, Scandinavia and Asia, they say. Countries like Japan have cut their infant death rates to as low as half the U.S. rate by aggressively promoting maternity and infant care and making it easily and widely available. The first step, experts say, is "universal access" to care for all pregnant women and infants. Guaranteeing care to the 500,000 U.S. women without maternity coverage who give birth each year could reduce by 15% the rate at which babies are born underweight. Next, experts say agencies must eliminate the obstacles that lower-income women face in getting care -- the paperwork, prerequisites, inconvenient hours, inconvenient locations, delays and inhospitality that discourage people from going in. But even that is not enough, many say. Health workers must bring in women through aggressive outreach, home visiting and public education -- approaches that have been proven, when well executed, to help women make use of available services and to improve the outcome of pregnancies. Finally, studies suggest that infant death would drop 10% if no one smoked during pregnancy, and another 10% if all women not wanting to become pregnant used contraceptives. Giving pregnant drug addicts priority in drug treatment would also help. But the hardest part to address may be social and psychological. "If you have women in extremes of poverty, regularly beaten up by their boyfriends, with lousy nutrition, prenatal care will help but it's not the answer," said Sarah Brown of the Institute of Medicine in Washington. "One of the major phenomena that must be overcome for so many women is the lack of self-esteem, the lack of concept of a meaningful future," said Dr. Reed Tuckson, a former Washington public health commissioner who is now a March of Dimes senior vice president. "If you don't believe you're valuable and important, if your self-esteem is low, then you're not going to act in your own self-interest." Week after week, they go before Ellen Farrior -- newly pregnant, sick to their stomachs, abandoned by the father of their child. The task facing Farrior, a social worker at Mary's Center, is to begin to repair the fissures left by lives in flux. The initial interview runs about | COLUMN ONE; TRYING TO SAVE THE BABIES; A WASHINGTON CLINIC SEEKS TO HELP REDUCE THE U.S. INFANT MORTALITY RATE. ACCESS IS GUARANTEED FOR ALL WOMEN AND INFANTS. |
LA122490-0037_8 | of jaundice. The mother was depressed, the father frightened. The family spoke only Spanish and had no car to get to a hospital. Koontz and Haggerty drove them immediately to an emergency room. The hospital was being renovated and just finding the entrance was a challenge. The nurses then served as translators and provided the infant's medical history. The baby was treated and lived. Another pregnant patient turned out to be functionally deaf. A Salvadoran immigrant, she had never received help. The center's staff scoured Washington for a reduced-rate hearing aid, then raised $326 at a sidewalk bake sale to buy it for the woman. Could such a system be replicated on a broad scale by a city government in Washington or other cities? Dr. Marlene N. Kelley, head of ambulatory health care for the district, is pessimistic. Large bureaucracies lack the intimacy and flexibility of small clinics, she suggested. And they are tangled in a web of constraints governing hiring, firing and budgets. To enter the city-run clinic at Benning Heights near a pocket of Southeast Washington known as Little Beirut (for the gunfire), go past the "Drug Free Zone" sign, enter through the steel doors and walk past the armed security guard into the waiting room. A monthly visit might take hours, most of which is spent waiting. According to the schedule, patients are allotted 10 to 15 minutes with Dr. Cleveland Emanuel Smith, the 66-year-old obstetrician-gynecologist and former Howard University professor on staff. "We don't have an ideal situation in the clinic," Smith conceded one morning, a small man in a concrete office. "You can't really compare it to private practice. But it's better than no prenatal care at all." On that morning, Patricia Mosby, an unemployed, single mother pregnant with her third child, arrived by foot for her monthly visit. She had missed a 7:15 a.m. appointment for a sonogram the day before -- unable, she said, to find anyone to watch her children. Mosby, 34, had first called the clinic for prenatal care in her second trimester of pregnancy. She had a vaginal infection, she told the clerk. The clerk gave her an appointment one month away -- violating the city's two-week policy for maternity care. "The clerks are not medically trained," Smith explained wearily, when asked about the incident. "Their minds are not connected to the importance of these things. The accountability is kind | COLUMN ONE; TRYING TO SAVE THE BABIES; A WASHINGTON CLINIC SEEKS TO HELP REDUCE THE U.S. INFANT MORTALITY RATE. ACCESS IS GUARANTEED FOR ALL WOMEN AND INFANTS. |
LA122490-0039_5 | of eastern Laos, was used by the North Vietnamese to infiltrate the south. Dung said the idea is to let tourists make part of the trip by van and part by foot, with nightly camps set up in the jungle. For entertainment, officials are hoping to offer war games, with tourists dividing into two camps and competing to control a military base. "You could be like real soldiers," Dung said. "You could wear real military uniforms and use real weapons, but not with real bullets." Bruce Burns, a San Jose lawyer and Vietnam veteran who has returned 15 times in the last three years, jokingly suggested to Vietnamese authorities that they should offer helicopter rides from the top of the former U.S. Embassy, billing the attraction as the "Last Flight Out." So far, no one has taken him up on the idea. Burns, who specializes in refugee cases, said he gets five to 10 calls a week from veterans asking him how to arrange trips to Vietnam. "There are veterans who absolutely hate Vietnam and never want to see it again, but I think there are still veterans who are attracted to the country because of what they did and saw in their youth," Burns said. Stout also said many veterans find it cathartic to return to places they fought in -- one person even returned to where he was shot. But reviving the memory of violence through firing ranges or war games is in bad taste, she said. Other Americans who did not serve in the war also find the idea offensive. "Perhaps as a woman and American, I'm not interested in reliving horrible places like that," said Nina Hale, a Washington lawyer who traveled to Vietnam for the first time in October. Hale said she was particularly put off by the War Museum, which is a standard stop on the Ho Chi Minh City tour. The museum features old tanks and aircraft, a gallery of nightmarish photos chronicling American "atrocities" and displays on how Agent Orange and other chemicals deformed the land and people. "To have your nose rubbed in the fact that your country trashed the place . . . it was too harsh a reminder and takes away from the perspective all tourists have, which is an escape from unpleasantness," said Hale, 35, who specializes in refugee affairs. "It was also too one-sided. There was no | VIETNAM SEEKING RETURN OF AMERICANS AS TOURISTS; ASIA: BESIDES THE USUAL LURES OF TEMPLES AND CULTURE, OFFICIALS ARE PUSHING ANOTHER ATTRACTION -- WAR. |
LA122490-0040_0 | December 24, 1990, Monday, Home Edition When a 1979 study indicated that childhood cancer rates were higher in families living near high-current electric power lines, scornful utility officials and many scientists insisted that electromagnetic fields from power lines couldn't possibly affect human health. But a follow-up study supported the findings, concluding that children living near high-current lines were 1.5 to 2 times more likely than others to get cancer. Other studies have found that workers in electrical jobs -- such as utility linemen, power station operators and electricians -- have higher rates for brain cancer, leukemia and lymphoma, the same cancers implicated in the childhood studies. Still, the issue is far from settled. There are ambiguities in much of the research, and other studies have found no link between illness and electric and magnetic (EM) fields. Nor does anyone know the mechanism by which these fields, even weak ones, may cause harm. The controversy is especially perplexing because few things seem more benign or indispensable than electricity, and it is hard for some scientists to envision demons lurking in electric wires. Robert Adair, a Yale University physics professor and leading doubter, said investigating the effects of EM fields is like looking for "werewolves. . . . When someone tells you a leaf fell on an elephant and broke his back, you're skeptical," he said. Nevertheless, a growing number of lawmakers and even utility executives are calling for more research on potential health effects and ways to reduce exposure. And what began as concern about power lines now includes electric blankets and video display terminals, which also expose users to EM fields. Amid the uncertainties, some experts are advocating "prudent avoidance," or limiting exposure to fields in cheap and simple ways. The issue is creating concern in communities throughout the country, where the mere suggestion of power line hazards may devalue property. Parents fret over schools that were built in the shadow of transmission towers to take advantage of cheap land. And neighbors are battling new transmission lines and electrical distributing stations, like the one the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power wants to build in Arleta. In a draft report released earlier this month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency described fields "from power lines and perhaps other sources in the home as a possible, but not proven, cause of cancer in humans." The EPA and other federal health agencies | CANCER AND POWER LINES -- AN UNCERTAIN CONNECTION; HEALTH: A 1979 STUDY LINKED MAGNETIC FIELDS WITH CHILDHOOD DISEASE. BUT THE ISSUE IS FAR FROM SETTLED. |
LA122490-0040_2 | have been criticized for investing too little in EM health research, much of which is funded by utilities. Citing austerity budgets and other priorities, the EPA dropped its own research program a few years ago. The situation is pathetic, said Dr. David O. Carpenter, dean of the School of Public Health at the State University of New York at Albany. "I think . . . there really are some hazards here," but "the federal government has simply not been a player of any major import." Other experts say that the risk, if there is one, seems small compared to hazards like cigarettes, alcohol and asbestos. Childhood cancer, for example, is mercifully rare, striking about one child in 10,000 per year. If, as some studies suggest, the risk doubles for children living near high-current lines, the risk climbs to two chances in 10,000. Even with such slim odds, however, EM fields could emerge as one of society's more significant involuntary risks. Carpenter, former head of a New York state program of EM fields research, has estimated that fields could account for 20% to 30% of childhood cancers, or up to 2,000 per year, as well as 4,000 adult cancers annually in the United States. "The stakes are really high on this," Ken Henderson, director of compliance for the California Public Utilities Commission, recently told a meeting of utility officials. "If damages are proved," he said, "society increasingly demands that someone pay," and utilities are seen as having the "deepest pockets around." Utilities do not look forward to the prospect of retrofitting the nation's electric power grid -- which some say would reduce the problem -- at a cost in the billions of dollars. "I think in hindsight, we should have come in with more research money sooner," said Jack Sahl, senior research scientist with Southern California Edison. But "it's not like the health departments . . . were saying that we ought to be really pushing this hard." The press also paid less attention to this than to other cancer scares. "A lot of this information isn't that new," but "the institutions in society that would normally warn you about this haven't," said Louis Slesin, editor of the Microwave News, a newsletter that provided steady coverage of the issue. Humans have always been exposed to electromagnetic energy, from the Earth's static magnetic field to the fields produced by bursts of lightning. | CANCER AND POWER LINES -- AN UNCERTAIN CONNECTION; HEALTH: A 1979 STUDY LINKED MAGNETIC FIELDS WITH CHILDHOOD DISEASE. BUT THE ISSUE IS FAR FROM SETTLED. |
LA122490-0040_6 | that leukemia mortality in Washington state from 1950 through 1979 was 37% higher than average among workers in electrical occupations. A 1988 study found that utility workers in east Texas were 13 times more likely to develop brain tumors than other workers. A 1989 study in Los Angeles County found rates of astrocytoma, a type of brain cancer, were 4.3 times greater for men with over five years in electrical work, and 10 times greater for those with more than 10 years of experience. Another study has found elevated cancer rates in the children of workers in electrical occupations, suggesting that fields may affect the sperm. Many appliances generate strong EM fields, but in most cases the use is sporadic and field strengths drop sharply with distance. But electric blankets can expose users to high fields for hours at a time. A study published last May found higher cancer rates among children whose mothers used electric blankets during pregnancy. An earlier study linked electric blanket use during pregnancy to higher risk of miscarriage. Two more studies found no link between electric blanket use and leukemia and testicular cancer, respectively. Another study found no connection between EM fields and an acute form of leukemia. The ubiquitous video display terminal has also stirred concern, because it exposes users to fields that are weak, yet of similar strength to those implicated in the childhood cancer studies. A 1988 study found higher rates of miscarriage and birth defects among Northern California women who used computer terminals more than 20 hours per week during their first trimester of pregnancy. Other studies concluded that VDTs are probably safe to use during pregnancy. In the laboratory, scientists have shown that EM fields alter basic cellular functions, like protein synthesis and production of hormones involved in immune response. Some have theorized that fields create weak currents around cell membranes that alter biochemical signals, possibly interfering with the cancer-fighting function of the immune system. "There is a body of laboratory evidence, there is a body of epidemiological evidence, and the two are coming together in a very remarkable way," said Dr. W. Ross Adey, associate chief of staff at the Pettis Memorial Veterans Administration Medical Center in Loma Linda. Others say that overstates the case. They point to contradictory studies that found no elevated cancer risk with EM fields, as well as flaws in studies that suggested a link. | CANCER AND POWER LINES -- AN UNCERTAIN CONNECTION; HEALTH: A 1979 STUDY LINKED MAGNETIC FIELDS WITH CHILDHOOD DISEASE. BUT THE ISSUE IS FAR FROM SETTLED. |
LA122490-0040_7 | form of leukemia. The ubiquitous video display terminal has also stirred concern, because it exposes users to fields that are weak, yet of similar strength to those implicated in the childhood cancer studies. A 1988 study found higher rates of miscarriage and birth defects among Northern California women who used computer terminals more than 20 hours per week during their first trimester of pregnancy. Other studies concluded that VDTs are probably safe to use during pregnancy. In the laboratory, scientists have shown that EM fields alter basic cellular functions, like protein synthesis and production of hormones involved in immune response. Some have theorized that fields create weak currents around cell membranes that alter biochemical signals, possibly interfering with the cancer-fighting function of the immune system. "There is a body of laboratory evidence, there is a body of epidemiological evidence, and the two are coming together in a very remarkable way," said Dr. W. Ross Adey, associate chief of staff at the Pettis Memorial Veterans Administration Medical Center in Loma Linda. Others say that overstates the case. They point to contradictory studies that found no elevated cancer risk with EM fields, as well as flaws in studies that suggested a link. For example, most of these studies included few, if any, measurements to show that workers and children living near power lines actually had higher exposure. The Savitz findings in Denver illustrate some of the difficulties in interpreting the research. His childhood cancer data not only indicated a link with power lines, but with maternal smoking, failure of mothers to breast feed, and higher auto traffic near the home. If there is a hazard, reducing it will be a daunting task. In general, exposure from power lines can be lessened by raising tower heights and expanding rights of way, or by "phasing" lines -- arraying them in such a way that fields cancel each other. However, field strengths may also depend on wiring and the way the power is grounded in the home. And it's uncertain what aspects of fields should be controlled -- whether the risk would be in magnetic or electric fields or both, and results from chronic exposure to weak fields or transient peaks in field strengths. Consequently, utility officials and electronics manufacturers contend that regulations are premature. "I understand we are all under tremendous pressure from our customers and our clients to do something, even if it's | CANCER AND POWER LINES -- AN UNCERTAIN CONNECTION; HEALTH: A 1979 STUDY LINKED MAGNETIC FIELDS WITH CHILDHOOD DISEASE. BUT THE ISSUE IS FAR FROM SETTLED. |
LA122490-0051_0 | December 24, 1990, Monday, Southland Edition Van Halen Sues 2 Live Crew Over Copyright: Heavy metal rock band Van Halen sued members of the rap group 2 Live Crew, contending that they illegally used part of the Van Halen hit "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" on a popular rap tune. In the federal suit, Van Halen Music Inc. said 2 Live Crew member David Hobbs admitted in a deposition last May that two of his group's tunes duplicated music in the Van Halen song. The suit asserts that 2 Live Crew has sold at least 2 million copies of the song in singles and on the albums "As Nasty as They Wanna Be" and "As Clean as They Wanna Be." In addition to damages for copyright infringement, the suit seeks $300,000 in damages for unfair competition. (Case No. 90- 6834. Filed Dec. 20, 1990). | IN COURT: A SELECTED SUMMARY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA-RELATED BUSINESS LITIGATION DEVELOPMENTS DURING THE PAST WEEK. |
LA122490-0060_0 | December 24, 1990, Monday, Home Edition Treatment of heart transplant patients with a powerful immune suppressing drug appears to sharply increase their risk of a lethal form of blood cell cancer, a study concludes. Researchers found that 11% of patients at one hospital who were treated this way quickly developed lymphoma, and most of those people died. The treatment is called OKT3, an antibody that attacks a variety of white blood cells that play a key role in making the body reject the transplanted organ. The new study shows that even if OKT3 prevents rejection -- and this is in doubt -- the benefit comes at a high price of cancer risk. | IN BRIEF: DRUG, BLOOD CANCER RISK LINKED |
LA122490-0067_0 | December 24, 1990, Monday, Home Edition With two Germanys becoming one, speculation was that a sports superpower would be created that would bury the Soviet Union and the United States. Instead, the Germans have been shoveling dirt on themselves with revelations about steroid use on both sides of the wall, particularly the east side. Comment: When East German women swimmers were suspected of drug use at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal because of their deep voices, their coach said, "We came to swim, not sing." Fourteen years later, some East Germans with pipelines to newspaper reporters are proving that they can sing, too. TOKYO -- Atlanta accomplished something that it couldn't do in the Civil War; it seceded from the Union. When rival cities protested that Atlanta shouldn't play host to the 1996 Summer Olympics because the United States had the Games only 12 years before in Los Angeles, the Georgians countered that they actually are Southerners instead of Americans. Southerners, they said, never have had the Games. The International Olympic Committee bought it. In a vote in Tokyo, Atlanta finished ahead of sentimental favorite Athens. Athens supporters charged that IOC members were bought by Coca-Cola, which is headquartered in Atlanta. Comment: In Greek cafes all over the world, they are saying, "No Coke. Pepsi." ROME -- Forget the record books that say West Germany won the World Cup with a victory in the final over Argentina. The real winners in an otherwise forgettable soccer tournament were the Indomitable Lions from Cameroon. In reaching the quarterfinals, they proved that teams don't necessarily have to play conservative, dull, unimaginative soccer to win. Hoping to see other teams kick caution to the wind, the sport's bosses gave Africa a third automatic berth in the 1994 World Cup in the United States. Comment: Has anyone besides Cameroon scored yet? PARIS -- Since Horst Dassler of Germany died a couple of years ago, there has been a void in international sports. The IOC and FIFA, which governs soccer, have had to run themselves. Enter Bernard Tapie, the Frenchman who bought Adidas last summer. He wasn't buying just a sports apparel company; he was trying to buy Dassler's influence. It isn't likely to happen because Tapie is perceived to have neither the integrity nor character of Dassler. Considering the controversy that constantly surrounds Tapie's French soccer team, Olympique Marseille, a more appropriate comparison would | WORLD SPORTS SCENE / RANDY HARVEY; 1990: GERMANY REUNITES, AND THE SOUTH RISES; TEN STORIES THAT SHOOK THE WORLD SPORTS SCENE IN 1990: |
LA122490-0086_2 | are all about." There is a way the intersections could be modified to ease the situation, but it would prove costly. As these intersections are typically configured, motorists turning right or left out of the side entrance follow the commands of a typical round-lensed traffic light. But the signal could be changed so that right-turning motorists would get a right arrow and left-turners would get a left arrow. If each arrow acted independently, the signal could be adjusted so that as a right-turning motorist waited at the side entrance, only the right arrow would be triggered, keeping the left-turn lane red. Under those circumstances, the main road's lane nearest the side entrance would get a red light, but the far lane could continue unimpeded. These sorts of signals, unfortunately, are complex and cost quite a bit more than the typical sort of signal you now see. So don't look for them anytime soon . . . darn it. Dear Street Smart: Unless the Department of Motor Vehicles has made a brand-new ruling regarding diesel cars, your assertion that all cars have to pass a smog check every other year is false. We sold our diesel Mercedes recently, but I remember filling out the back of the license-renewal slip stating that the car was exempt because it was a diesel. We passed the requirement every year. Farie Momayez Mission Viejo Hey, this is the kind of situation I love. Believe it or not, we're both right! Until recently, the state Air Resources Board did not require a smog check for diesel passenger cars. But last year, the agency introduced a regulation mandating that diesels get an "under-hood" inspection to ensure that they are functioning properly. You must have sold your Mercedes in time to avoid the new law. Bill Sessa, an Air Resources Board spokesman, said the new test does not involve the sort of tailpipe smog checks that are performed on gasoline-powered autos. Such a test has yet to be perfected for diesels. Sessa noted that diesels don't produce a lot of the gasses that combine to form urban smog. What they do produce is particulates, the sooty-looking stuff that spews from the tailpipe when the things rev up. The particulates one can see are not the troublesome types. They generally do little more than float to the ground. More worrisome are the microscopic particulates that can be inhaled and | STREET SMART: SO A DRIVER'S IN THE RIGHT (LANE), SO WHY STOP TRAFFIC? |
LA122490-0103_0 | December 24, 1990, Monday, Valley P.M. Final A Lancaster man was killed today when his car skidded out of control on a patch of ice, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department reported. Thomas Hunsaker, 21, died when his skidding car struck a street light pole on 17th Street West about 2:30 a.m., Deputy D. Giddings said. Killed in a separate accident Sunday night was Martin Earl Hopson, 26, of Arleta, whose car hit a utility pole on Foothill Boulevard in Tujunga, said Los Angeles Police Officer Michael Pond. Ice was not believed to be a factor in the accident, Pond said. | LOCAL; LANCASTER MAN DIES IN WRECK |
LA122589-0025_4 | nuncio, Bishop Jose Sebastian Laboa, met with Endara last week. Ironically, Endara himself took refuge at the nuncio's residence until shortly before the U.S. invasion last week. Even if Noriega settles in for a long stay, some State Department officials consoled themselves with the thought that it might be better than the alternative. "Look at it this way," said one. "It's not the worst-case scenario. He could be out in the hills, leading a guerrilla movement of resistance against the U.S. occupation. This way, at least he's admitted that he's a fugitive from justice." A group of senior State Department officials was meeting Sunday evening to consider the Administration's legal and diplomatic options, officials said. The officials reportedly included Undersecretary of State Robert M. Kimmitt, Assistant Secretary of State Bernard W. Aronson and Legal Adviser Abraham Sofaer. Because of the Christmas holiday, President Bush and his senior advisers were out of Washington, with Bush at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md., and Secretary of State James A. Baker III visiting his family in Houston. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney was visiting American troops in Panama. The United States has frequently extended asylum in its embassies to prominent dissidents in Communist countries -- sometimes for long periods. Chinese dissident Fang Lizhi has been living in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing since June, although Chinese authorities seek him for treason. In the 1950s, the U.S. Embassy in Budapest, Hungary, sheltered Cardinal Josef Mindszenty, the Catholic primate of Hungary, for 15 years. The concept of diplomatic asylum is different from the sanctuary that churches provided to fugitives in medieval days. Asylum in embassies in generally provided solely to political dissidents. "The ancient concept is that a church provides sanctuary." said the Rev. George Regas, rector of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, who has been active in the modern sanctuary movement, providing shelter to emigrants from Central America. "It usually is not sanctuary for someone fleeing from the law as it is for someone who is obeying a higher law out of conscience. Noriega does not fit that bill, I don't think. So the church would have to decide on what grounds it would give sanctuary. It's a very complicated legal issue." Staff writer William D. Montalbano in Rome contributed to this story, as did staff writers John M. Broder, James Gerstenzang, Robert L. Jackson, Jill Stewart and Robin Wright in Washington. | PANAMA: THE ROAD TO RECOVERY; BUSH PLEASED, BUT PLOY MAY FORCE STALEMATE |
LA122589-0045_5 | beryllium," said John E. Pike, associate director for space policy of the American Federation of Scientists. "Given the probability of a launch failure," he said, "it's an unacceptable risk." Added Jim Werner, an environmental engineer for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group: "The benefits of this program, it seems to me, are dubious at best but the risks are very real." Studies by the military of the hazard posed by beryllium fuel to people located on and off the base after a launch failure are yet to be completed. Lompoc, a community of more than 30,000 residents, is about 10 miles from the base's launch areas, although some homes are closer. Safety guidelines set by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists, a leading occupational safety group, indicate that under conditions of chronic exposure, beryllium is more harmful at low concentrations than many better-known poisons, including other toxic rocket fuels. The group's occupational limit for airborne beryllium is 100 times stricter than for arsenic; 50 times more stringent than for hydrazine, a common liquid rocket fuel, and about 25 times more stringent than for methyl isocyanate, the poison gas that killed more than 3,400 people in Bhopal, India, five years ago. These comparisons, however, apply to routine low-level exposures on the job. Most beryllium illness has resulted from such repeated exposures. Some toxic gases would be more likely than beryllium to cause severe illness or death in a single large dose such as might occur in a catastrophic rocket launch accident. Berylliosis, the disease caused by beryllium exposure, causes the lungs to become more rigid, impairing breathing and, in extreme cases, resulting in suffocation. Victims may suffer heart failure from the stress of pumping blood through lungs that have lost their normal elasticity. How Space-Based Interceptors Would Work A tiny, rocket-propelled missile hurtles toward a Soviet ICBM in this artist's conception of a space-based interceptor as defined by Martin-Marietta. Under the space-based interceptor theory, carrier vehicles (CVs) would house a quantity of the interceptor missiles. A tracking system alerts the CV that a missile is approaching and interceptors are fired. The missile, which might be powered by beryllium hydride, would maneuver to physically collide with the ICBM. The interceptor would have no warhead, but would use the tremendous velocity of the collision to destroy the enemy missile. Alan C. Miller reported from Washington and Myron Levin from Chatsworth. | SCIENCE / MEDICINE; THE BATTLE OVER BERYLLIUM; ENVIRONMENTAL OBJECTIONS TO THE USE OF BERYLLIUM FUEL COULD DEAL ANOTHER BLOW TO THE EMBATTLED STAR WARS PROGRAM.; MISSILES: THE TOXIC SUBSTANCE IS BEING TESTED AS FUEL FOR ROCKETS IN THE 'STAR WARS' DEFENSE PROGRAM. CRITICS ARE CONCERNED THAT A LAUNCH FAILURE COULD POSE A SERIOUS HEALTH THREAT. |
LA122589-0046_0 | December 25, 1989, Monday, Home Edition The editors of Science magazine have for the first time chosen a "Molecule of the Year," representative of the most significant scientific achievement. The first winner is an enzyme called DNA polymerase that can be used in the laboratory for making large quantities of any particular piece of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid, the genetic blueprint of life) through a process known as polymerase chain reaction or PCR. PCR is revolutionizing genetic engineering by enabling scientists to make large amounts of DNA without resorting to the techniques that created the field in the first place: inserting a gene into bacteria, growing large quantities of the bacteria, and then isolating the desired DNA. While replicating DNA in bacteria can require weeks or months, PCR makes replication possible in hours. The new technique has made it possible to perform genetic fingerprinting on single hairs or single cells. It has also been widely used in the search for disease-causing genes and in the production of new biological chemicals through genetic engineering. | IN BRIEF: SCIENCE / MEDICINE; EDITORS NAME 'MOLECULE OF YEAR' |
LA122589-0047_1 | 2,000 people suffering from CFS. Jones has co-authored the CFS "working case definition," arrived at in March, 1988, after elevated antibodies in response to the Epstein-Barr virus proved to be a false lead in the hunt for a cause and an agreed-upon diagnosis. Some researchers argue that CFS sufferers first become physically sick from an as-yet-unidentified virus that causes chronic flu-like symptoms. Depression is a common symptom of CFS, they say. Others, such as the University of Connecticut researchers, say people with CFS symptoms start with a history of recurrent mental illness, including depression, panic attacks and other disorders. Their physical symptoms then emerge from patients' unspoken "psycho-emotional conflicts." Both sides in the CFS debate agree that most people who go to doctors complaining of persistent tiredness are probably suffering from a treatable mental illness, such as depression. Both sides also agree that CFS, or the illness that people are now calling CFS, is probably not a new disease. Reports of a similar plaguing fatigue, then labeled neurasthenia, first emerged in the United States in the mid-1800s, notes Dr. Peter Manu, lead author of the studies by the University of Connecticut researchers. Similar symptoms have since been attributed to Iceland disease, chronic brucellosis and, in England, benign myalgic encephalomyelitis, he says. But here the two sides of the debate part company. Manu says that neurasthenia, still a common diagnosis in other countries, gave way to psychiatric diagnoses in the 20th-Century United States. He thinks it was wrongly revived as CFS in America in the 1980s. In January, 1985, two articles in the Annals of Internal Medicine reported that patients suffering from chronic fatigue showed a persistent infection from the Epstein-Barr virus as measured by certain antibody levels in their blood. In some people, the Epstein-Barr virus causes mononucleosis, with its weeks or months of fevers, swollen glands and exhaustion. Subsequently, however, doctors found that some healthy people were walking around with the same antibody levels as those people chronically fatigued. Morever, many people suffering from what seemed like chronic mononucleosis did not show high antibody levels. But by then it was too late, Manu says. Patients were rushing to doctors, newspaper clippings in hand, seeking a physical diagnosis for an illness that was probably psychological. In Manu's view, doctors were too pressed for time to do the extensive interviews necessary to make a psychiatric diagnosis. Or perhaps they were uncomfortable | SCIENCE / MEDICINE; CHRONIC FATIGUE DEBATE STILL GOING STRONG; RESEARCH: THOUSANDS WHO SUFFER FROM THE SYNDROME, AND THEIR DOCTORS, CLAIM IT'S CAUSED BY A VIRUS. BUT RESEARCHERS SAY THE SYNDROME IS RARE, IF IT EXISTS AT ALL, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL. |
LA122589-0047_2 | disease, chronic brucellosis and, in England, benign myalgic encephalomyelitis, he says. But here the two sides of the debate part company. Manu says that neurasthenia, still a common diagnosis in other countries, gave way to psychiatric diagnoses in the 20th-Century United States. He thinks it was wrongly revived as CFS in America in the 1980s. In January, 1985, two articles in the Annals of Internal Medicine reported that patients suffering from chronic fatigue showed a persistent infection from the Epstein-Barr virus as measured by certain antibody levels in their blood. In some people, the Epstein-Barr virus causes mononucleosis, with its weeks or months of fevers, swollen glands and exhaustion. Subsequently, however, doctors found that some healthy people were walking around with the same antibody levels as those people chronically fatigued. Morever, many people suffering from what seemed like chronic mononucleosis did not show high antibody levels. But by then it was too late, Manu says. Patients were rushing to doctors, newspaper clippings in hand, seeking a physical diagnosis for an illness that was probably psychological. In Manu's view, doctors were too pressed for time to do the extensive interviews necessary to make a psychiatric diagnosis. Or perhaps they were uncomfortable broaching the idea of mental illness with patients. Since testing for certain Epstein-Barr antibodies had recently become commercially available, doctors were able to give patients the technological fix they sought. Although those antibody counts proved imprecise and largely irrelevant, in this age of AIDS, both medical and popular thought focused on a viral cause for chronic fatigue. "Here you had millions of people that for about two years, 1986 to 1987, believed they had chronic Epstein-Barr virus, and all of a sudden that was taken away from them," Manu says. "The evidence is that (CFS) need not be produced by a virus but is . . . associated with a high prevalence of psychiatric disorders," says Manu, who says he has seen 200 patients with the syndrome's symptoms since he and two other doctors set up the University of Connecticut's Chronic Fatigue Clinic in late 1986. Not everyone agrees that people catch CFS from magazine articles. "I think the knee-jerk reaction is to call anything that we don't understand, or that we can't prove is organic by the definition of the day or the technology of the day, 'psychiatric.' And I don't think that's right," Dr. Paul Cheney says. As | SCIENCE / MEDICINE; CHRONIC FATIGUE DEBATE STILL GOING STRONG; RESEARCH: THOUSANDS WHO SUFFER FROM THE SYNDROME, AND THEIR DOCTORS, CLAIM IT'S CAUSED BY A VIRUS. BUT RESEARCHERS SAY THE SYNDROME IS RARE, IF IT EXISTS AT ALL, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL. |
LA122589-0051_0 | December 25, 1989, Monday, Home Edition Two hundred years ago, Los Angeles County was teeming with wildlife, a veritable crazy quilt of bio-diversity. The remnants of no fewer than 23 distinct ecosystems (more than any other county in the state) tell the tale. In the Los Angeles basin, grizzly bears ate their fill of rainbow trout, the Los Angeles sunflower bloomed alongside countless other wildflowers, the long-eared kit fox trotted at night in search of prey. Today, the grizzly bear is gone, the Los Angeles sunflower is extinct and the last sighting of the long-eared kit fox was in 1906. Although most people probably regret these losses, they still feel that extinction is somehow normal, as in "what happened to the dinosaurs." Unfortunately, the rate at which species are now becoming extinct worldwide is estimated to be 40 to 400 times "normal." Unless action is taken soon, it is two minutes to midnight for more than 900 species of California plants and animals, the majority of which depend on habitats in the southern part of the state. For strictly selfish reasons, we humans should worry about the consequences of this possible loss. Locked inside these plants and animals is an uninventoried treasure chest of compounds that have the potential to cure diseases, increase the vigor of domestic species and provide new opportunities to industry and agriculture. In Southern California, the San Diego horned lizard's ability to diet on ants whose bites paralyze and kill other small animals could shed light on possible anti-toxins for humans. Another Southern California native, the desert pupfish, displays evidence of an evolutionary "wonder kidney." It can adapt to fresh water or seawater within seconds. One explanation for the pupfish's amazing adaptability is that it evolved from the glacier-fed lakes of the ice age to the desert water holes of the present environment. Research on the pupfish may be of value to the thousands of people who suffer from kidney failure each year. Unfortunately, all this may be academic, since our plant and animal populations are dwindling. Reversing this trend is difficult because many Southern California species -- the San Diego horned lizard, the southern rosy boa, the salt-marsh skipper and more than 50 others -- are "candidate" species. In other words, they are imperiled but the necessary paper work to categorize them as endangered has not yet been completed. The backlog can be deadly: In | REFUSAL TO DESTROY DEFINES US, JUST AS MUCH AS THE WILL TO CREATE; ENVIRONMENT: TOO MANY CALIFORNIA PLANTS AND ANIMALS FACE EXTINCTION. FOR SELFISH REASONS, WE HUMANS SHOULD WORRY ABOUT THE CONSEQUENCES. |
LA122589-0068_10 | lost," said J.B. Oke, who, along with fellow Cal Tech astronomer Marshall Cohen, is in the computer control room of the more famous Hale, studying the evolution of distant galaxies. "It gives us the road map so we know were to look." The Oschin is "the most-used astronomical instrument in the world," Cohen said. Robert Brucato is the assistant director of Palomar Observatory; he spends some time here and some time at his main office in Pasadena. "So much of science is perceived to be gee-whiz stuff, the 'Eureka! I found it!' " he says. "But the real progress is made through the drudgery of picking away at the sky, piece by piece. "When the 200-incher was being designed, we didn't know what the sky looked like and what limits the 200-incher would reach. It was like navigating without a map. We didn't know where to look. So we built the 48-incher to help us." The first Sky Survey was conducted between 1947 and 1956; those photographs have since been shared with more than 100 astronomers worldwide, who use it as a reference guide to zero in on their particular work. Given advances in both the construction of telescope lenses and the chemical makeup of photo emulsions, the new survey will provide more celestial street signs and landmarks for astronomers. The Hale telescope now "reads" the light in space through a 3-inch-square electronic device covered by 6 million ultra-light-sensitive silicon chips -- which is then converted digitally by a computer to shades of black and white and transferred to a video monitor. The Oschin produces images of space the old-fashioned way, through black and white photos. A similar survey -- this one of the southern sky -- is being conducted in Australia, so astronomers will be gifted with an all-encompassing, updated sky map. It's 10:15 p.m. The second plate of the night has been developed -- showing this time not one but three separate airplanes having crossed above the telescope, leaving six black lines as unwanted souvenirs. "Shoot!" Mueller exclaims. O-for-2 on what were otherwise perfect exposures. It's not too unusual for the first exposure of the night to be ruined by an airplane, but two bad plates causes audible irritation. Astronomy is Mueller's life. The 39-year-old former librarian pores over the negatives as they come out of the wash, and is typically back at the dome even on her | PICKING AWAY -- NIGHT IN, NIGHT OUT -- AT THE SKY; ASTRONOMY: TECHNICIANS AT PALOMAR OBSERVATORY SLOWLY CHART THE SKIES, TO DIRECT ASTRONOMERS IN SEARCH OF ANSWERS TO THE UNIVERSE. |
LA122589-0102_7 | the Medfly, such as the use of sterile flies to invade and kill off the fertile population, fruit-tree stripping, and further ground application and trapping. And, pointing to past studies, these critics say the true health effects of malathion are not known. It may, they assert, cause cancer and genetic defects and damage to the nervous system. "The best you can say is that we don't know what this stuff can do," said David Bunn, a research director with Pesticide "The worst is that it can really do some harm." State officials assert, however, that scientific evidence shows malathion, used in low doses for the aerial sprayings, can kill off Medflies but poses no threat to humans. But public reaction has been decidedly mixed. Some North County residents in the spray area say they support the current strategy against the Medfly and believe state officials when they say malathion won't hurt them. Many seem most concerned not about the effects of the pesticide on their health but rather on their cars, as evidenced by the rows upon rows of tarpaulin-covered automobiles on spray nights and the long lines at carwashes the next morning. Then, too, they complain about the noise and disruption, likening the spraying to a scene from "Apocalypse Now." But some simply don't believe that the pesticide is safe. "I don't want to be the sad recipient of news 10 years down the road that 'oh goodness, we were wrong. This pesticide is deadly,' " said Kathryn Fine, a Fullerton resident who lives in the spray area. Fine was so concerned about the malathion that she addressed the Fullerton City Council at a meeting last week. She was the only person to do so. "It's a shame that so many people are so lackadaisical," she said. At work in the public reaction are two competing forces, says Elaine Vaughan, an assistant professor of social ecology at UC Irvine who studies the way people view the risks of pesticides and other environmental threats. On the one hand, "people are naturally wary of pesticides and tend to overreact to the risk," often with little regard for scientific evidence or assurances from the government, Vaughan said. On the other hand, she said, "people tend to feel helpless when it comes to these large policy questions. And if they don't think there's anything they can do about it, they simply accept it." | MEDFLY ATTACK STIRS BARELY A WHIMPER; ENVIRONMENT: WHILE L.A. HAS RALLIED AGAINST SPRAYINGS, ORANGE COUNTY REMAINS NONCHALANT. AN AIDE CALLS THE PASSIVITY 'APPALLING.' |
LA122590-0016_0 | December 25, 1990, Tuesday, Home Edition Isaac blames the catastrophe of homelessness among mentally ill people on the counterculture and the New Left of the '60s. She is furious that mentally ill people have some rights, such as the right to due process before being subjected to hospitalization or forced to take very strong and potentially dangerous drugs. The evidence is overwhelming that when mentally ill people are offered intensive, comprehensive but voluntary programs that allow them some dignity as people, the vast majority participate. Homelessness is tragic for a mentally ill person. But we will be deluding ourselves if we follow Isaac's advice and believe we can solve the problem not by providing housing, support and treatment but by taking away people's rights. LEONARD S. RUBENSTEIN Washington | MENTAL-HEALTH RIGHTS MOVEMENT |
LA122590-0019_0 | December 25, 1990, Tuesday, Home Edition Re: your story on Last Chance U (Metro, Dec. 13), the plight of these children is a consequence of the interaction of an impoverished emotional status, which is frequently accompanied by an impoverished economic status, subculture mores that accept violence as a way of settling problems, tolerance of crime as a profession, a cultural habit of wasting resources, including human beings, the use of drugs to escape from our problems and ourselves, and an educational system that has yet to adapt to the realities of our diverse society. The steps being taken to help these children is typical of our throw-away society: create a problem, allow the problem to develop and spread, then institute half-way measures to address one aspect of that problem -- in this case, failure in the regular classroom. We must recognize the intrinsic value of every human being, of their status in society, that the child belongs to society, not to the parent, that all human beings have a right to a style of life that recognizes their humanity, and return to the tribal concept of a reciprocal responsibility between society and the individual, for the good of all. RICHARD A. BEHAN Los Angeles | LAST CHANCE U |
LA122590-0020_1 | with the real issues in mental health, which is, of course, money. As someone who was involved in the mental-health rights movement of the early 1970s and who knows many of the far more active and important participants, I can say that Isaac has totally missed all the key points of that movement. Some activists, of course, were influenced by Laing. For most of us, however, the issues were quite different. There were really three key issues. One was the abominable condition of mental-health facilities around the country. Many facilities had no professional staff caring for the patients and provided no treatment except for the joke called milieu therapy. The physical structures housing the mentally ill and retarded were ancient and dilapidated, the food inadequate, recreational space close to nonexistent. The second key issue involved who was committed and how. Procedures for commitment were so loose that people could be and were committed who met no one's definition of insanity. Courts and legislatures were willing to deal with procedural issues but not willing in many instances to do anything about the conditions. Nonetheless, in bringing this litigation it was not anyone's expectation that the mentally ill would roam the Skid Rows of this country, uncared for. For one thing, it now turns out that advocates for the mentally ill had unreasonable expectations about the ability of the various psychotropic drugs to help people lead more mainstream lives. In many cases, these drugs produce side effects worse than any condition they might cure. This, of course, has given rise to the third key issue, the right to refuse often dangerous treatment. In any event, advocates for the mentally ill believed, at least for a while that as patients were de-institutionalized, the states, with federal help, would develop a network of community mental-health centers that would assist and support the former patients in becoming part of the community. However, this network was only partially developed and in the '80s allowed to disintegrate. Most former patients have never received the support they would need to move off Skid Row. The real problem is that a good mental-health system costs substantially more money than government is willing to put into it. But we are no longer a society that wants to resolve social problems, if it involves doing more than throwing people into a horrendously under-funded criminal justice system. STANTON J. PRICE Santa Monica | MENTAL-HEALTH RIGHTS MOVEMENT |
LA122590-0024_2 | a little brighter for others this year. Their stories were compiled by Times staff writers. The mounted officer: Patrolling on horseback brings Jim Render a dose of holiday spirit while keeping a tight rein on crime in a crowded mall parking lot. Jim Render feels almost as popular as Santa Claus around the shopping malls. Render, 29, is a Los Angeles mounted police officer assigned during the holiday season to the parking lots at three of the largest malls in the San Fernando Valley. The unit's officers and horses are almost as visible outside the malls as the fat man in the red suit is noticeable inside. Children flock to them, and adults are comforted by their presence when taking their holiday gifts to their cars. And Render and his cohorts, who wear spurs and cowboy boots and hats, like it that way. In fact, helping to safeguard Christmas for others, Render says, makes his own holiday all the better. "This enhances Christmas for me. It gets me in the spirit," Render said while on patrol last week at Northridge Fashion Center on his horse, Tulsa. "I see a lot of young, happy children, and it rubs off. . . . It's a break from dealing with the bad guys." Although he lives alone now, Render said that seeing the happy children at the malls reminds him of past Christmases spent with his close-knit family in Carson. The three-officer patrols also watch over harried Christmas shoppers at Valley Plaza in North Hollywood and Topanga Plaza in Canoga Park. Police said the mounted patrols give them the advantage of being able to see far across sprawling and packed parking lots. The patrols are believed to be a deterrent against car break-ins, purse snatchings and other parking lot crimes that often rise when malls become crowded during the holiday season. Render, who is tall and well-built, served in a narcotics unit and in patrol squads in some of the city's gang-infested neighborhoods before moving to the mounted unit last Christmas. He said being on the horse beat during the holidays has been one of his most rewarding police assignments. "You are dealing with people that are happy to see you. They let their guard down with you and talk to you. It keeps me in touch with reality -- the reality that not everybody out there is a bad guy." MICHAEL CONNELLY | THE FOLKS WHO BRING YOU CHRISTMAS . . . |
LA122590-0033_1 | in the depth and temperature of bathwater, the lighting level and the scenery -- African jungle, for example, or Alpine snow, displayed on a panoramic wall unit -- that they want to find waiting when they get home. By 1997, Business Tokyo Today magazine predicted last month, three-dimensional television sets and home video telephones will be on the market in Japan. Misawa Homes Co., a major builder that has pioneered many facets of computerized architecture, said last year that it was at work on a robotized bedroom that would encapsulate a sleeper in an isolated atmosphere, free of street noises and neighbors' cooking odors, and lull him to sleep with oxygen and relaxing music. Most of the new products introduced this fall were scheduled at the peak of the go-go 1980s, but the breakneck pace at which Japan's giant companies have brought them to the market does little to reflect the slowing pace at which even this country's dynamic economy grew in this first year of the 1990s. "There are so many new gadgets and machines now that consumers find it hard even to keep abreast of what's on the market, much less to decide what to buy," Tokyo Business Today said as the fall entries began to pile up on shelves. The trend toward "fuzzy logic" microcomputers to control machines and appliances, which began in earnest in 1989, became the dominant theme of electrical products in 1990. They include a "fully fuzzy" washing machine that can sense what kind of materials are being laundered, adjust the water temperature and level, set the time and speed of the cycle and, if so instructed, raise the water temperature to 122 degrees long enough to kill ticks. Offered by Sharp, the machine sells for $700 in its small Japanese-sized model, roughly equivalent to an apartment-size washer in the United States. For those who prefer to kill their ticks chemically, Tokyo Style Co. came out this year with an encapsulated fabric that gives off gases to do away with the insects. The number of items with tick-killing options was one of the striking features of this year's new-products season, one evidence of changes prosperity has brought. As the nation has moved from leaky wooden houses to more airtight, centrally heated apartments, it has been plagued increasingly by the tiny, burrowing insects, and marketing studies have shown an increasing receptiveness to goods that will | JAPANESE INTRODUCE LATEST BATCH OF GADGETS; RETAILING: PRODUCTS RANGE FROM CLOTHES THAT CHANGE COLOR WITH THE TEMPERATURE TO FABRIC THAT KILLS TICKS AND A CURE FOR COMPUTER 'VIRUSES.' |
LA122590-0045_0 | December 25, 1990, Tuesday, Home Edition For all those who have wondered what happens to a famine when it leaves the front page or if children stop dying just because cameras stop recording, photojournalist Sebastiao Salgado provides an answer. Surprisingly, it's not a completely sad revelation, as we see in "An Uncertain Grace: Photographs by Sebastiao Salgado," an exhibition of more than 120 images from 1977 to the present. Organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the show is now presented by UCLA's Grunwald Center at the Frederick W. Wight Art Gallery (to Jan. 27). It's a penetrating, emotional, romantic and exhilarating look at lives shaped by survival by an artist who finds beauty and dignity amid the desperate poverty of Third World nations. This collection of images was gathered from scattered locations around the world, but it has an amazing depth. It's the kind of firsthand thoroughness that can only be harvested from prolonged stays in troubled areas. Salgado frequently spends weeks in refugee camps where other photojournalists may work for a couple of hours. Instead of providing one or two touching images on newsworthy subjects, Salgado, in dozens of photographs, builds a cumulative portrait of a dignified people sustained by faith. This subjective immersion gives his black and white pictures an uninhibited intimacy. It also softens, though it can't completely mitigate, the camera's voyeuristic intrusion on private moments of anguish over an emaciated child's slow death or hopelessness brought on by overwork or starvation. Salgado came to photography after beginning a career as an economic adviser to developing nations. At 29, while working on assignment in Africa, he made some photographs with his wife's camera that persuaded him of the power for social change inherent in revealing the faces of the people behind disaster and poor public policy. Since then, he has roamed the world, mixing newspaper and magazine assignments with photography work for relief groups, such as the all-volunteer Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), which treats people in remote areas when catastrophe strikes. Ironically, his work came to global prominence with a single, dynamic image that was published worldwide showing Ronald Reagan and James Brady felled in John W. Hinckley's assassination attempt. Salgado's photojournalistic mission on behalf of the invisible people of the Third World recalls the emotional, potent images of Dorothea Lange's Depression photographs of migrant workers taken for the Farm Securities Administration, | ART REVIEW; 'GRACE' A BRACING LOOK AT LIVES SHAPED BY SURVIVAL; A PHOTOGRAPHER FINDS BEAUTY AND DIGNITY AMID THE DESPERATE POVERTY OF THIRD WORLD NATIONS. |
LA122590-0051_0 | December 25, 1990, Tuesday, Home Edition Germ Warfare Alert Issued: The federal government wants to know if U.S. companies making viruses or bacteria that could be used in germ warfare get any unusual requests or evasive answers from prospective foreign buyers. These companies "should be alert to . . . approaches by nationals of countries of concern (e.g. Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Libya) to enroll as students or to be engaged as research workers in courses or projects involving such technical data," the Commerce Department advised. It urged special caution when prospective buyers offer unusually generous payments for advice, lie in their answers, ask for unusually strict confidentiality or appear to have military links. A notice, published in the Federal Register last week, asks companies to call the Commerce Department if they run into one of these situations. | BRIEFLY |
LA122590-0062_5 | of a communal life unique to Orange County. Most priests in the county are of the diocesan, or parish, variety and live in small numbers in rectories near their churches. The Norbertines are priests of the type known as religious, and most of them live together in a specific location dedicated specifically to their community: the abbey. The community of Norbertine priests that would eventually live at the abbey began when a small group of Hungarian Norbertines established the seminary on El Toro Road in 1961. Five years later, the prep school began to accept non-seminarian students as boarders. In 1984, the community was given full abbey status by the Vatican, a step that indicates the church hierarchy "feels that you have a community that is going to be around permanently," Smith explained. "It kind of shows that you have become self-sufficient." Young men studying to be priests at St. Michael's begin as postulants and attend classes at Saddleback College for at least two years if they have had no previous college training. If they and the priests at the abbey decide they are ready to continue their studies, they go on to live at the abbey as novices and study theology and philosophy there for two years. Their final studies before being ordained are completed in Rome. The priests take the common vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, but for the Norbertines there is another, lesser vow: stability. They promise to remain with the community at the abbey. This powerful sense of community is one of the main reasons several of the seminarians said they decided to study with the Norbertines. "A priest friend of mine who is at a parish in Costa Mesa told me that at one time in his life, he desired the community life because he said that life in the rectory, as ironic as it seems, is very lonely," Kirchhoefer said. There are only a small handful of priests who live at each parish, he said, but "in the community life, you have tens of people going through the same things, the same troubles, the same joys and everything is much more like a family." That family used to be much more isolated. When ground was broken on the 35 acres where the abbey now sits, the hillside was "nothing but rocks," Smith said. Years before widespread development worked its way north on El | ONE EN-CHANTED CHRISTMAS EVE; AT ST. MICHAEL'S ABBEY, MIDNIGHT MASS IS SUNG IN BOTH LATIN AND GREGORIAN CHANT |
LA122590-0063_0 | December 25, 1990, Tuesday, Home Edition "I want my kids to be all-around great," says Steve Marsden, whose third son is just over a week old. Marsden and his wife, Elaine, are typical parents. They want their children to do all the right things at the right time and be successful in school. But, unlike most parents, the Marsdens are receiving the attention of the local school district even before their preschoolers enter kindergarten. As voluntary participants in a program called Parents as Teachers (PAT), the Marsdens are getting support in their role as their children's first teachers. PAT is based on research suggesting that the first three years of life are essential learning years and that parental involvement is an important contributor to a child's success in school. "We go through our lives getting grades and raises, but there is very little to tell parents that they are doing (their job of parenting) well," says Marsha Gebhardt, who visits the Marsden home every six weeks. Gebhardt is one of about 1,400 "parent educators" who are trained to work with the 53,000 Missouri families participating in the statewide program. Hired by the local school districts, these parent educators provide home visits, group meetings and annual developmental screening. The screening program monitors language and motor development, as well as tests for hearing or vision problems. Districts are required by the state to provide this service, but families are free to decline the screening aspect of the program, according to Mildred Winter, director of the Parents as Teachers National Center in St. Louis and a founder of PAT. Records kept by parent educators become part of the child's school record. Home visits take place every month to six weeks, and group meetings are held in which parents can get together to discuss problems and insights having to do with raising children. The Marsdens joined the program when Luke, now age 4, was 18 months old. Since PAT concentrates on parents with newborn to 3-year-old children, Gebhardt's visits to the family now focus on Sam, 20 months, and the newest family member, Matthew. Gebhardt arrives at the Marsdens' middle-class home looking a bit like Santa Claus. She has two shopping bags full of homemade toys. Soon after settling on the living room floor, she blows up a balloon for Luke and Sam to hit back and forth with cardboard bats made from empty | PARENTS PUT TO THE TEST BEFORE KIDS START SCHOOL; EDUCATION: PROGRAM HELPS FAMILIES MAKE THE MOST OF ESSENTIAL PRESCHOOL LEARNING YEARS. EARLY RESULTS SHOW THAT IT WORKS. |
LA122590-0069_8 | with a dozen grainy black-and-white photographs each. They show Mozambique's orphans, a term that encompasses not only children whose parents have been killed but also a much larger number who have simply been separated from their families by war. Abubucar Sultan, director of child programs for the Department of Social Welfare, began this family tracing and reunification program in June, 1988, when the U.N. Children's Fund estimated there might be more than 200,000 orphaned or separated children in Mozambique. But others say that number is scarcely good enough as even a rough guess. "No one really knows how many there are," Sultan says. "Day after day people are getting kidnaped and separated." In large part the program is designed to address a continuing psychological toll on an entire generation of Mozambican children. Even those granted shelter and food in an institutional setting, Sultan believes, suffer severe deprivation because no such establishment can offer them the stimulation or attention they would get from their families. "One orphanage I just visited had a capacity of 35 children but had 76 kids there, and no staffing," he says. "We don't know the long-term prognosis for kids subjected to torture. There are kids who are emotionally troubled, but in a school there may be three terms a day, 100 in each class, and the teachers can't address these problems. Your best first shot is to put the kids back with their families." That task is slow and involved. Often the young victims have been dispersed far from their homes, for when rebel bandits arrived, the entire community scattered, the parents escaping on foot and the children, slower, being kidnaped. Found or liberated from the rebels, they often do not know and cannot even describe where they came from. "If there's no information, we go with our best hunch as to the kid's language group, his ethnic background, etc.," Sultan says. Since the program's start, the Department of Social Welfare has documented the origins of 8,000 children and reunited 4,000 with family members. In some districts this amounts to a great victory. One community saw 120 of its children reunited with their parents or close relatives in a period of six weeks. But Sultan's progress report reflects the feelings of many people like him trying to help their country recover from its multiple plagues. "We've done far less than needs to be done," he says. | COLUMN ONE; IN AFRICA, A NATION WITHERS; MOZAMBIQUE LIVES IN DESPERATION 15 YEARS AFTER GAINING ITS INDEPENDENCE. A RURAL INSURGENCY HAS DISPLACED MILLIONS. |
LA122590-0076_0 | December 25, 1990, Tuesday, Home Edition The U.N. trade embargo is depriving Iraqi civilians, including children, of critically needed medical supplies, a U.S. doctor who recently toured the region said Monday. "We found that sanctions are working, and working brutally, right now," Dr. Bernard Lown of the Harvard University School of Public Health said in an interview on NBC-TV's "Today" program. Baghdad hospitals, including pediatric hospitals, lack insulin, intravenous solution and injectable forms of other antibiotics and anesthestics, he said. However, the U.N. sanctions, imposed after Iraq's Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait, allow trade in medicine and some foodstuffs. Lown is co-president of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985. | U.N. SANCTIONS LIMIT MEDICINE, DOCTOR SAYS |
LA122590-0097_1 | The actions, which formally lift the freeze on auto insurance price increases Gillespie imposed in October, 1989, come at a time when the commissioner is out of the state, visiting her ailing mother in Greece. Between the time Proposition 103, the landmark insurance reform initiative, was passed in November, 1988, and the declaration of the freeze, 11 months later, many companies were allowed to raise their rates at will. Of the three biggest sellers on the commissioner's new list of increases, Allstate, which has about a 10% share of the total California market, was given a 7.6% liability premium increase and a 1.8% physical damage increase. The next-largest, Mercury Casualty, received a liability increase of 10% and a physical damage increase of 0.7%, while California Casualty was granted an across-the-board 14.8% increase. A few smaller companies received liability increases in the 37% to 50% range, and sizable physical damage decreases. For instance, Electric Insurance Co. received a 52.6% liability increase and a 28.7% physical damage decrease, National Fire of Hartford a 41.8% increase in liability and a 13.1% decrease in physical damage, and Pennsylvania General a 37.2% increase in liability and a 25.8% decrease in physical damage. Liability claims against insurers have been moving steadily upward in California, particularly for personal injuries, while there has often been a decline in auto damage claims because of fewer accidents and more accident-resistant equipment, such as safety bumpers. All figures provided represent averages. A given customer, depending mainly on his or her driving record, might get either a substantially larger or smaller net increase than the figure authorized for the company, and conceivably might even get a decrease from a company authorized to raise its average rates just a little. Gillespie has separately given many companies authority to shuffle their rates, giving "good" drivers with one or fewer minor citations and no at-fault accidents in the last three years lower rates, while raising "bad" drivers up to 40%, so this change too will be figured into individual billings. Because most companies have many more "good" drivers covered than "bad" ones, the increases are likely to hit the bad drivers disproportionately hard. Beyond Monday's announcements, Pearson said Gillespie is likely to approve a Farmers group request for a 9% liability increase and a 1.9% physical damage increase before leaving office, but that a USAA request for an across-the-board 6.6% increase will not be acted | 46 AUTO INSURERS GRANTED RATE INCREASES BY GILLESPIE |
LA122590-0118_2 | dropped his pants. And a young boy wearing a Kid Frost T-shirt jumped on stage and displayed some appreciated moves. The Coach House had been overpowered by funk. Even after lulling back into the ballad, "I'd Rather Be With You," Bootsy's Rubber Band from that point forward was in command, rekindling the fervor repeatedly, at will. Although Collins has spent most of the past decade in a hiatus from music, he and his band proved that they could rediscover the soul of P-Funk days. The music has broadened only slightly from its 1970s mold, and Sunday's show was occasionally overridden by cliches, gimmickry and ego. But remarkably, the performance never hinted of the pathetic retro-endeavors common among many of Collins' rock and pop contemporaries who are still chugging away. Considered against the backdrop of 1990s music, the brand of funk Collins helped to forge assumes a revived relevance. By recapturing the spirit of his original sound, Collins' performance unearthed the influences he has drawn upon, as well as those he has cast forth. The playful, energized show by turns was reminiscent of Sly Stone, Hendrix, Prince, Living Colour, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Collins' most obvious devotee, funk-satirist Blowfly. In addition to the sonic pops from Bootsy's trademark, star-shaped, glittered beast of a bass, his Rubber Band mates were impressive. The horn section of Fred Wesley and Parker, along with backing vocalist Gary (Mudbone) Cooper, supplied steady doses of soul, while rhythm guitarist Mike Hampton ventured into intriguing dimensions of groove and feedback. Keyboardist Trey Stone and percussionist Roger Hampton offered steady support for Collins' rhythms, and Schider provided some titillating fretwork -- several ill-advised, monotonous solos notwithstanding. As Collins and his octet were leaving at the end of the 100-minute set, Bootsy led the crowd in chants of "Keep funk alive!" As evidenced by Sunday's victory over the reluctant crowd, Bootsy's Rubber Band is clearly doing its share to fulfill that aim. For that matter, so are the Limbomaniacs, who opened the show. The New York-based quartet scorched through a pulsating, eight-song set, expanding upon the bold rap-funk-rock hybrid staked out on its critically acclaimed debut album, "Stinky Grooves" (on which Collins also plays). Although dominated by cover tunes, including a sinewy version of "Brick House," the Limbomaniacs' set proved an invigorating prelude to Collins, providing enough punch and spark to overcome the early passivity of the audience. | POP MUSIC REVIEW; IN THE END, FUNK GIVES CROWD A HOT FOOT |
LA122689-0009_0 | December 26, 1989, Tuesday, Home Edition A recent headline on an Economist article about Medicare in the United States admonished: "Better not be ill." The truth of that will become evident to most Americans, 65 and older, on Jan. 1 when the so-called catastrophic coverage ends. For a significant minority of seniors -- those who supported the successful political struggle to repeal the year-old legislation -- there will be no problem. These are the relatively well-off persons who already have so-called Medi-Gap and other insurance to cushion them against the huge expenses that Medicare does not cover. The congressional retreat on catastrophic relieved them of paying not only the premium, $5.30 a month in 1990, but also the income tax surcharge. Still at issue, of course, is the problem of protection against the ruinous costs of long-term nursing home care. The catastrophic bill offered only marginal relief to this, the most serious health finance problem for seniors. With repeal, most seniors will be again fully exposed to the impoverishment of lifetime savings that almost inevitably follows long-term illness. The influential U.S. Bipartisan Commission on Health Care is working on a response to that as part of its March report to Congress. Fortunately, the new year will bring one positive development for Medicare beneficiaries. Tighter controls over doctors' fees for Medicare patients were adopted by Congress last month.The phasing in of the new system will commence Jan. 1, with full implementation due in five years. One of the most significant protections of the catastrophic legislation, now repealed, was its unlimited benefit covering hospitalization. Not many are affected. The average Medicare hospital stay is 7.5 days. But for those with long illnesses, the cost will once again be staggering. Under catastrophic, the maximum hospitalization charge in 1990 would have been $592. Without catastrophic, that $592 must be paid for hospitalization at the beginning of each 90-day benefit period, and there are no hospital benefits for a 60-day period between illnesses. Skilled nursing facility benefits revert also to the old rules. Once again, a minimum hospital stay of three days must precede entry to a nursing facility. Under catastrophic, that requirement was waived and the only charge was a co-payment of $22.50 for each of the first eight days of the 150 days of skilled nursing-facility care provided per year. As of Jan. 1, coverage will be limited to 100 days for each | ON SURVIVING THE MEDICARE CRUNCH |
LA122689-0015_1 | Edition A group of 10 AIDS activists marched silently to the altar in the midst of Archbishop Roger M. Mahony's sermon during the Midnight Christmas Mass at St. Vibiana's Cathedral early Monday but then left the cathedral without further disruption. About 800 people were attending the religious service, the highlight of the celebration of Christmas for many Roman Catholics, when the activists, some wearing black T-shirts with a pink triangle and the slogan "Silence equals death," paraded up the center aisle. The action at the downtown Los Angeles cathedral was the latest in a series of demonstrations against the church's condemnation of the use of condoms for safe sex. A spokesman for the Los Angeles Archdiocese said church security officers were present during the protest, but freely allowed about 20 people who had participated in a larger demonstration outside to enter for the Mass. About 10 protesters rose during the sermon, the spokesman said. Earlier, Mahony commented on the demonstration outside the cathedral by about 50 AIDS activists and abortion rights advocates, declaring: "This isn't the first time the church has faced turmoil. We have been thrown to the lions in the early days and persecuted throughout history. This is just our turn." On Dec. 3, four Roman Catholic churches in the Los Angeles area were spattered with red paint, and posters of Mahony with the word "murderer" printed in large letters were left at them. A group calling itself Greater Religious Responsibility claimed responsibility for the acts, which were denounced later by regional leaders of 11 religious denominations. Mahony said then that neither he nor the archdiocese "will be intimidated by threats or attacks against proclaiming the truth as God has taught." He said that chastity, rather than the use of condoms, is the only "morally correct and medically secure way" to prevent the spread of AIDS. The AIDS group involved in the midnight Mass demonstrations was identified by leaders as ACT-UP LA, the Aids Coalition to Unleash Power. Helene Schpak of Los Angeles, a representative of the group, said: "Mahony's statements are murderous. The doctrine that he's preaching leaves no choice. We're here to tell people that they do have a choice. Safe sex (with condoms) saves lives." Asked if whether their protest might be considered sacrilegious, Schpak responded: "We're here to celebrate life also, and we believe any time is appropriate to protest a policy of death." | SILENT ACTIVISTS' MARCH DISRUPTS MAHONY MASS; AIDS: THIS WAS THE LATEST IN A SERIES OF PROTESTS AGAINST THE CHURCH'S STAND ON CONDOMS. |
LA122689-0027_6 | through the back door of government. That year Paul DeFalco, the EPA's top official in California, faced a crisis. Los Angeles was violating nearly every standard for pollution set by the EPA. But companies kept pressing to move into the area to set up new plants and facilities or expand ones that were already there. The solution: DeFalco required that every ton of new pollution put into the Los Angeles air would have to be offset by at least a ton of reductions somewhere else in the region. The responsibility to find and guarantee the offset fell to the new polluter. Other polluted cities picked up the offset concept, and it soon became a national regulation applied to new, large industries emitting at least 100 tons per year of the six most common pollutants. Variations on the same regulatory principle have been dubbed the "bubble" policy and pollution "netting." In every case, the right to pollute is a marketable commodity, and while the traffic is confined to large polluters of just six substances, Margolis stays busy serving as chief broker at AER*X, the only company that trades emissions credits nationwide. AER*X, with revenue now in excess of $1 million a year, reports its volume of brokered trades has been growing at more than 30% a year. It has already put together 50 deals since 1984, usually taking a 15% commission on each trade. A staff of eight, including engineers, economists and a public policy specialist, works out of offices in downtown Washington. Another two engineers run the company's branch in Santa Monica. AER*X attracts firms looking to buy and sell credits largely by word of mouth, supplemented by occasional ads in newspapers and trade journals. Once a potential client is identified, AER*X engineers examine the books and inspect plant technology to find a better way of controlling pollution. For sellers, it can result in more credits to offer. For buyers, it can mean fewer credits to pay for. "We have a real incentive to be pollution gold miners," said AER*X President John Palmisano. One of last year's clients was a large fiberglass products company in Southern California that cut its emissions of hydrocarbons by nearly 1,000 pounds per day -- a reduction of more than 50% -- by altering its manufacturing process. In search of a buyer, Margolis combed an official list of firms seeking to expand or open new | BUYING AND SELLING U.S. LICENSES TO POLLUTE AIR; ENVIRONMENT: THE PRESIDENT'S CLEAN AIR BILL WOULD MAKE SMOG CONTROL A PROFIT OPPORTUNITY RATHER THAN SIMPLY A REGULATORY BURDEN. |
LA122689-0049_0 | December 26, 1989, Tuesday, Valley Edition American Cytogenetics in North Hollywood said it reached a tentative agreement to merge its Diagenetics Laboratories Inc. unit with Odyssey Biomedical, a newly formed New York company. Both Diagenetics, based in West Paterson, N.J., and Odyssey Biomedical provide genetic testing services, the most common of which is amniocentesis, which helps identify genetic defects and other problems in fetuses. American Cytogenetics, which also provides testing services for cancer and other diseases, is still negotiating terms of the proposed merger, said American Cytogenetics President Allen Manzano. | VALLEY ROUNDUP: GENETIC TESTING GROUPS AGREE TO TENTATIVE MERGER |
LA122689-0057_0 | December 26, 1989, Tuesday, Home Edition News Ratings: Staff members of all-news station KFWB have ranked the Berlin Wall/crumbling of Communism the No. 1 news story of 1989. In the station's new poll, News 98 staffers ranked the Bay Area earthquake, Chinese democracy movement and Exxon Valdez oil spill the second-through-fourth top stories of '89. Tied for fifth place was the abortion debate, the Oliver North conviction and sentencing and the trial of Zsa Zsa Gabor. KFWB also voted an unofficial "Male Newsmaker of the Year" award to Mikhail Gorbachev, with Jim Bakker, Oliver North and Richard Ramirez tied for second place. Staffers deemed that the hands-down "Female Newsmaker of the Year" was Zsa Zsa Gabor. DANIEL CERONE | MORNING REPORT: YEAR-END LISTS |
LA122689-0070_3 | on indoor pollution. Wallace, an EPA scientist, has pioneered studies aimed at determining the "total exposure" to pollutants from all sources, both outdoor and indoor. The EPA has estimated that indoor pollution may cost "tens of billions" of dollars annually when medical spending and lost productivity are added up. The Consumer Federation of America has placed the costs as high as $100 billion a year. List of Dangers A bewildering array of organic compounds from household products form the catalogue of indoor pollution threats: * Asbestos, found in cement and insulation, can lead to lung cancer or asbestosis, a chronic lung ailment. Numerous asbestos-abatement programs are under way in schools and public buildings. In July, the EPA banned most remaining uses of asbestos. * Lead, which retards intellectual and emotional development in children, can be found in older plumbing and in household dust as old paint deteriorates or is chipped away during remodeling. * Radon, a radioactive gas, invades homes through cracks in the foundation and is the nation's second leading cause of lung cancer. It may be present at levels the EPA considers unsafe in as many as 12 million U.S. homes; levels have been found to be generally below EPA guidelines in Southern California. * Formaldehyde, a probable human cancer-causing agent, wafts from foam insulation, plywood and particle board. * Benzene, a known human carcinogen, is found in cigarette smoke and gasoline. * Nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and fine particulates that can cause respiratory illnesses spew from kerosene heaters and unvented or poorly maintained gas appliances. * Chemicals that are known animal carcinogens or toxics are frequently found at very low levels in air fresheners, shoe polish, paints, printed materials, household cleaners, solvents, moth balls and dry-cleaned clothes. * An estimated 84% of U.S. households use home pesticides, many of which have never been tested to determine their health effects. The World Health Organization has estimated that up to 30% of new and remodeled buildings may be plagued by indoor air quality problems -- an estimate borne out by widespread reports of "sick building" illnesses, including government workers at the EPA's own headquarters in Washington. In California alone, there are 700 sick building reports a year. EPA researchers have theorized that -- based on available data -- indoor pollution, including second-hand tobacco smoke, may account for up to 11,400 deaths each year. Radon exposures may result in anywhere | COLUMN ONE; CLEAN AIR QUEST -- AN INSIDE JOB; WHEN IT COMES TO HUMAN HEALTH, POLLUTION IN HOMES AND OFFICES MAY BE THE GREATEST THREAT. |
LA122689-0070_5 | from 3,000 to 20,000 additional deaths. Up to an estimated 30,000 additional deaths annually have been attributed by one scientist, Harriet Burge of the University of Michigan, to legionella bacteria that thrive in poorly maintained hospital systems for hot water, heating, air conditioning and ventilation. But even if far fewer cancers are caused by indoor pollutants than EPA estimates suggest, there remains cause for concern. Many researchers believe that the greatest and most costly problem posed by indoor pollution may well be the chronic, non-cancerous but debilitating health effects that result in higher medical costs, absenteeism and reduced productivity in the workplace. Few today say that efforts to control outdoor air pollution are unimportant or that they must stop. But a growing number of scientists say the threat to human health from indoor pollution can no longer be ignored. "If we measured outdoors what we are measuring indoors, there would be a tremendous hue and cry to clean up outdoor air," Wallace said. The embryonic indoor air pollution programs of both the state and federal governments pale in significance when compared to spending on other environmental health problems. In California, while radon tied with worker exposure to hazardous chemicals as the No. 1 cancer risk, it ranked last in state spending on 25 environmental problems as recently as two years ago. Likewise, all other indoor air pollution ranked fourth on the list of cancer risks, but 11th in spending among the 25 environmental problems. As early as 1981, the National Academy of Sciences described indoor air pollution as a potentially significant human health problem. It called for a wide-ranging research effort. But it wasn't until 1985 that the magnitude of the indoor pollution threat became readily apparent. A five-year EPA study surveyed 600 individuals in six cities to find out what their exposure was to 20 different chemicals, some of which have been linked with cancer and birth defects. Researchers were startled by the findings. It did not matter whether the study participants lived in the Los Angeles area next to an oil refinery or in a pristine rural setting. Indoor concentrations of the 20 chemical compounds studied were almost always higher, often by as much as 10 times or more, than they were outdoors. Peak concentrations in some homes were 200 to 500 times higher than outdoors. Indoor Sources Blood samples and breath tests revealed that participants from rural | COLUMN ONE; CLEAN AIR QUEST -- AN INSIDE JOB; WHEN IT COMES TO HUMAN HEALTH, POLLUTION IN HOMES AND OFFICES MAY BE THE GREATEST THREAT. |
LA122689-0070_7 | areas were burdened with as much chemical contaminants in their systems as urban dwellers -- a fact that researchers said could only point to indoor sources of pollution common in every household. The study's findings left questions that must still be resolved: Are higher exposures indoors necessarily dangerous? What are the cumulative and synergistic effects, if any, of simultaneous exposures to more than 600 compounds from building materials and household products found in homes? Are health risks too high or are they comparable to everyday risks that most people take for granted, like driving on a freeway? Will serious health effects take years to show up, as proved to be the case with asbestos? Can it be reasonably assumed that because high doses of some pollutants produce unquestionable adverse health effects in animals that the low-level exposures that most humans experience indoors are also harmful? What is clear is that the elderly, young children and those who suffer from respiratory problems or are chemically sensitive are particularly vulnerable to indoor contaminants. Studies in the United States and Britain have found, for example, that children who are exposed to elevated levels of nitrogen dioxide, a combustion product emitted by kerosene heaters and gas appliances, had more than twice the incidence of respiratory illness as children who were not exposed. Their symptoms included fever, chest pain, productive cough, wheeze, chest cold, physician-diagnosed bronchitis, physician-diagnosed pneumonia and asthma. Benzene, a known human carcinogen, has been found in far higher concentrations indoors than outdoors. In Los Angeles, the EPA found that 71.2% of exposure to benzene occurred indoors. Benzene is emitted by synthetic fibers, plastics and some cleaning solutions. It is also present in gasoline fumes and cigarette smoke. Wallace said that 37 participants in the air pollution exposure studies who filled their own gasoline tanks at self-service pumps had twice as much benzene in their breath two to five hours after filling up the gas tank as 300 other participants who did not fill their own tanks. But Wallace added that "the most important exposure to benzene is cigarettes." Cigarette Smoke Benzene levels in homes with smokers were 30% to 50% higher than in nonsmoking households. Smokers and those around them are exposed to an estimated 4,600 chemical constituents in cigarette smoke, a number of them cancer-causing. Various studies have estimated that environmental tobacco smoke may account for upwards of 5,000 deaths a | COLUMN ONE; CLEAN AIR QUEST -- AN INSIDE JOB; WHEN IT COMES TO HUMAN HEALTH, POLLUTION IN HOMES AND OFFICES MAY BE THE GREATEST THREAT. |
LA122689-0070_18 | oils.) POLLUTANTS Formaldehyde (an organic compound) SOURCES Pressed wood products (paneling, particle board, fiber board, plywood) and furniture made with pressed wood products; ureaformaldehyde foam insulation (known as UFFI). Drapes, carpets, other textiles and glues may contribute. Also combustion sources and environmental tobacco smoke. HEALTH EFFECTS Eye, nose and throat irritations; wheezing and coughing, fatigue, skin rash, severe allergic reactions. May cause cancer. May also cause effects listed under household products. LEVELS IN HOMES Average concentrations in older homes without UFFI are generally less than 0.1 ppm. Homes with significant amounts of new pressed wood products can reach levels greater than 0.3 ppm. STEPS TO REDUCE EXPOSURE Use pressed wood products that are lower in formaldehyde emissions. (Manufacturers in recent years have reduced formaldehyde in these products). Apply lacquer or polyurethane coatings to pressed wood products. (Carefully follow manufacturer's directions when applying.) Use air-conditioning and dehumidifiers to maintain moderate temperatures and reduce humidity levels. Increase ventilation, particularly in new homes. POLLUTANTS Pesticides SOURCES Products sold to kill household and garden pests. HEALTH EFFECTS Irritation to eye, nose and throat; damage to central nervous system and kidneys; cancer. LEVELS IN HOMES Preliminary research shows widespread presence of pesticide residues in some homes. STEPS TO REDUCE EXPOSURE Use strictly according to manufacturer's directions. Mix or dilute outdoors. Apply only in recommended quantities. Increase ventilation when using indoors. Use non-chemical methods of pest control when possible. If you use a pest control company, select it carefully. Do not store unneeded pesticides inside home; dispose of unwanted containers safely. POLLUTANTS Asbestos SOURCES Brittle or damaged insulation, fire-proofing or acoustical materials. HEALTH EFFECTS No immediate symptoms. Chest and abdominal cancers and other lung diseases. Smokers are at higher risk of developing asbestos-induced cancer. LEVELS IN HOMES Elevated levels are found in homes where materials containing asbestos are deteriorating or damaged. STEPS TO REDUCE EXPOSURE Seek professional advice to identify problems. Do not disturb materials suspected of containing asbestos. Use certified contractors for asbestos removal or cleanup. Follow proper procedures in replacing wood stove door gaskets that may contain asbestos. POLLUTANTS Chloroform SOURCES Hot tap water (chlorine in water combines with organic solids to form chloroform, which vaporizes when heated). HEALTH EFFECTS No immediate symptoms. LEVELS IN HOMES Levels vary. STEPS TO REDUCE EXPOSURE Use warm instead of hot water in showering. Place an activated charcoal filter on the shower head. Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | COLUMN ONE; CLEAN AIR QUEST -- AN INSIDE JOB; WHEN IT COMES TO HUMAN HEALTH, POLLUTION IN HOMES AND OFFICES MAY BE THE GREATEST THREAT. |
LA122689-0077_1 | reforming East European nations where violence has accompanied change. "In particular, bless at this hour, O Lord, the noble land of Romania, which is celebrating this Christmas in fear and trembling, with sorrow for the many human lives tragically lost, and in the joy of having taken once more the path of freedom," John Paul prayed. Standing in gold robes high above the cheerful crowd at the headquarters cathedral for the world's 850 million Catholics, the Pope appealed for "the rejection of all barriers, be they of race, ideology or intolerance." As East Europeans and nations gripped by decades of dictatorship savored their first free Christmas since the start of World War II, John Paul called on Western Europe "to open her doors and her hearts" to help them. "May she respond with the strength and generosity of her Christian roots to this very special moment of history, which the world is now experiencing, as if awakened from a nightmare, and opened up to a better hope," the Pope prayed on a clear, almost spring-like day. In an unprecedented interview with Italian television broadcast on Christmas Eve, John Paul observed that Eastern Europeans are "finally emerging as winners" after what he called "extraordinary events" beginning "in my Poland." Revolution in the East, together with the promise of re-established links to the Soviet Union following the visit of President Mikhail S. Gorbachev to the Vatican earlier this month, are regarded here as major steps toward an oft-expressed papal dream of a Europe united by Christian ideals. In his Christmas message to cardinals of the church on the state of the world, John Paul pledged support for a frontier-free Europe. "There is no ideological system, political project, economic program or military system that can cancel the aspirations of millions of men and women," the Pope said. Yet the 69-year-old pontiff reminded the festive crowd at St. Peter's on Monday, 2,000 years after the birth of a babe in a manger worshiped by much of the world as the Prince of Peace, that there is still much healing to be done. "The world longs for peace, yet every day our brothers and sisters are dying in the present conflicts, in Lebanon, in the Holy Land, in Central America; they are dying in fratricidal struggles for supremacy, racial, ideological, economic; they are dying because of senseless and reckless courses of action," John Paul lamented. | ROMANIA: DEATH OF A DICTATOR; POPE PRAYS FOR AN E. EUROPE 'AWAKENED FROM A NIGHTMARE' |
LA122689-0085_0 | December 26, 1989, Tuesday, Home Edition The Coast Guard will test a new system for tracking oil tankers in Alaska's Prince William Sound, site of the nation's worst oil spill. It will utilize satellite signals and long-range aids to navigation rather than radar, a Coast Guard spokesman said. A satellite is a good tool for tracking "because it is not affected by mountains, which is a problem in Alaska," the spokesman said. He added that the reliability of radar was limited by weather. Tanker traffic in Prince William Sound has been monitored by radar. But, when the Exxon Valdez ran aground last March 24, it was beyond the area normally scanned by radar, the Coast Guard said. The new system will be evaluated for a year in the sound and 22 other ports and waterways around the country. Vessel owners will be responsible for the cost of installing the "black boxes" that link up with the system, a Coast Guard spokesman said. | NATION IN BRIEF; ALASKA; SATELLITES TO TRACK JUMBO OIL TANKERS |
LA122689-0088_1 | help pay the interest on the old loans. Underwood is top economist in the International Economics Department of the World Bank, the largest source of aid to Third World countries. The aid is also in the form of loans, over $21 billion in the year that ended June 30. The bank plans to provide as much as $1.35 billion to Poland, which got nothing last year but already owes more than $42 billion. Its new non-Communist leadership is hoping to borrow $4 billion or more in the coming year. Brady's strategy seeks to ease the burden for 39 debtor countries, by combining debt and interest reduction with new loans from banks. So far, plans have been developed for three countries: Mexico, the Philippines and Costa Rica. The World Bank estimated that his strategy could save as much as $6 billion a year for 19 "severely indebted middle-income countries" like Argentina and the Philippines, which owe much of their debt to private banks. Brady made his proposal last March, before the big changes in Eastern European countries, which now have better prospects for getting the new loans they want. For the poorest countries, governments are the main creditors rather than banks. During the 1980s, 10 creditor governments have forgiven $2.3 billion owed to them. The United States, which was not among the 10, has promised to forgive $1 billion. New aid to these countries, most of them in Africa, is now largely in the form of grants. Two officials of Resources for the Future, a private study group in Washington, said that the United States has an interest in easing the debt burden: The heaviest debtors are among the biggest buyers of U.S. goods. The less they have to pay out to banks, the more they have left over to buy the products of U.S. farms and industries, they pointed out. "The net result of easing debt burdens would be more robust economies that would support more stable political systems and create stronger markets for U.S. exports," wrote Elaine M. Koerner and George E. Rossmiller in the fall issue of Resource for the Future, the organization's quarterly publication. The World Bank predicted that the debt of 111 countries will rise to $1.189 trillion in 1990 from $1.165 trillion this year. Underwood said that the Institute of International Finance, which collects figures for major private banks, adds another $188 billion for 10 | EAST BLOC, THIRD WORLD DEBTS SEEN RISING |
LA122689-0089_4 | this is good news for Christmas Day," Navarro said in a written statement promising quick contacts "between the concerned parties to examine the personal case of Gen. Noriega in all its aspects." In the United States, Catholic theologians rallied behind the Vatican, saying they believe the church has a strong position and will be able to hammer out a deal to relocate Noriega. "I believe the Vatican will support the government of Panama and other Latin American governments by trying to negotiate some type of exile for Noriega," said Los Angeles Archbishop Roger Mahony. "The Vatican will be looking at a solution with a humanitarian reference rather than a legal reference." William Ryan, a spokesman in Washington for the U.S. Catholic Conference, said the church had no choice but to afford Noriega protection in the embassy. "That's a tradition that goes back to the Middle Ages," he said. "The church is a place people would go to when they can go nowhere else." Moreover, he said, Noriega's request for a safe haven was "thrust on the church. . . . If they refused (to take him), they would be on dangerous grounds as far as the international diplomatic community is concerned." If the church starts picking and choosing between whom it will take in, it could be attacked for sheltered individual refugees in the future. Legalistic issues aside, it also would be difficult for the church to reject Noriega because accepting him apparently could help end the bloodshed in the nation -- an important aim of the church. "The church always wants to put an end to fighting," said Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest and research fellow at Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center in Washington. To the church, he said, "putting people in jail is a secondary consideration." Reese said he believes talks on Noriega's fate could take weeks. "A lot of different things are involved here," he said. "I think the Vatican will sit tight for awhile and try to find something that will keep everyone happy. That's going to be very difficult to do. "I'm sure the Vatican doesn't want to keep him," he added. "They'd like to get rid of him as soon as possible. But they have to do it in a way that doesn't set a precedent" by surrendering him to hostile authorities. Times staff writer Ronald L. Soble in Washington contributed to this story. | PANAMA: THE ROAD TO RECOVERY; VATICAN CONFERS WITH U.S. ON FATE OF NORIEGA; DIPLOMACY: THE POPE WILL HAVE TO DECIDE, BUT HE MAKES NO MENTION OF THE DICTATOR IN HIS ADDRESS. |
LA122689-0095_1 | riding lawn mower, I'm concerned. His sister was much more mature at his age and she's an excellent driver. Because she got her permit at 16, he feels that he should too. -- M.O. DEAR M.O.: You're the one in charge, and driving a car is a responsibility, not a privilege that comes automatically at a certain age. Don't be afraid to explain that your son hasn't exhibited the mature behavior you feel is necessary for someone placed in charge of an auto. You may be surprised how rapidly his behavior improves. One way to determine whether or not a youngster is ready to get behind the wheel of a car is to watch how he handles stressful situations. If he has outbursts of temper whenever he's frustrated or doesn't get what he wants, then it might be wise to wait another six months or a year until he gets more control. As Dr. John Schowalter, the president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, points out, anger is the leading cause of accidents second only to drugs and alcohol. Discuss this with your son. Unfortunately, automobiles can provide a quick but dangerous remedy to feelings of powerlessness. DEAR DR. BROTHERS: I hate it when my mother and her friends tell me to smile. The only thing that happens when they say this is that I get angry and want to throw something at them. I hate adult hypocrisy. Sometimes I think all adults ever do is lie to each other about their feelings. -- D.R. DEAR D.R.: Maybe what you're seeing as hypocrisy is good manners. Few people admire hypocrites but "letting it all hang out" can be damaging. If there is a lot of anger and resentment, it can actually make things worse. Anger that is expressed tends to escalate, rather than diminish, until people end up saying things they wish they hadn't. Recent studies indicate that putting on a sad face or a smile directly produces the feeling that the expressions represent. Facial signs may contribute to the feeling itself. Facial expressions affect the temperature of blood flowing to the brain, providing a possible, though not undisputed, mechanism for regulating emotions. You might try smiling or even just saying "cheese" if you can't bring yourself to actually smile. This might put you in a more relaxed, happier mood -- it might even make you laugh. | DR. JOYCE BROTHERS: HE'S NOT YET READY TO DRIVE |
LA122689-0099_0 | December 26, 1989, Tuesday, Home Edition Just for the record: In a recent column when I alluded to Nuremberg as an example of a place where people were oppressed and abused, I didn't -- God forbid! -- mean the defendants there. I was referring to the Nuremberg that was the cradle of Nazism, the site of the obscene Nuremberg laws and the place for Hitler's horror rallies and the place where his terrorist Brownshirts first practiced the art of kicking, killing and torturing their fellow human beings, so infamous it's the reason the war crime trials were put there in the first place. Nuremberg was a symbol for terror long before it became a symbol for retribution. | JIM MURRAY |
LA122689-0141_0 | December 26, 1989, Tuesday, P.M. Final An autopsy on former New York Yankee Manager Billy Martin was canceled today at his family's request, and a prosecutor said the decision could make it harder to press charges against the driver of the truck in which Martin died. The Broome County Sheriff's Department reported slow progress in investigating the Christmas night accident that killed Martin, 61, and injured his longtime friend, William Reedy of Detroit. Sheriff Anthony Ruffo said it will be another day or two before the alcohol level in Reedy's blood is confirmed through laboratory tests. Reedy was charged Christmas night with a misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated and faces a fine of up to $1,000 and a year in jail. Ruffo posted a sheriff's deputy on the rural road where the accident occurred to direct a flood of traffic as reporters from across the country came to see the site where Martin, the pugnacious, hard-drinking former second baseman who was fired five times as Yankee manager, died. Authorities say the pickup skidded off an icy road early Monday evening in front of Martin's 148-acre farm near Binghamton, about 150 miles northwest of New York City. Broome County Dist. Atty. Gerald Mollen said he hoped to persuade Coroner Patrick Ruddy to conduct an autopsy despite the family's wishes in order to pinpoint the exact cause of Martin's death. "I'm hoping that's not the final decision, to tell you the truth," Mollen said. "It's unusual that a coroner would not have an autopsy conducted when cause of death may be a legal question." Ruddy said an autopsy on Martin's body would reveal little that an external examination did not. "He died, basically, of a fractured neck," Ruddy said. "The chest X-ray was reasonably intact, belly was normal, blood count was normal. It's all in the neck area." The lack of an autopsy would mean that Martin's state of intoxication at the time of his death might never be known. Mollen and Ruffo said whether or not Martin was drunk would be irrelevant to any case against Reedy. Reedy, owner of Reedy's Bar near Detroit's Tiger Stadium, suffered a broken hip and possible broken ribs in the accident. He was listed in fair condition today at the Upstate Medical Center Hospital in Syracuse, where he was transferred after the crash. Mollen said it would be "days, at least" before he decides | FAMILY ASKS AUTOPSY NOT BE DONE ON MARTIN |
LA122690-0029_4 | 51% owned by a minority or a woman who controls the business. If a company's status as a disadvantaged firm is challenged, the owner may be required to show proof of suffering from chronic racial, ethnic or sexual discrimination. The RTD is responsible for applying such federal regulations while certifying and monitoring disadvantaged businesses that work on the Metro Rail subway. The county Transportation Commission bears a similar responsibility on the Blue Line and other light-rail projects. But loopholes in federal regulations allow businessmen who are not disadvantaged to be certified for minority contracts. When John Benjamin Franklin Jr. sought minority contracts on the rapid transit project, officials for the RTD and the Transportation Commission apparently were not obligated under federal regulations to find out if he had suffered social and economic disadvantage because no one challenged his certification. Franklin was born in Panama but raised partly by an aunt and uncle in Southern California. Born Juan Antonio Fernandez, Franklin subsequently took the name of his uncle, who was a descendant of Benjamin Franklin. As a teen-ager, he attended a private military academy in New Mexico, where he says his aunt sent him to keep him out of trouble. Franklin speaks Spanish fluently and English without a trace of a Spanish accent. By all accounts, Franklin built up his business through hard work and long hours. He told The Times that he has never suffered discrimination as a businessman and acknowledges that his company was highly successful before receiving minority certification. Orange County divorce records show that in June, 1982 -- less than a year before his company was first certified as a disadvantaged minority firm by Caltrans to do freeway work -- Franklin's community property included a 1979 Mercedes, a two-story home on a hill in Mission Viejo, condominiums in Hawaii and Huntington Beach, and real estate in Whittier, Santa Fe Springs and in the area of the Colorado River. At the time, he also engaged in costly hobbies such as big game hunting and power boating. "Why should I get that advantage (as a minority subcontractor)?" Franklin said in response to a question. "My answer is I shouldn't. "Basically the program that's out there helped Franklin Steel immensely," he added. "It has not helped the common individual who needs a job." Nevertheless, Franklin maintained that he had a legal right to certification as a minority contractor. Transit officials | DUBIOUS CONTRACTS MAR MINORITY TRANSIT WORK; BUSINESS: AT LEAST $50 MILLION WENT TO FIRMS WITH QUESTIONABLE ELIGIBILITY, RECORDS AND INTERVIEWS SHOW. |
LA122690-0030_3 | . . . , " Norwood told The Times. "He didn't direct the activities of anyone. . . ." "I did, too," Eggers said in a phone interview. "I was there . . . working." On April 19, 1989, Norwood overrode Rivera's concerns about Communications International and ordered a secretary to stamp Rivera's signature on a document notifying the company that it had been recertified as a disadvantaged minority firm. Norwood said he was acting within his authority as head of the office of economic opportunity. When Rivera discovered that his signature stamp had been used, he wrote on a copy of the recertification document: "This is not my signature. It is a stamp, used unbeknownst to me." An investigation into alleged favoritism and forgery involving Rivera's signature stamp was subsequently demanded by the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 12 -- which was angry at Communications International over the hiring of non-union workers. The inspector general's office of the RTD began an inquiry into the complaint last February, but investigators Richard Yeats and Allen Laster say that they were unable to obtain needed documents because Norwood did not cooperate. They also accuse RTD Inspector General Ernesto V. Fuentes of failure to use the power of his office to obtain documents. Norwood and Fuentes deny the allegations. The matter finally came to a head when Rivera complained to investigators that Inspector General Fuentes warned him that his career might suffer if he continued to cooperate with the inquiry, according to Yeats and Allen. Rivera would not comment to The Times. The RTD investigators say that they were fired by Fuentes on July 18, when they informed him that they intended to tell the district attorney's office that he had been accused of interfering with the inquiry. Fuentes was reluctant to discuss details of the case because of the ongoing district attorney's investigation, but he denied advising Rivera not to cooperate with Yeats and Allen. Terming the allegation of interference "ridiculous," Fuentes said he subsequently ordered the investigators' report -- including the allegation against himself -- sent to the district attorney's office. He said he is prohibited by law from disclosing why Yeats and Allen were fired. Deputy Dist. Atty. Herb Lapin said he is still investigating allegations of forgery involving the use of Rivera's signature stamp. He said he is also looking into the accusation that Rivera was intimidated by | RTD FINDS ITSELF ON ROCKY ROAD WITH CONTRACTOR; INQUIRY: QUESTIONS ARE RAISED OVER MINORITY STATUS. THEY LEAD TO CHARGES OF FAVORITISM AND FORGERY, AND THEN TO FIRINGS. NOW, THE D.A. IS INVESTIGATING. |
LA122690-0036_0 | December 26, 1990, Wednesday, Home Edition Volunteers warmed the lives of the sick, poor and homeless Tuesday as Christmas gave Americans a merry break from wallet-watching and war wariness. "I cannot change the world, but I know for a fact I can make a difference," said Iqbal Emamudeen of Orange, N. J., a publicist for a chain of drugstores. He was among about 135 volunteers serving Christmas lunch to hundreds of homeless and needy people at a church agency in downtown Newark. In New York City, more than 1,000 homeless people turned out in a hotel in mid-town Manhattan for free meals of turkey and stuffing. Some charitable organizations in the Northeast blamed the economic downturn and government cutbacks for a doubling in the demand for services. But, in New Hampshire, food bank organizers said charity was keeping pace. "The donations have picked up tremendously," said Thomas Murphy, volunteer administrator of the Monadnock Area Food Bank in Peterborough, N.H. In Chicago, Department of Human Services crews went in search of the homeless in 20-degree temperatures. Greg Ervin, 25, who became homeless two weeks ago when his family split up and abandoned its South Side apartment, has been sleeping on old carpeting outdoors. "Even though I'm homeless, Christmas is still the same," Ervin said. "I'm going to see my family." Charity took a holiday in Miami, meanwhile, at least for a while. A mob of looters raided a Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services office on Christmas Eve and hauled off hundreds of toys intended for Dade County's needy. "It was chaotic," department supervisor Jacob Bery said. "People were just walking out with boxes of toys, bags of toys. There were loads of people, 25 to 30 of them. It was like a mob. From children to grown-ups -- old, middle-aged, young, you name it." But Christmas came for the needy nonetheless when the 4th Marine Division, 8th Tank Battalion, loaded a van with goodies it had received from a car dealership and took them to Health and Rehabilitative Services supervisor Linda Griskin. "I was looking around for another needy organization to donate them to, and that's when Linda called," Staff Sgt. John Ferguson said. Across the nation, a powerful winter weather system answered many dreams for a white Christmas but was accompanied by deadly cold that made the holiday a test of survival. Weather-related deaths since Dec. 18 rose to | NATION TAKES BREAK FROM WAR WARINESS AS VOLUNTEERS WARM LIVES OF HOMELESS; HOLIDAY: DEMAND FOR CHARITABLE SERVICES DOUBLES IN SOME PLACES. LOOTERS IN FLORIDA RAID A WELFARE OFFICE AND STEAL TOYS INTENDED FOR THE NEEDY. |
LA122690-0064_0 | December 26, 1990, Wednesday, Home Edition Hopes dimmed Tuesday for a merger of Trans World Airlines and Pan American World Airways, as TWA Chairman Carl C. Icahn bitterly denounced his counterpart at Pan Am for repeatedly undermining Icahn's quest to combine the nation's premier transatlantic carriers. Revealing that the airlines have held on-again, off-again merger talks since mid-October, Icahn said in a letter to Pan Am Chairman Thomas G. Plaskett that Pan Am's efforts to sell pieces of its operations to other carriers demonstrated "lack of a good faith interest in negotiating the merger of our airlines." The letter, released Tuesday by TWA, was prompted by a published report Monday indicating that Northwest Airlines had arranged financing for a $150-million purchase of Pan Am's Boston-New York-Washington shuttle. Neither airline has confirmed the existence of such a deal, in which the financing arm of an Oregon utility would acquire the shuttle and Northwest would run it, with an option to buy the lucrative operation. Plaskett had told Icahn in a letter Friday that a merger of Pan Am and TWA might prove "advantageous," if TWA would pony up the cash to tide struggling Pan Am through the slow winter months. Yet Plaskett, according to Icahn's latest missive, canceled a meeting Monday at which the two men were to have discussed the financing of a TWA-Pan Am merger. Likening the purported shuttle deal to Pan Am's sale of its London routes to United Airlines in October for $400 million, Icahn accused Plaskett of dumping valuable Pan Am assets for "less than market value." Wrote Icahn: "It appears that you will go to any extremes to avoid the merger with us that you say in your letter would be advantageous." He warned too that a sale of the shuttle could create legal entanglements if Pan Am subsequently falls into bankruptcy, as some analysts expect. "I assume that, once again, entrenchment of existing management will be the principal purpose of the transaction," Icahn fumed, "rather than something that might ultimately benefit your shareholders, employees and creditors, as well as the traveling public." Spokesman Jeffrey Kriendler said Tuesday that Pan Am was still waiting to make "a credible proposal" for buying the airline Securities analysts have questioned whether Icahn has been serious about acquiring Pan Am. Even if he is, there are doubts that TWA has the wherewithal to accomplish a merger. Together, the airlines | PAN AM TRYING TO UNDERMINE DEAL, TWA SAYS; AIRLINES: TWA CHAIRMAN CARL C. ICAHN SAYS PAN AM'S RECENT EFFORTS TO SELL OFF CHUNKS OF ITS OPERATION SHOW LACK OF GOOD FAITH IN THE MERGER TALKS BETWEEN THE CARRIERS. |
LA122690-0073_0 | December 26, 1990, Wednesday, Orange County Edition Shortly before midnight on Christmas Eve, a 37-year-old Mexican woman and her teen-age companion were struck by vehicles and killed along Interstate 5 north of here as they tried to cross the busy freeway, authorities said. Both were presumed to have been illegal aliens attempting to evade inspection at the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint at San Onofre, in northern San Diego County just south of the Orange County line. Their deaths raised to 15 the number of immigrant pedestrians killed on the freeway this year, exceeding last year's record of 14, authorities said. Since 1987, according to the California Highway Patrol, at least 65 northbound immigrants en route to the Los Angeles area and beyond have been hit -- 40 of them killed -- while attempting to hike around the busy checkpoint. The trek is a hazardous undertaking that often involves two crossings of eight lanes of high-speed traffic in a poorly lighted area where few motorists expect to see pedestrians. The ongoing carnage has prompted California transportation authorities to post warning signs, caution lights and take other measures aimed at alerting motorists and pedestrians to the danger. But the injuries and deaths keep on mounting. Just last week, the California Department of Transportation announced that it planned to erect a $10-million, 8-mile-long chain-link fence in the freeway median -- the most dramatic step to date aimed at reducing the bloodshed. But the fence plan itself has engendered intense opposition, as many immigrant advocates fear that the planned barrier could actually increase the human toll by leaving helpless immigrant pedestrians trapped in the middle of the busy roadway. The two latest victims, both believed to be Mexican citizens, were struck by a southbound sedan at 11:54 p.m. Christmas Eve, according to the CHP. One died at the scene while the other succumbed three hours later at an Orange County hospital, authorities said. They were both struck at a site along Interstate 5 about 2 miles north of the Las Pulgas Road exit, officials said. CHP officials say the driver, identified as Gretchen Carter, 21, of San Diego, had no chance to stop and was not at fault. She was driving her 1976 Oldsmobile sedan at about 55 m.p.h. in the far right southbound lane, authorities said, and did not see the victims until it was too late. The driver was uninjured, officials said, | 2 MORE KILLED NEAR FREEWAY CHECKPOINT |
LA122690-0079_2 | toot of their lives. "We had gotten kicked out of our apartment in July and ended up in this motel (in Anaheim). We had been there since August and it was almost as bad as living on the street. . . . That's when drugs became so easily accessible to us. We had them seven days a week, 24 hours a day, whenever we wanted them. We started a Christmas party on Dec. 1, because his dealer had just gotten out of jail, and we didn't stop until Jan. 5." Her recollections of last Christmas are a prolonged foggy reel. "I don't remember anything except that I was high. The family got presents for the kids, because we couldn't afford presents, because we had to buy drugs. We must have had 200 to 300 people in and out of the motel room that month. They'd come and buy drugs and sit around with us and get high with us." And the twins, then 10 months old? "I remember them being as high as us. I don't remember them sleeping a whole lot. They didn't want to eat, they didn't sleep. We were smoking the coke, so there was all this smoke and they (the babies) were getting it too." In May of this year, the system caught up with Connie and her boyfriend. Social workers placed the twins in the Orangewood Children's Home and ordered Connie to enroll in a drug recovery program. She had two relapses until the time in late September when she separated from the babies' father. Since then, she said, she has sworn off drugs. The shelter is run by the Shelter for the Homeless, a Westminster agency. Connie is working as a clerk for the county and is enrolled in a drug recovery program. She hopes to reclaim her children by spring, after proving she is drug-free and able to provide for them on her own. Of her drug ride, Connie, now 23, says: "I wonder why I did it. I really don't know why. Knowing how I felt about drugs before I started using, it's unbelievable I was as bad as I was. It makes me sick to think how I was, all the things I did." It isn't lost on her that, with her children already taken from her, she also was close to homelessness. "There were many times when I thought I | DANA PARSONS: EX-ADDICT'S HAPPY ABOUT A CHRISTMAS WITHOUT SNOW |
LA122690-0089_0 | December 26, 1990, Wednesday, Orange County Edition It is both a great success and a colossal failure. Rising like a mirage from the barren North Dakota prairie, the Great Plains Synfuels Plant is one of the most noteworthy remnants of the frantic era that followed the Arab oil embargo, when the United States spent millions of dollars to develop alternative energy sources. The Great Plains plant showed that the country could produce natural gas on a commercial scale from the West's vast supply of coal. But because of the unexpected plummeting of natural gas prices, the synthetic product could not be manufactured at a profit. "It was a technological success but a financial failure," said James Hartnett, director of the Energy Resources Center at the University of Illinois in Chicago. The plant was almost shut down in 1985 after the consortium that built it defaulted on $1.5 billion in federal loans. It now makes money -- but only because its current owners bought it from the government at a fire sale price in 1988 and because buyers of its gas are bound by long-term contracts that set the price above market rates. After years of cheap fuel that made the costly search for alternative energy sources seem economically impractical, the crisis in the Middle East has once again focused attention on alternative fuels and sharpened the debate over national energy policy. Despite the roughly $2 billion spent so far on Great Plains and other alternative energy projects, the United States today is just as dependent on foreign oil as it ever was, energy experts say. In 1973, when the energy crunch began, the country imported 6 million barrels of oil per day, according to figures from the U.S. Energy Information Center. For a time, oil imports declined, but last year's averaged 7.2 million barrels per day. So far this year, oil imports average 7.6 million barrels per day. And imported oil once again accounts for more than half of the oil consumed in the United States. "We're right back in the same trap we were in 1973," Hartnett argues. Not quite, says Ralph Bayre, director of the Synthetic Fuels Project in the Treasury Department, which monitors projects begun under the now-defunct federal Synthetic Fuels Corp. Although acknowledging that relatively small amounts of energy are being produced from alternative energy sources, Bayre said Great Plains and a host of other projects | PERSIAN GULF CRISIS REKINDLES DEBATE OVER ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES |
LA122690-0096_0 | December 26, 1990, Wednesday, Orange County P.M. Final Orange County had one traffic death during the five-day Christmas holiday period that ended at midnight Tuesday, law officials said today. Officers said the Christmas-traffic fatality rate this year is obviously low given that the county has more than 2 million residents. The Orange County coroner's office said the sole traffic death during the five-day period was on Saturday. Deputy William King said a 19-year-old Fountain Valley youth lost control of his car while southbound on the San Diego Freeway near the Magnolia Street on-ramp. King said the car struck a call box, and the driver, Major J. Johnson, was fatally injured. Despite thousands of vehicles on the county's freeways, highways and surface streets, there were relatively few major traffic accidents during the holiday period, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Department and the California Highway Patrol. | LOCAL; 1 DEAD IN ORANGE COUNTY CRASH |
LA122690-0101_0 | December 26, 1990, Wednesday, P.M. Final By the year 2001, women for the first time will earn more doctorates than men, there will be more high school graduates than the 1977 peak and the ranks of classroom teachers will swell, the Education Department projected today. The trends for the next 10 years are included in the Education Department's publication, "Projections of Education Statistics to 2001. " In 1976, women earned 7,800 doctoral degrees, while men earned 26,300, the department said. Trends now indicate the ratio will flip. By 2001, women are expected to earn 18,900 doctorates, while men will earn just 17,300. However, the Education Department said men will continue to earn more professional degrees than women in such fields as medicine and law. | NATION; MORE WOMEN DOCTORATES BY 2001 |
LA122690-0107_0 | December 26, 1990, Wednesday, P.M. Final Heather Farr, who made a comeback on the LPGA Tour this year after breast cancer surgery in 1989, has had a recurrence of the disease and will undergo chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. "My breast cancer has returned inside the bone," Farr, 25, said today. "There is a spot in the back of my skull and a spot in a back vertebrae." The former Arizona State standout was coming off her most successful year on the LPGA Tour when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in July, 1989, and underwent a mastectomy. After a series of chemotherapy treatments, Farr received a clean bill of health this summer and was looking forward to rejoining the tour. But Farr said she had to stop golfing in November due to a pain in her back and now finds that even common chores are becoming difficult. Farr's problems are not limited to the stress of fighting cancer. She said her medical insurance dropped her this fall and she does not know how she will pay for her operation, estimated by her doctors to cost between $150,000 and $200,000. She will begin chemotherapy probably next week at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for about six weeks. | THE SIDELINES; HEATHER FARR FACES FURTHER TREATMENT AS CANCER RECURS |
LA122690-0119_1 | much as our ability to forget what mattered to us when we were children. Our schools hold career days in the forlorn hope that 15 minutes with a successful lawyer or physician will persuade unambitious youngsters to study. We keep looking for ways to establish links between the people we admire and the children who we believe need the inspiration of their success. And we are forever chiding sports heroes for their nonathletic shortcomings, on the ground that their ethical and moral lapses will lead our children into similar behavior. It's as though we believe that a kid who admires Dexter Manley's ability to harass NFL quarterbacks will also admire the illiteracy Manley tearfully admitted or the drug abuse that threatened his athletic career. The interesting thing is that the adults who have such faith in role models seem to have no memory of their own childhoods. I know men who spent their adolescence mimicking Stan Musial's batting stance or Willie Mays' "basket" catches. They never wanted to be like Musial or Mays, in part because they knew nothing of these heroes except for their athletic ability. But they earnestly believe that hauling Sugar Ray Leonard or Doug Williams in front of an elementary school class will make a difference in the lives of children. Talk to them, though, and you get a different picture. Ask them about their childhood role models. They'll nearly always name a parent or other adult who spent time with them and paid attention to them and nudged them toward better behavior. What these fondly remembered adults did for a living, or how much they made at it, is largely irrelevant. I don't mean to suggest that children shouldn't have heroes, or that they cannot benefit from exposure to people who have achieved professional success. What I am suggesting is that the benefit consists largely of how-to lessons: how to resist negative peer pressure, how to achieve in the face of economic difficulty, how to find adults who can help them to fulfill their career dreams. "Mentoring," as we now call it, can be invaluable. But it has little to do with "role modeling," as the term is commonly used. In fact, confusion of the two notions may even be detrimental to real role modeling. To the extent that we insist that the role models we foist on our children be economically successful -- particularly | SPENDING TIME IS THE WAY TO MODEL A ROLE; TEACHING: PEOPLE CLOSE AT HAND NUDGE A CHILD TO DO BETTER. |
LA122789-0001_0 | December 27, 1989, Wednesday, Home Edition The Los Angeles jazz community lost a very good friend when Jim Gosa -- a veteran broadcaster who worked at such stations as KFOX, KBIG and KKGO during his four-decade career -- died Dec. 18 of melanoma at age 58. Though a sometime film, television and stage actor who appeared in such films as "High Plains Drifter" with Clint Eastwood and episodes of "Hawaii Five-O," the deep-voiced Gosa was best known as a jazz disc jockey for KKGO-FM, where he worked for 21 years. His completely personal way of integrating contemporary and mainstream jazz, both instrumental and vocal, into unified, flowing sets gained legions of fans. These fans ardently followed his programs until the end of August, when his illness forced him to leave the air permanently. An intelligent man with a blindingly fast wit, Gosa was a tireless worker. For many years he not only handled his own three- to four-hour, six-day-a-week air shift at KKGO (formerly KBCA-FM), he also was in charge of the station's commercial production schedule and produced many of the commercials himself. As if that weren't enough, Gosa began studying law at night in 1982, eventually passing the California State Bar last June. Here are remembrances of Jim Gosa by four friends and associates who knew him well: "He was the absolute best at his business, a first class professional guy," said Chuck Niles, the renowned disc jockey who worked alongside Gosa at KBCA/KKGO. "Everything he did was perfect. I can't ever remember him goofing. And as an interviewer, he did that as well as anyone." "I loved him so very much because he had such great taste in music," said singer Carmen McRae. "He was very good to me, for which I'm completely grateful. Every time I saw him, he made me feel good, like when he'd come into the club and talk for a second. He was such a decent human being, a sweet person and I'm going to miss him like hell." "Hey, he was the samurai of the jocks. If he had a sword in his hand, he'd make it swing," said actor Pat Morita, who, as a stand-up comedian, worked the jazz circuit in the '50s and '60s. "I was an enormous admirer of his work and his sound and his presence, and I was very fortunate to have been able to count Jim | JAZZ NOTES: COLLEAGUES LAUD DEEJAY JIM GOSA, DEAD AT 58; FATHER TOM VAUGHN SCHEDULED AT MONTELEONE'S |
LA122789-0010_5 | read lips; the other is the public library. While Donnelly tracks people and paper for clients, Susan Headley has been one of the people he might have found. A self-described former hacker, she now is a professional poker player in Las Vegas. Headley, who goes by the hacker handle Susie Thunder, described herself as a self-taught expert. At age 8, she built a "black box," one of those illegal devices that allowed her to make free long-distance telephone calls. Sporting white cowboy boots and a purple tie-dyed, studded dress that made her a standout in the crowd, Headley was at the convention to give a seminar on the "psychological subversion of EDP (electronic data processing) systems." Her fascination is figuring out how to circumvent security systems, a talent she developed as a teen-ager at rock 'n' roll concerts. Having conquered the world of bodyguards and backstage passes, she fell in with a group of teen-age computer hackers and soon was ready to tackle any computer system as long as she had a telephone. She is blunt and open about her colorful past, she said, to create awareness about how easy it is to invade computer systems. She said she has inveigled free tickets for airline flights and concerts, set herself up as a phantom employee of a telephone company to have access to its systems and indulged in other hacker tricks. The conference was attended by about 600 people, somewhat fewer than organizer James A. Ross had hoped for. A man from the Department of Defense gave an illustrated lecture on terrorism that was well attended, and Barbara A. Rowan, an Alexandria, Va., consultant on white-collar crime, lectured on the legality of recording telephone conversations. There were a number of talks about computer security, and an exhibit hall that featured an assortment of what industry wags refer to as "toys," ranging from a television camera in a tie clip to the latest in penetration-proof rooms. One lecturer, Washington attorney Joel R. Wolfson, had prepared a talk on possible legal strategies for dealing with computer viruses -- clandestine software programs that are designed to disrupt computer systems. He came equipped with his own computer and a "virus" program that he had concocted to show how easy it was to wreak havoc with a system and how important it was to have safeguards. He had only one problem: His computer wouldn't work. | CONFERENCE SHARES THE SECRETS OF INDUSTRIAL ESPIONAGE; SECURITY: SURVEILLANCE EXPO '89 LET EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURERS AND INVESTIGATORS SEE THE LATEST IN THE SNOOP AND STYMIE BUSINESS. |
LA122789-0034_6 | meant to kill the fetus. He noted that many women do not appear to be pregnant early in their pregnancy. Whether Velasco knew Morales was pregnant and intended to cause her to lose her baby will be key factors during the trial, Velasco's defense attorney has indicated. Another difficulty in this type of case, attorneys say, is proving that the crime committed against the mother was actually the cause of the fetus's death. Carol Sobel, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union in Los Angeles who has done a great deal of work in reproductive rights cases, also noted that it is extremely difficult -- even in cases in which a woman is beaten -- to prove the cause of a fetus's death given the number of spontaneous fetal abortions resulting from inadequate prenatal care or other health factors, such as venereal disease. A doctor's testimony is a key factor in these cases, but doctors are often hesitant to testify to the cause of a fetus's death, said one official in the district attorney's office. "We would have to have a doctor's report say to us that the termination of this pregnancy was a direct result of this beating," the official said. Dr. Tina Koopersmith, who attended Morales on the day she went into the hospital, testified that the beating appeared to cause the baby's death, but that she could not say for certain because she did not perform the autopsy. She also said she could not rule out other possible causes of death. Velasco's attorney, Public Defender Stanley Shimotsu, also has declined to discuss the case in detail. But during the earlier court hearing, he said there may be "other medical causes that brought about the termination (of the pregnancy) that superseded the injuries caused by my client." Under cross-examination, Morales testified that about five to seven weeks before the beating she was "jumped" by four girls who beat her for about five minutes as she crouched on the sidewalk. Shimotsu also indicated that the delay of one week between the alleged beating and the death of the fetus also will be addressed in the trial. Under cross-examination, Koopersmith testified Morales may have endangered the life of the baby by not going to the hospital sooner. In an interview after the hearing, Shimotsu said, "This (case) is different in terms of its complexity," adding his investigation is continuing. | SPECIAL LAW PUT TO TEST IN CASE OF FETUS DEATH; COURTS: PROSECUTORS SAY ASSAULT ON WOMAN KILLED HER UNBORN BABY. THEY'RE EVOKING A RARELY USED STATUTE TO DEMAND A PUNISHMENT THAT FITS THE CRIME. |
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