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6
NATION
Friday, March 19. 1993
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NATIONAL BRIEFS
Gulf war vets may suffer from uranium exposure
BOSTON — Thousands of Persian Gulf War veterans may have gotten sick after being exposed to radiation from American weapons tipped with depleted uranium, according to an environmental group.
The National Toxics Campaign Fund, in a report delivered yesterday to Congress and the White House, said the contamination came from about 4,300 rounds of armor-piercing shells fired from aircraft and tanks.
The radiation could be behind some of the unexplained illnesses reported by hundreds of Gulf War
veterans, the Boston-based, nonprofit organization said.
The Army denied radiation from the bullet-like munitions posed any widespread hazards.
In addition, people living near about 50 U.S. weapons-manufacturing and testing facilities may have been exposed to cancer from depleted uranium storage and processed at the sites, it said.
"We don't think that it represents a health problem," said Peter Esker, representative for the U.S. Army surgeon general.
Psychiatrists clear Woody Allen in abuse case
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Woody Allen said yesterday that psychiatrishes had cleared him of Mia Farrow's allegation that he sexually abused their adopted 7-year-old daughter.
Allen, 57, was accused of molesting the child, Dylan, in August at the Bridgewater home of Farrow. Allen's companion and favorite leading lady for 12 years before a bitter split last summer.
had been meeting with Allen, Farrow and Dylan since Thanksgiving.
Aspart of a state police investigation of the allegations, Dr John Leventhal, director of the Vale New Haven child sex abuse clinic,
Allen and Farrow met for 212 hours with Leventhal and other psychiatrists yesterday. Allen then proclaimed to a small army of reporters and photographers that he had been cleared.
Farrow wouldn't comment on the report, except to say, "I'll always stand by my children."
He said the psychiatrist's report found that "I never ever used my daughter, that no sexual abuse took place."
Aspin reported fine after pacemaker installation
WASHINGTON — Surgeons implanted ansilver dollar-size pacemaker just below Defense Secretary Les Aspin's collarbone yesterday to control a worsening heart condition. Doctors said he probably would resume a full work schedule next week.
"It went perfectly well," said Al Soloman, the pacemaker specialist who conducted the 90-minute operation at Georgetown University Medical Center.
David Pearle, Aspin's cardiologist, said that although the defense secretary was suffering "a serious underlying condition," he expected the pacemaker to eliminate the coughing and breathlessness that
have bothered Aspin.
Aspin, 54, has a congenital heart condition known as obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. His heart muscle has thickened, impairing its ability to pump adequate volumes of blood. Doctors said the pacemaker would relieve his symptoms by reducing the force — but not regulating the rhythm — of his heartbeat.
"We would expect him to return to a normal level of activity for him, and certainly all the things that are important for him to do within his job description," Soloman told a news conference just minutes after the operation.
Briefs compiled from Associated Press reports.
House marks end to Reaganomics
Clinton's economic plan set for approval
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The House moved yesterday to close the book on Reaganomics and embrace President Clinton's economic prescription for new spending to create jobs, coupled with long-term budget cuts and tax increases to whittle the deficit.
"It is clear that the time has come to make a fundamental change in policy and direction," Clinton told Treasury employees as he headed a last-minute campaign to solidify support and make his victory an imposing one.
With an 80-vote numerical advantage in their pockets, Democratic leaders predicted that in a long day of debate they would steamroll Republicans and approve two of Clinton's economic recovery measures.
One would lay the blueprint for future bills trimming the deficit by $510 billion over the next five years, to be split evenly between spending cuts and tax increases, primarily on the rich and corporations. It resembled a plan the Senate was also debating.
in new spending into community development grants, small-business loans and other job-create projects. The administration says the measure would create 219,000 jobs this year and more later.
True to their word, top Democrats showed they could hold their rank and file together. On a vote of 295 to 135, the House killed a GOP budget that would have cut spending by $429 billion over the next five years — and dropped all of Clinton's tax increases.
The Democratic measures flew in the face of Republican orthodoxy that has long called for tax cuts, reductions in social spending programs and a strong defense budget. That approach prevailed when Ronald Reagan entered the White House in 1981 but both he and successor George Bush failed to deliver on their promises of a balanced budget.
"We've had no-pain presidencies for 12 years, and now the pain facing the American people is greater than anything we could have possibly imaged," said Rep. John Bryant, D-Texas. "A president that's willing to say we need to make cuts and we need to increase taxes in certain areas is a president with courage who deserves to be followed."
Republicans warned that Clinton's priorities were off base.
"The they think a large federal government is the answer," said Rep. John Kasich, R-Ohio. "We believe empowering the individual and getting government off individuals' backs is the answer."
But outnumbered and with no White House to protect them, their efforts were doomed from the start. Taking no chances, Democrats even limited the number of amendments GOP lawmakers could offer, a routine tactic that nonetheless infuriated Republicans.
"We were royally zapped," Rep. Robert Walker, R-Pa., moaned in an interview.
Behind the scenes, Clinton was at work. In phone calls and letters to wavering Democrats, he urged them to support his plan.
"He had all the details about jobs, all the facts and figures," said Rep. G. W. "Sommy" Montgomery, D-Miss., a conservative who said he got a call at
home from Clinton at 10:20 p.m.
Wednesday. "I just listened."
Montgomery and other conservatives were most troubled by the jobs package, which they complained would add to budget shortfalls that are already historically high. But they seemed all but ready to concede that the plan would go through.
The president made quite a few calls to round up votes, said Rep. Charles Stenholm, D-Texas, a leader of the conservatives.
Just to be sure this works, Democratic leaders were piecing together an amendment trimming the jobs package by about $10 million. Its goal was to remove projects that Republicans had chided as ludicrous wastes of money, such as $3.2 billion to produce atlases about fish populations and $800,000 to get America's white-water canoeing team ready for the 1996 Olympics.
"The goal here is to have the fewest number of Democrats defect," said Rep. Philip Sharp, D-Ind., one of the party's vote counters. "We're interested in demonstrating we have the capacity to govern."
The Democratic aim was clear: win big and convince the public that gridlock is over.
New drug found to inhibit Alzheimer's
The Associated Press
ROCKVILLE, Md. — The first drug proposed to help victims of Alzheimer's disease has been found to significantly improve the quality of life for people with the disorder, according to reports presented today to a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel.
The drug, tacrine, was tested at 20 hospital centers across the country, and FDA investigators said there was "statistically significant" improvement when comparing Alzheimer's patients receiving high doses of the drug with those who received placebos.
The studies, which lasted from 12 to 30 weeks, monitored the effects of the drug based on tests measuring intellectual function.
who received the highest doses of tacrine for the 30- week trial.
Both the short- and longer-term studies showed a steady decline for patients receiving placebos. For patients on tacrine however, there was improvement or a delay in the rate of intellectual decline, FDA experts said.
The best improvement was found among patients
FDA statistical analyst Nancy Smith said patients receiving the high doses of tacrine showed a "statistically significant difference when compared with placebo patients."
Since then at least one published study has shown that the drug slows the gradual loss of mental function in some Alzheimer's patients.
Tacirine is thought to prevent the destruction of a brain chemical called acetylcholine that has been found to be deficient in patients with Alzheimer's. Acetylcholine is a type of neurotransmitter that assists in sending signals from cell to cell within the brain.
for the patient's family.
Alzheimer's disease is a progressive, incurable neurological disorder in which patients experience a slow loss of intellectual function. Patients first have lapses in memory. Later they undergo personality changes and lose control of bodily functions and language skills. The decline, which eventually leads to death, may take more than a decade and create an immense financial and emotional burden
The disease has struck about 4 million Americans, most over age 65. More than 100,000 die of Alzheimer's annually, making it the fourth leading cause of death among adults.
A positive diagnosis can be made only through an autopsy and is defined by a formation in the brain of abnormal structures called tangles and plaques.
Though medical scientists have determined that Alzheimer's patients have a deficiency of acetylcholine, it is not known if this causes the disease or is a result of other processes in the brain. There is also a build up of a substance called amyloid beta. Research has linked one form of the disease to a genetic defect, but the cause of Alzheimer's remains elusive.
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in November reported that 51 percent of patients taking tacrine showed at least some improvement.
More than 25 percent of the patients in the study, however, experienced some side effects, including increases in liver enzymes.
BRIDGET
THE GOVERNMENT
GAVE HER A CHOICE.
DEATH.
OR LIFE
AS AN ASSASSIN.
NOW, THERE'S
NO TURNING BACK.
POINT OF NO RETURN
WARNER BROS. PRESENTS
AN ART LINSON PRODUCTION A JOHN BADHAM FILM
BRIDGET FONDA "POINT OF NO RETURN"
GABRIEL BYNE DERMOT MULRONEY
WITH ANNE BANCROFT AND HARVEY KEITEL
CO-PRODUCER JAMES HERBERT MUSIC BY HANS ZIMMER
FILM EDITED BY FRANK MORRISSE
PRODUCTION DESIGNED BY PHILIP HARRISON
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY MICHAEL WATKINS, A.S.C.
BASED ON LUC BESSON'S "NIKITA"
SCREENPLAY BY ROBERT GETCHELL AND ALEXANDRA SEROS
PRODUCES BY ART LINSON DIRECTED BY JOHN BADHAM
OPENS MARCH 19TH EVERYWHERE
OPENS MARCH 19TH EVERYWHERE.