FRIDAY,AUG.24,2001
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 7A
Gary Condit discusses intern's disappearnce
Congressman says he and Levy were 'very close'
The Associated Press
MODESTO, Calif. — Rep.
Gary Condit acknowledged yesterday he had a "very close" relationship with former intern Chandra Levy but denied he had any role in her disappearance nearly four months ago.
Condit repeatedly refused to answer questions from ABC's Connie Chung about whether his relationship with Levy was sexual, saying only, "I've been married for 34 years, and I've not been a ... a perfect man, and I've made my share of mistakes."
The interview opened with a series of blunt questions about the 24-year-old woman vanishing. Condit denied he had anything to do with her disappearance, knew anyone who wanted to harm her, or had caused anyone to harm her.
The interview marked Condit's first extended public comments about Levy's disappearance and the start of a public relations offensive by the seven-term congressman.
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Condit said he met Levy, 24,
then a Bureau of Prisons intern
from Modesto, in his home district,
last October, and "we became very close."
Condit was emphatic that he had cooperated with police. "I answered every question that was asked of me," he said.
Condit has been criticized by some of his congressional colleagues and constituents for wait-
ng nearly four months to talk publicly about Levy. Three newspapers serving his district have called for his resignation.
"I hope our relationship is strong enough to endure all of this." Condit told his constituents in the letter, which was addressed, "Dear Friends and Neighbors."
The interview was broadcast on the day that a letter from Condit to his constituents began arriving in mailboxes throughout his central California district.
"I would want him to say, 'I'm sorry I didn't come forward right away with the truth. I was scared of what was going to happen with my family and with my constituents and I thought about my political career and my personal life instead of this missing woman,'" said Erich, a political independent who has voted for Condit before but said she will not do so again.
Jacqeline Elrish, 33, a Modesto native, read Condit's letter yesterday on the steps of the post office. She said she hoped to hear on television what she did not find in the letter — an apology for his actions.
The subject of nonstop media attention since May, Condit has been heard only through brief statements and surrogates until now.
Two other women have come forward to allege affairs with Condit and to say they were pressured from the congressman or his aides not to talk to investigators looking into Levy's disappearance.
Seven months before he was infected, Godot got an experimental new AIDS vaccine, one experts hope will be the model for a shot to control the worldwide epidemic.
Monkeys are responsible for the change in attitude. In two decades of trying, scientists could not concoct a vaccine that would safely protect a monkey from dying of AIDS. Until now.
ATLANTA — The scientists trying to create a vaccine to prevent AIDS suddenly seem optimistic. For the first time, many researchers appear confident a vaccine is possible.
The Associated Press
Now monkeys like Godot, a handsome, blond, 4-year-old macaque living in the biohazard containment center at Emory University, are infected but otherwise healthy. A year ago, Godot received a dose of SHIV, a lab-made conglomerate of the human and monkey versions of the AIDS virus.
Monkey shows response to new AIDS vaccine
Lead-paint study investigated
The vaccine is already in first-stage human testing.
The new vaccine is designed to start the opening counterattack by killer cells more quickly, so fewer helper cells get infected, and the virus eventually plateaus at a much lower level.
The Associated Press
Until now, all useful vaccines prevented infections. However, the human immune system cannot turn back an HIV infection, and no one knows how to make a vaccine that accomplishes something the human body cannot do for itself.
So the new vaccine is designed to accomplish the next best thing — train the immune defenses to hold an infection in check without preventing it entirely.
BALTIMORE — The government is investigating a lead-paint study of poor city children that a judge has likened to Nazi research on concentration camp prisoners.
The probe is being conducted by the Health and Human Services Department's Office for Human Research, which briefly shut down human research at Johns Hopkins University this year following the death of an asthma study volunteer.
Investigators are looking into a federally funded study by the Kennedy Krieger Institute, which is also affiliated with Johns Hopkins, that examined inexpensive alternatives for removing lead paint.
Landlords were paid to recruit about 100 families with healthy children to live in their homes during the early 1990s. Children, who can develop brain damage if they eat lead paint chips, were to be tested periodically to see how well the abatement methods worked.
Lawsuits have been filed on behalf of two children who allegedly suffered elevated
blood-lead levels and irreversible brain damage in the study. The suits seek unspecified damages from the landlords and Kennedy Krieger, a children's hospital and research center.
Last week, state Judge Dale R. Cathell allowed the lawsuits to proceed and criticized the university's Institutional Review Board for protecting the interests of researchers at the expense of the children.
The judge said the research project contained problems similar to those in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, which was conducted on uneducated black men in Alabama from the 1930s to 1970s. Cathell also drew comparisons to typhus experiments conducted on prisoners at the Buchenwald concentration camp during World War II.
Kennedy Krieger chief executive Gary Goldstein said the children ran a high risk of lead paint exposure because they already lived in older houses.
In the asthma study case, federal regulators found that researchers bypassed several safety checkpoints.
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