Wednesday, April 21, 1999

THE POST

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THE POST
[prisoners]

Victor R. Caivano/AP
Prisoners sit at the 7th Police Station in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Even before Hurricane Mitch, Honduras had adequate space for only a fraction of its prisoners. At present, each cell holds about 65 to 100 people. Some of the prisoners have lived there for more than three months. The cells have no running water or windows.

Florida fires contained; ecosystem to rejuvenate

IN THE FLORIDA EVERGLADES - The flames that have roared through the Everglades, cutting off the region's main east-west highway and casting smoke over Miami, are part of a natural cycle that forestry officials say will help renourish the ecosystem.

"This is actually like a rebirth process," said John Fish, a spokesman for the state Division of Forestry.

Columns of brown and gray smoke rose from the Everglades as the wildfire, which has consumed 155,000 acres, charred the dry sawgrass that is home to the alligator, the egret and the whitetail deer.

The fire is burning accumulated dry brush and excess plant growth, making room for new growth, forestry officials said. Such fires have swept the Everglades since even before the arrival of humans.

Firefighters had the blaze contained within a perimeter of wet areas, levees and Interstate 75, the main east-west highway known as Alligator Alley. The highway was ordered closed over the weekend, but the smoke thinned enough yesterday to allow authorities to reopen it to traffic.

Alligators lay on blackened patches of sawgrass, basking in the sun, while herons pecked through the dark ash for bits of food and anhingas dove into the murky wetland in search of fish.

Even though the fire will help the ecosystem, forestry officials said, containing it is important because in such dry weather, flames quickly could get out of control and threaten new areas.
Decrease in smoking, Cancer rates linked down, but mostly for males

WASHINGTON - Fewer Americans are stricken with cancer every year, thanks largely to drops in smoking, scientists announced yesterday.

The news is better for men: Although they still suffer more cancer than women do, the rate of new cancer cases is dropping eight times faster for men than for women, according to the American Cancer Society's annual report.

Overall, cancer incidence has dropped 2.2 percent each year since 1992, according to the new report, published in this week's Journal of the National Cancer Institute, which analyzed cancer trends through 1996.

Scientists warned yesterday that tobacco use could reverse the progress: Lung cancer remains the nation's top cancer killer, and recent declines in lung cancer among men who quit smoking in the 1970s and '80s helped fuel the overall declines in cancer incidence and mortality. But high teen smoking and new popularity for cigars have experts fearing a rebound.

Cigarette smoking by high school students rose a disturbing 32 percent during the 1990s, one report said. And cigar smoking - which a second study published in the cancer journal yesterday concluded is as cancer-causing as cigarettes - has reversed a 20-year decline, rising by 50 percent in the last four years.

Two forms of cancer are increasing: non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and melanoma. New cases of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma are rising by a little over half a percent per year and deaths are rising by 1.8 percent a year. No one knows why.

NATO summit causes frenzy with planners.

WASHINGTON - Details, details: For the State Department's office of protocol, taking proper care of the leaders of 42 foreign countries at this week's NATO summit is a logistical nightmare of motorcades, seating assignments, flags and music.

The biggest headaches: Who should sit next to President Clinton at dinner? (Still unclear), and how to hang the flags (alphabetically).

"We're going to try to stay calm. It works better that way," Chief of Protocol Mary Mel French said, her laugh masking the hours of frenzied planning her office is doing for Washington's largest-ever gathering of heads of state.

French's staff must make sure that the limousines run on time, that guests are property attired, that cultural barriers are bridged and visitors are not offended.

They know the flags of the 19 NATO countries are displayed alphabetically with NATO's in the middle.

They know NATO newcomer Vaclav Havel, president of the Czech Republic since 1989, ranks No. 1 on the seating hierarchy for one dinner the White House is holding for members of the alliance. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, his country's leader for just six months, ranks last.

Even that doesn't clear up who will sit next to Clinton: It also depends on how the tables are arranged, whether there will be other special guests and if seating is arranged male/female.

It sounds complicated, yet protocol makes seating at official dinners manageable, says Selwa "Lucky" Roosevelt, chief of protocol from 1982 to 1989, under President Reagan.

Parties united on seniors' social security bill

WASHINGTON - In an unusual political alliance, a Republican congressman from Ohio teamed yesterday with one of the most liberal members of Congress to propose a significant change in Social Security law.

The idea: link Social Security cost-of-living adjustments, or COLAs, to the costs America's elderly actually face.

"I just think it is one of the most fair ways to be fair to senior citizens," said Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio.

"All that Bob and I are trying to do is bring forth truth in COLAs," said Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

Social Security benefits are adjusted yearly based on inflation calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. To determine inflation, the agency looks at a wide range of things people buy.

Sanders and Ney are trying to convince their colleagues that the elderly tend to spend their money on such things as medicine and health care, while the COLA formula also considers such things as cellular phones and computers.

"Most senior citizens in Vermont are trying to pay their heating bill or buy the food they need. They do not have cellular phones," Sanders said a news conference.

The legislation they are pushing would use for Social Security COLA-calculating an experimental version of the Consumer Price Index devised by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That special index, known as CPI-E, calculated a 1.9 percent elderly cost-of-living increase for 1998, compared with 1.3 percent for the nation at large.

To an average retiree, that would be about a $44-a-month difference.

Cigarette billboards are being taken down

RICHMOND, Va. - In the Marlboro Man's hometown and across the land, cigarette billboards that were once a celebrated part of the American landscape are coming down this week as part of the national settlement with the tobacco industry.

Under the $206 billion agreement between the tobacco industry and 46 states over the costs of treating smoking-related illnesses, all cigarette billboards must be removed by Friday. The agreement allows states to take over billboard leases that had been held by tobacco companies and put anti-smoking ads on them at the companies' expense until the leases expire.

In Richmond - where Philip Morris makes Marlboros and other brands at the world's largest cigarette plant - one new billboard shows a girl and a younger boy and reads: "My sister never told me not to smoke. She showed me."

New signs in Washington state show a sinking Titanic with the slogan "Tobacco Kills a Titanic Full of Washingtonians. Every 10 Weeks." More than 1,500 people died when the Titanic sank in 1912.

Health activists welcome the removal of such attention-grabbing gimmicks, which they have long claimed were designed to appeal to children and teen-agers.

John F. Banzhaf III, executive director of Action on Smoking and Health, a Washington-based anti-smoking group, said the demise of tobacco billboards is a mostly symbolic victory. Increasing cigarette taxes and imposing more restrictions on public smoking would have greater practical effect, he said.

Trade deficit soars; inhibits overseas trade

WASHINGTON - America's trade deficit surged to another record as aftershocks from the global financial crisis cut further into the ability of American manufacturers and farmers to sell overseas.

The trade deficit widened to $19.4 billion in February. That was a 15.6 percent increase from the previous record, January's imbalance of $16.8 billion.

Seeking to counter complaints that he has not done enough to deal with the surging trade deficit, President Clinton called on the international community to redouble its efforts to overhaul the global financial architecture to "tame the cycles of boom and bust" and prevent future Asian-style currency crises.

Clinton told a White House gathering yesterday that Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin will be putting forward new ideas on crisis management at upcoming meetings of the 182-nation International Monetary Fund.

Congressional and labor union critics of Clinton's free trade policies said the dramatic widening of the deficit in the year's first two months pointed to a need for policies to protect American jobs.

But critics pointed to the 380,000 jobs lost in the past year at U.S. manufacturing plants forced to cut back production because of slumping exports, and they warned that Clinton's current policies must be changed. "We oppose an agenda that is headed down a low road to nowhere," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said yesterday in comments on the widening deficit.

Library bans Indians logo from employees' clothing

CLEVELAND - The Chief Wahoo logo of the Cleveland Indians has been banned from the clothing that staff members wear at the Cuyahoga County Public Library.

"It's a diversity issue," John A. Lonsak, the library system's executive director, said yesterday. "It's not a censorship or political issue at all."

He decided to ban the grinning, red-face Indians caricature in an effort "to be sensitive to people of all ethnic backgrounds."

But around Cleveland, Chief Wahoo is seen just about everywhere during the baseball season. A lot of the shirts and jackets marketed by the Indians show the logo.

"I have heard rumblings of discontent," Lonsak said. "Supervisors have told me some in the staff aren't happy with the fact they can't wear Wahoo images."

Anthony Richer Jr., of Garfield Heights, who works as a clerk at the Beachwood branch of the county library, said he misses wearing Wahoo to work.

"The library prides itself on not censoring," he said. "It's completely unfair. Last year I could wear Wahoo all the time."

Staff members are allowed to wear informal attire to support the Indians when the American League team has a home game.

The logo has long been criticized as insensitive and demeaning, particularly by American Indians and church groups. The most recent protest was before the April 12 home opener outside of Jacobs Field, when an image of Chief Wahoo was burned.

Vernon Bellecourt, president of the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and Media, and a frequent Wahoo protester, said yesterday the library's policy is "very helpful to our campaign. Obviously our message is beginning to get through."

Whether Lonsak has authority under the law to tell an employee what not to wear is a complicated issue, said Gino Scarselli, associate legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio.

"On one hand you have the free speech right of government employees, and on the other hand you have the interests of the government as an employer to ensure that there's an orderly and efficient workplace," he said.

Older suburbs ask for less state subsidization

COLUMBUS - Officials from Ohio's older suburbs are fighting what they see as state subsidization of urban sprawl: tax incentives, transportation plans and other policies that favor growth in outlying areas over revitalization of existing roads and structures.

"We're trying to change harmful state policies that, in effect, promote disinvestment in our communities," Ken Montlack, a City Council member from Cleveland Heights, said yesterday before he and other representatives of the Ohio First Suburbs Consortium spread out across the Statehouse to lobby lawmakers.

The 75 local politicians and officials from 28 cities planned to ask for access to state grants, loans and incentive programs that they say now tip the balance toward fast-growing communities and companies that create new jobs rather than retain existing ones.

The older suburbs, meanwhile, are left with a shrinking tax base to cover the expenses of schools and other services for the residents who stay behind, Montlack said.

The "First Suburbs" movement originated in the Cleveland area in 1997. A similar group started around Columbus earlier this year, and others are forming in Cincinnati and Dayton.

"It's not that we're trying to hinder development as it grows out from the central core," Lorek said. "But let's make sure that as development moves out, there's reinvestment back into the established areas."

Gov. Bob Taft said he already is studying the issue.

"We're looking at the whole issue as part of the Urban Revitalization Task Force," Taft said. "We're reviewing our policies in the transportation area ... housing, brownfields - all the different ways the state impacts on development."




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