Section A·Page 7
The University Daily Kansan
Tuesday, February 3, 1998
AIDS deaths drop in United States
Drug treatments help begin new era in epidemic
The Associated Press
CHICAGO — Deaths caused by complications of AIDS dropped across the United States a stunning 44 percent during the first half of last year, showing the power of new treatments to control AIDS.
Doctors have known almost since they began widely prescribing potent three-drug combinations two years ago that fewer people with AIDS were dying, but even the experts seem surprised
by the scope of their success.
"We can't see the end of the epidemic, but it's the beginning of a new era," said Kevin DeCock, a physician from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
The latest evidence of this change came yesterday when agency officials presented new data at the Fifth Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic infections.
Deaths from complications of AIDS peaked during 1994 and 1995 then nosed downward in 1996
According to the agency, 12,040 Americans died from complications of AIDS during the first half of 1997, compared with 21,460 during the first half of 1996. The total nationwide figures for last year will
not be tallied until July. However, the figures are already in for New York City, and the figures show an even more impressive change.
Experts from New York City's Department of Health reported that deaths from complications of AIDS fell there 48 percent in 1997. This comes on top of a 29 percent decline in New York of deaths caused by complications of AIDS during 1995.
The New York data show that both men and women and people of all races are benefiting from the lifesaving breakthroughs in AIDS treatment.
Experts attribute the improving figures to better treatments, not any advances in preventing people from catching HIV.
Prescriptions of so-called three-
drug cocktails — two older AIDS drugs plus one of the newer class of medicines called protease inhibitors — have revolutionized AIDS care. Typically, people start treatments as soon as they learn they are infected, even before they get sick.
With fewer dying, the number of Americans living with AIDS is increasing, up 13 percent to 259,000.
The new treatments also are credited with keeping HIV-infected people well so they do not develop full-blown AIDS. Nationwide, the agency reported that the number of new AIDS cases diagnosed in the first six months of 1997 fell 12 percent.
Although no one knows precisely how many Americans have HIV, the agency estimates it to be between 400,000 and 650,000 people.
Activists sue U.S. wildlife service
The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO - Environmental groups complained yesterday that the federal government was failing to meet its obligations under the Endangered Species Act, dooming some varieties of plants and animals to extinction.
The groups claim the Fish and Wildlife Service has stalled protecting species such as jaguars in the Southwest, black bears in Florida and a now-animated fish in Nevada.
"What's really going on is Fish and Wildlife is terrified about making a stink over endangered species," said David Hogan of the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity. "They don't want money from Congress; they don't want to rock the boat; they don't want to list any more species as endangered."
The Southwest Center for Biological Diversity filed suit yesterday in federal court in San Diego to force the Fish and Wildlife Service to act on 42 varieties of plants and animals it said were in danger of disappearing in California.
Hogan said the problem in California and elsewhere was that listing a species as endangered made it difficult for developers to build on affected land, and that generated political pressure.
It is one of many similar lawsuits filed across the country.
"The bottom line with this lawsuit and oth
ers is that we know our nation's wildlife and plants are imperiled, and the only way we can secure protection for them is if Fish and Wildlife acts," said Melinda Pierce, who represents the Sierra Club in Washington.
Instead of acting, Pierce said, the agency has abolished much of its waiting list. In one case, Fish and Wildlife Service dropped 4,000 candidate species without any further study, she said.
"The law was intended to save species on the brink of extinction, and unfortunately, that's just not happening," said Jay Watson, the Wilderness Society's top official in the California-Nevada region.
Federal officials bristle at the charges. The real culprit, they say, is lack of funds, not lack of will.
The 1994 Republican congressional majority refused any funding for the Endangered Species Act for a year, and the agency still is trying to recover from that moratorium, said Megan Durham, a Fish and Wildlife Service representative in Washington.
"There is a whole lot of listing going on," she said. "We developed a backlog of species that needed attention. And the Clinton administration has listed more species than any other despite this moratorium."
Critics responded that Fish and Wildlife Service was sitting on many of those species in violation of the law, which requires action
"The law was intended to save species on the brink of extinction, and unfortunately, that's just not happening."
Jay Watson
Wilderness Society official
within a year from the date a species is proposed for listing as endangered.
The Southwest Center for Biological Diversity pointed to its three-year effort to protect the jaguar. The animal, which once roamed from the San Francisco Bay area to the tip of South America, now rarely is seen in the Southwest. Despite its eligibility, the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity said it had to file lawsuits in 1994 and 1996 before the agency listed the jaguar as endangered.
The environmental groups said many other efforts failed, noting that last year Fish and Wildlife Service removed five species from the candidate list — because the species had become extinct. These included a minnow-like Nevada fish and a butterfly that vanished from the U.S. territory Guam.
Groundhog predicts 6 more weeks of snow
The Associated Press
Punxsutawney Phil glimpses shadow
The prediction prompted boos from the crowd of more than 15,000 people who had been whooping it up for much of the night.
PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. — Brrrrr! The world's most famous groundhog saw his shadow yesterday morning. If you are a believer in ancient folklore, the message is six more weeks of ice and snow.
"As El Nino approaches our western shore and changes the weather patterns, I see my shadow. There will be six more weeks of winter," said Bill Cooper, president of the Inner Circle of Punxsutawney's Groundhog Club, speaking for the woodchuck after pulling him from his artificial tree stump.
With yesterday's prediction, Phil has seen his shadow 100 times in 112 years. Records from the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., show his
accuracy rate since 1980 is only about 59 percent.
The Groundhog Day tradition is rooted in a German superstition that if an animal casts a shadow Feb. 2 — the Christian holiday of Candlemas — bad weather is coming.
In reality, the 15 members of the Inner Circle, who plan annual Groundhog Day festivities, decide in advance whether Phil will see his shadow, rain or shine.
German settlers started the Groundhog Day festival in Punxsutawney. Each year, club members pull him from a custom-made burrow at Gobbler's Knob, a wooded hill at the south end of town.
For the rest of the year, Phil and his companion, Phyllis, live in a heated hutch at the library in this town 80 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.
Crowds swelled as Phil's legend grew, boosted by the 1993 Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day. Last year, more than 20,000 people doubled the previous record set during 1996.
Tobacco attorney says addiction not a secret
He cites writings of Twain as proof
The Associated Press
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Disputing the claim that tobacco companies hid information about the risk of addiction, an attorney said yesterday that any reader of Mark Twain would know how hard it was to quit smoking.
Attorney David Bernick referred to one of the author's famous quotes as he cross-examined a Mayo Clinic nicotine-addiction expert testifying in Minnesota's $1.77 billion lawsuit against the tobacco industry.
Twain said "stopping smoking is the easiest thing he ever did, (and that) he ought to know because he's done it hundreds of times."
that once you start using tobacco it's hard to stop?" Hurt was the first witness in the trial.
Hurt has testified during his four days on the stand that knowledge of the health risks of smoking and the addictive nature of nicotine was largely confined to scientific journals. The public was largely ignorant, he said.
Bernick asked Richard Hurt, nicotine-addiction expert, "Isn't it true that for hundreds of years it's been common knowledge
The state and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota are trying to recover money that has been spent treating smoking-related illnesses. Both allege in the suit that cigarette makers had extensive knowledge about the addictive nature of nicotine and the health dangers of smoking but kept quiet.
Tobacco attorneys have maintained that their research mirrored what already was public knowledge.
Minnesota's is the first of 40 state lawsuits against cigarette makers to reach witness testimony. Texas, Florida and Mississippi settled the cases earlier.
Plan could lower student-loan rates
Lack of lenders may be problem
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — With the supply of student loans threatened, the Clinton administration is working on a plan dealing with a scheduled change that could lower interest rates but dry up the pool of willing lenders, an Education Department official said yesterday.
"We're talking a lot about it with the banks and other lenders, and I think the general sense now is that there is a problem or potentially a problem," Marshall S. Smith, acting deputy secretary of education, told reporters at a budget briefing. "We need something in pretty good shape by the end of April."
At issue is a change, scheduled for July 1, in how interest rates for student loans are calculated. The rates would be based on a 10-year Treasury note rather than short-term Treasury bills.
Interest rates are lower on the notes, but banks and other lenders argue that the rates would be too low to attract investors who buy the federally guaranteed loans after the loans are made by banks.
The change was enacted in 1993, when the Education Department expected its new, direct loans largely would replace the guaranteed loans. That has not happened because of resistance by Congress to make the government a direct lender.
Republican lawmakers have been hesitant to become too involved in the problem because they would be held liable for keeping interest rates high.
"We're working with White House and Treasury and with the community to try to better understand the threat but also to come up with a resolution in time so that there's no disturbance in giving student loans," Smith said.
But Smith and others in the administration recently have begun to acknowledge the problem.
Texas woman's bid for clemency denied
The Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas — A state boar unanimously rejected Karla Faye Tucker's bid for clemency yesterday, leaving only the Supreme Court and the governor with the power to halt the pickaxe killer's scheduled execution today.
Despite pleas of mercy, including from Pope John Paul II, the gruesome nature of her crime left the Board of Pardons and Paroles with no qualms, the chairman said. It turned down Tucker 16-0, with two members abstaining.
There is no question as to how they feel," said Victor Rodriguez, chairman. "I, myself, have absolutely no quarrel with the decision to deny Ms. Tucker's request on all fronts."
In her appeal before the Supreme Court, 'Tucker's attorneys contend the commutation process is flawed and unconstitutional in part because of the consistent lack of favorable rulings.
Tucker, 38, a former teen-age prostitute who found religion in prison, would be the first woman executed in Texas since the Civil War. Her execution is scheduled for 6 p.m. today.
All 76 requests since 1993 have been rejected, including 16 last year when the state executed a record 37 convicted killers.
He said that Tucker still was hopeful that the Supreme Court would hear her appeal.
Rodriguez said neither her gender nor her newfound religion played a role in the board's decision. The board also rejected her request for a 60- or 90-day reprieve to allow courts time to consider her challenge to the state's clemency process.
Botsford said Tucker made a videotape in prison Saturday night, asking Bush for a one-time.
30-day stay of execution — the only action a Texas governor may take independently in death-penalty cases.
Bush said he will not make a decision until after the Supreme Court has ruled.
Tucker was sentenced to die for bludgeoning a man and woman to death with a companion in 1983.
The last woman executed in Texas was Chipita Rodriguez, who was hanged in 1863. The last woman executed in the United States was Velma Barfield in North Carolina during 1984.
Preparations for Tucker's execution continued yesterday, with Tucker being flown from the female death row at a prison in Gatesville to Huntsville, 175 miles away, where executions are carried out.
Tucker requested a final meal of a banana, peaches and a tossed salad with ranch or Italian dressing.
Tucker asked that five people watch her death, the maximum number of personal witnesses allowed. Three relatives of her victims also have asked to be present.
Tucker has admitted accompanying a partner, Daniel Garrett, to the Houston apartment of Jerry Lynn Dean, 27, to steal Dean's motorcycle.
After Garrett, then 37, started beating Dean with a hammer, Tucker, then 23, grabbed a 3-footlong pickax and plunged it into him.
Tucker then turned the ax on Deborah Thornton, 32, who was cowering under sheets in a corner, to eliminate the witness. In a tape recording played in court, she bragged to friends that she got a sexual thrill out of the attack.
Garrett, also sentenced to death, died in prison of liver disease in 1993.
749-1666
9th & Iowa
Hillcrest Shopping Center
MALL'S BARBER SHOP
Red Lyon Tavern
944 Mass. 832-8228
23rd & Louisiana (next to Godfather's) 842-1547
A touch of Irish in downtown Lawrence
Meet Judy L. Thomas
Pulitzer-nominated K.C. Star reporter and co-author, with L.A. Times reporter James Risen, of the new book
Reading, Question & Answer and Booksigning Thursday, February 5,1998 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Mt.Oread Bookshop
WRATH OF ANGELS The American Abortion War
A thorough and objective history of this significant social protest movement-- from its roots in the Catholic left, to the political mobilization of American fundamentalism and the rise of the Religious Right. The book chronicles the movement's change from pacifism to violence, providing much new information on events and leading figures.
Mt. Oread Bookshop
Kansas Union, Level 2 * 864-4431*
www.lavahawk.com
Volunteer as an intern STUDENT
864-3710 • 4th Floor, Kansas Union SENATE