Monday, May 10, 1999

THE POST

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THE POST
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AP Photo/ Eugene Hoshiko
An unidentified Chinese man, part of the crowd of about 1,000 protesters, holds a banner that reads "Clinton" in Chinese characters. Yesterday was the second day of protest near the U.S. Consulate in Shanghai against NATO's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia.
India's security debated following weapons tests

NEW DELHI, India - For Defense Minister George Fernandes, last month's test of the new Agni II missile was a satisfying climax to India's effort to give its military nuclear capability.

Moments after watching the long-range missile soar across the sky, Fernandes leaned into a microphone in the control room and said: "With this launch, no one, from anywhere, will dare to threaten us from now on."

The Agni II can deliver atomic warheads deep into neighboring rivals Pakistan and China, putting teeth in India's new defense mantra: "minimum credible deterrence."

But a year after going overtly nuclear by setting off test explosions, the debate rages on: Is India more secure or less?

The underground tests on May 11, 1998, were greeted in India's streets with jubilation over joining the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France in the nuclear club. To mark the anniversary, India has declared Tuesday National Resurgence Day.

But 17 days after India's weapons tests, Pakistan exploded its own nuclear devices, cheering its own people and sobering the euphoria in India. The Pakistanis also quickly matched the April test of the Agni II with a test flight of their own missile.

The underground explosions a year ago upset a world that was shedding its Cold War nuclear armories after decades of living under the threat of atomic annihilation.



 Democrats Bradley, Gore take different stances

WASHINGTON - Al Gore and Bill Bradley might seem like two peas in a pod - free-trading Democrats both wonkish and wooden. Just don't get them started on daylight savings time and highway billboards.

Now competing for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2000, Gore and Bradley were colleagues in the Senate. As members of the same party, the junior senator from Tennessee and senior senator from New Jersey voted alike on more than three-quarters of all roll-call votes, according to an Associated Press analysis.

But compared side by side, their voting records reveal some fundamental differences on issues foreign and domestic.

Bradley was more willing than Gore to expand use of the death penalty. Gore, but not Bradley, supported an international space station and a space-based missile defense system. Bradley favored fewer U.S. troops in Europe but grudgingly voted to fund Nicaraguan rebels.

Gore voted to confirm President Reagan's nomination of Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chairman and President Bush's nomination of David Souter to the Supreme Court. Bradley was one of two dissenters on Greenspan, questioning his international experience, and one of nine dissenters on Souter, questioning his position on abortion rights.

As for daylight-savings time, Bradley supported a move in 1986 to change the "spring ahead" from the last Sunday to the first Sunday in April. An extra hour of light at night would conserve energy, fight crime and help business. Opponents like Gore favored an hour of light in the early morning, when children leave for school.



 Donated relief supplies still flood warehouses

NEW ORLEANS - Six months after Hurricane Mitch tore through Central America, donated relief supplies are stranded in New Orleans.

At least two warehouses are stuffed with clothes, food, bottled water and medical supplies stacked on pallets and ready to be sent to Honduras and Nicaragua. Some medicine is now outdated and must be thrown away.

In the rush to help the hurricane's victims in Central America, insurmountable transportation problems emerged, relief groups say.

One group had to delay shipments for several months to a key Honduran port inundated with thousands of shipping containers full of relief supplies. Another group's shipments were stalled when the promise of a boat to transport the goods to Nicaragua fell through.

For people involved in the relief efforts, the wait has been frustrating. Dr. Mayer Heiman's voice broke as he stood in a warehouse near boxes of canned food and bottled baby food and said his group had reports of children starving in a remote part of Honduras.

"We would send all this down tomorrow if we could," said Heiman, president of the International Hospital for Children in New Orleans and a chief organizer of its relief effort.



 Entertainment, government debate violence

LOS ANGELES - President Clinton says today's summit on youth violence is about finding answers, not assigning blame. But participants from the entertainment industry will be feeling more pressure than anyone else on the guest list, particularly since the gun lobby says it wasn't invited.

The Colorado high school massacre last month has stirred debate over whether movies, music and video games have helped shape a culture of violence among young people. That and relatively easy access to guns have often been cited as possible factors in the Columbine High School rampage by two student gunmen.

As leaders of Hollywood's major industry associations arrive in Washington, they will be met with growing calls for government intervention. Sen. Orrin Hatch, for instance, plans this week to propose a federal investigation into whether Hollywood is marketing violent products to youths.

"The time has come for us as a nation to demand more accountability from everyone involved - including the entertainment industry," Hatch, R-Utah, said last week in testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee's hearing on "Marketing Violence to Our Children."

A recent poll showed that parents are now more concerned about the violence their children see in movies or television than about the sex, a reversal from previous surveys. That poll by the National Institute on Media and the Family was conducted before the Littleton, Colo., shooting April 20.

Movie studio lobbyist Jack Valenti, head of the organization that assigns ratings to films, said his message at the White House session will be that moral lessons start at the home, school and church. But he says he also supports a major federal study into violent behavior by children and possible media influences.

"I'm not saying that movies don't have an impact, I just don't know what it is," said Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America. "All I know is that other countries whose children watch the same movies and (TV) shows as we do here have crime rates that are much lower. There must be other factors that we don't know about going on."



 Paper returns give IRS technology challenge

COVINGTON, Ky. - At row upon row of desks and tables spread over seven acres in a warehouse-like brick building, hundreds of IRS employees are working "The Pipeline."

These 2,500 people will process an estimated 10 million returns the old-fashioned way, sorting the papers and checks into slots at wooden tables, manually stamp a number on each and then enter the financial information into computers.

In a quieter room at this IRS Service Center, computers do the same job with about six million electronic returns. There's no chance of a lost check, a mistaken keystroke or a return placed in the wrong wooden slot. Nobody has to try to read a taxpayer's handwriting in crayon.

"Whenever you can have less paper, there's much less chance of error," said John Cosgrave, chief information officer at the Internal Revenue Service. "It's a very big plus not only for us but also for the taxpayer who will see better service."

The contrast between the Industrial Age paper processing that still dominates the IRS and the fledgling electronic method underscores the monumental technology challenges facing the nation's tax collector as it struggles to improve service.

IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti calls the current situation "fundamentally deficient" and is embarking on a costly, long-term effort to replace the entire system and phase out keeping main taxpayer files on tape.

After years of false starts and billions of dollars wasted, the IRS last year awarded a contract to a consortium led by Computer Sciences Corp. to design a new system. Congress has put up $506 million initially for the job, but it is expected to cost tens of billions of dollars more.

Still, all the new computers in the world can't change the limitations of paper tax returns. Of the 111.5 million individual returns received through April 23 nationwide, 82.5 million of them are the old-fashioned paper kind.



 Colorado shootings send ACLU excess complaints

CLEVELAND - Eleven students are suspended because of a satirical essay on their personal Web site. A teen-ager is sent to the police station for wearing black clothing. A student is questioned about why he's carrying a chemistry book.

American Civil Liberties Union offices across the nation say they're being swamped with complaints that students' constitutional rights are being trampled by nervous school officials since the April 20 shootings in Littleton, Colo.

"It seems to have become a witch hunt. I'm sure we've gotten hundreds of phone calls," said Ann Beeson, a staff attorney at the ACLU's national headquarters in New York. "Most school officials are not aware or not focusing on the fact that students are citizens too."

Greg Daniels of the ACLU in Ohio said the most serious of more than two dozen complaints to his office involved 11 students from Brimfield, a small town about 30 miles southeast of Cleveland. The students had a Web site for the Gothic subculture of youths who wear black, listen to rocker Marilyn Manson and think a lot about death.

The Web site, filled with images of dragons and castles and dark poetry, had been created months before the Littleton shootings but was updated with comment on the massacre. The students called gunmen Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold fellow "freaks" and sarcastically praised them.

One statement read: "I wonder how long it'll be before we're not allowed to wear our trenchcoats anymore. You know those screwed up kids in Colorado were wearing them, so that means I will also kill someone, and so will all my friends."

Timm Mackley, the school district's superintendent, said the Web site was obscene and had a threatening tone. He suspended the students, but the ACLU successfully fought their expulsion.

"The students were engaging in protected speech, off campus," Daniels said. "The school says they can punish them for that type of speech and behavior. What's next? Regulating conversations off campus?"

A consultant on school security cautioned that while there may be some overreaction, heightened awareness now may be uncovering real threats that predate Littleton, as well as "spinoff-type incidents."



 Toledo location increases car insurance rates

TOLEDO - Auto insurance rates in Toledo are higher than in most Ohio cities, said a report from an insurance industry trade group.

Insurance agents in the area told The Blade in a story published yesterday that the city's location on Interstate 75 and near the Michigan border is largely responsible for the high rates.

The Ohio Insurance Institute's 1999 Ohio Insurance Facts report said the average car owner in Toledo paid $917 for insurance last year. That amount was about $400 less than the average payment in Cleveland. Auto insurance there traditionally has been more expensive than anywhere else in Ohio because of Cleveland's rate of crashes and car thefts.

But average premiums in Dayton were $168 less on average than in Toledo, while rates for Cincinnati and Columbus respectively were $142 and $124 lower than Toledo's. The insurance institute said rates in small towns and rural areas averaged $677 to $240 less than the Toledo rate.

"Usually, you find it's the frequency of the crashes or the frequency of the claims and the dollar amount of the claims that determines the rates," said Michael Smith, an associate finance professor at Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business.

Although the frequency of crashes has decreased in some other Ohio cities, it has risen in Toledo, said Brian Maze, a spokesman for State Farm Insurance Co.'s regional office in Newark. Toledo's proximity to Michigan affected its auto insurance rates because Michigan is a strict no-fault insurance state. That means an Ohio motorist in an accident in Michigan will have his or her own insurance pay for repairs, regardless of which driver is at fault.



 Minorities more likely targets for Toledo police

TOLEDO - City police officers are more likely to fire at minorities than whites even though minorities make up only about 20 percent of the city's population, a newspaper reported yesterday.

Police officers, however, insist the statistics reflect nothing more than the crime rates of neighborhoods they patrol.

"You have to look at the criminal element we're dealing with," said Daniel Brandon, a six-year Toledo police veteran and one of the department's 179 minority officers.

According to a review of Firearms Review Board records by The Blade, black men were the targets in 15 of the 32 incidents of intentional police gunfire since the beginning of 1990.

Blacks make up less than 20 percent of Toledo's population, according to estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau. Hispanics, who make up 4 percent of Toledo's population, were the victims in four shootings.

Police Chief Mike Navarre said he was surprised the percentage of minority shootings was that high, but added police officers patrol neighborhoods where more minorities live because those areas have higher crime rates.

The Blade also found that 15 of the 19 minorities shot by police had firearms. Six times, black men had fired at police before police shot back.

Two shootings earlier this year stirred controversy. In both cases, four young, white police officers on patrol spotted stolen cars and shot and killed the minority unarmed suspects. In one case, a suspect was shot when he drove the vehicle toward an officer. The other was shot when he raised his arm and appeared to have a weapon in his hand. It turned out to be a screwdriver.

Athens Grand Jury hands down more indictments

The Athens Grand Jury met April 26 and April 27 to bring charges against several people, including one Ohio University student.

OU junior Eli W. Alban, 20, from Vinton, was indicted for aggravated possession of drugs. Police allegedly found Alban with Psilocybin Jan. 20.

Shane N. Benson, 18, of Carroll, was indicted for receiving stolen property. Benson allegedly was found Dec. 5 with two firearms that had been stolen from a New Marshfield resident.

Nathan L. Jordan, 20, of Columbus, was indicted for burglary. Jordan allegedly stole from an empty Athens structure March 16.

Wendy J. Nelson, 24, of Glouster, was indicted for theft. Nelson allegedly stole money from the Athens business where she was working Sept.1 through March 1.

Richard L. Starghill II, 22, of Columbus, was indicted for trafficking in cocaine and marijuana. He allegedly sold both drugs to an undercover agent Nov. 9.

Kimberly M. Starghill, 26, of Columbus, was indicted for complicity to trafficking in marijuana. She allegedly aided and abetted Richard Starghill.

Albert L. Campbell, 69, of Nelsonville, was indicted for trafficking in marijuana and cocaine. Campbell allegedly sold both drugs to an undercover agent Nov. 13.

David Scott Wear, 27, of Athens, was indicted for grand auto theft. Wear allegedly stole a vehicle from an Athens resident April 9.

Wear pleaded not guilty Tuesday. Judge Alan Goldsberry set a $5,000 bond and scheduled the Wear's trial for June 22.

All other persons will be arraigned May 19 in the Athens County Court of Common Pleas.



 OU, Athens to celebrate International Week

Today marks the first day of the 17th annual International Week. The week's events of speakers, arts and crafts, music and dancing will culminate in a street fair on Court Street on Friday.

This year's theme is "A Community of Cultures," and the goal of International Week is "to increase international awareness and education, promote community awareness and contribute to and support diversity," said David Tilahun, associate director of international student and faculty services at Ohio University.

International Week began as a smaller, student organized event, he said.

"It's a collaboration of OU and Athens. An idea came about through this office to make it a little bit bigger," Tilahun said.

The keynote speaker tonight is Walker Connor, distinguished professor at Middlebury College. His speech is titled "The Impact of Ethnonational and Religious Identities upon World Affairs in the 20th and 21st Centuries."

Athens Friends of International Students will be one of the groups to have a booth during the street fair, AFIS President Jane Palmer said.

"We offer a group of volunteers dedicated to building bridges of friendship between the local community and people from abroad," she said. "We're (at the street fair) mostly for information and to get people to stop and talk."

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