10A • THEUNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
THURSDAY,OCTOBER 10,2002
Dockworkers prepare for huge backlog of cargo
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — West Coast dockworkers headed back to work under court order yesterday, facing a huge backlog of cargo that built up over 10 days but could take more than two months to clear.
"Simply put, it's more complicated to fix something than to break it," said John Pachtner, a spokesman for the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping companies and terminal operators.
The 10,500 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union were expected to begin reporting to work at 6 p.m., ending a lockout that shut
down 29 ports from San Diego to Seattle and cost the nation's fragile economy up to $2 billion a day by holding up exports and imports.
President Bush intervened on Tuesday, obtaining an injunction to end the shutdown.
Among the first cargo to be shipped will be perishables like seafood, meat and produce in refrigerated containers aboard some of the more than 200 ships anchored off the coast. After that, shipping companies will set their own priorities based on their customers' needs and demand for cargo.
The critical challenges will be lining up transportation on trucks, trains and planes, and
ON THE NET:
Pacific Maritime Association:
http://www.pmanet.com/
International Longshore and Warehouse Union:
http://www.ilwu.org
finding enough longshoremen for what could be round-the-clock work. Pachtner said.
"We need the ILWU to provide as many able-bodied people as possible who are fully productive," he said. "That's what will unclog the pipeline as soon as possible."
The lockout began after the maritime association accused union members of an illegal slowdown during contract talks. The
dispute centers on the use of new waterfront technology that the union believes would eliminate jobs.
On Tuesday, Bush became the first president in a quarter-century to invoke the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which allows a president to ask a federal court to stop a strike or lockout that imperils the nation's healthy and safety. A federal judge in San Francisco issued the injunction.
Dockworkers said they would go back to work, though many were unhappy about it and cited safety concerns, given the pressure to move items quickly.
The maritime association said employers would be looking for hundreds of additional workers.
Union Pacific, the nation's largest railroad, sent extra cars to West Coast ports and opened a 24-hour "war room" in its dispatch center to give priority to eastbound shipments.
But even if all available workers labored at record pace, it could take up to 10 weeks to clear the backlog, association president Joseph Mintace said.
Manufacturers hoped to get parts in time to avoid layoffs and shutdowns.
"As soon as the (port) gates open, we think we can resume truck production by Friday morning," said Michael Damer, a spokesman for New United Motor Manufacturing in Fremont.
New United — the only major auto assembly plant west of the Rockies — had closed its assembly lines last week after exhausting its supply of parts usually shipped into Oakland. It resumed production Monday using parts delivered by air from Japan.
Some truckers said they would wait until the docks were working again before deciding how to proceed. "A lot of drivers aren't going to go because it will be backed up," said Stephanie Williams of the California Trucking Association.
The truckers are a key link in the transportation chain because they haul cargo between the waterfront and inland storage points.
'Date-rape drugs' detectors may backfire
The Associated Press
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Colleges around the country are buying millions of coasters that test for "date-rape" drugs in drinks. But some experts say the coasters are ineffective and could lead to more assaults by creating a false sense of security.
The manufacturers — who also make fake snow and party foam — say the 40-cent paper coasters are 95 percent accurate. The coasters have test spots that are supposed to turn dark blue in about 30 seconds if a splash of alcohol contains drugs often used to incapacitate victims.
In tests at the Michigan State Police Crime Lab, however, the coasters failed to react clearly to drinks spiked with gamma hydroxybutyrate, a major date rape drug known as GHB, said forensic scientist Anne Gierlowski.
"We tested red wine, cola, whiskey and orange juice and because three out of the four have color already, it was very hard to decipher a color change," she said. "It's a nice idea, but it's probably a nicer idea for the people selling them because they've probably made a lot of money."
Plantation, Fla.-based Drink Safe Technologies Inc. has sold about 50 million of the coasters since March mostly to colleges and convenience stores, said president Francisco Guerra.
Guerta likens the coasters to condoms: While not 100 percent safe and effective, they are a good prevention tool.
"I've had 100 people say this saved them from getting raped," said Guerilla, a former magician. "Before me, there was no way to detect it. It's nice to be able to do something about it."
A federal task force recently estimated that college drinking leads to an estimated 70,000 sexual assaults or rapes annually.
Yasmine Timberlake, a sophomore at San Jose State University, was grateful for the coasters handed out by the YWCA at a bar near campus.
"We're girls, and we've got to be careful," she said, putting a handful in her purse. "That's all we can do."
And students are now openly talking about date rape at St. Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, which bought 800 coasters to pass out to freshmen.
"That's the purpose: to educate them and to make them more aware," said Donnie Jeffrey, who runs St. Mary's alcohol-awareness program.
The coasters' labels promise they will help "identify the presence of illicit drugs in beverages." But in response to questions from The Associated Press, co-inventor Brian Glover, a New York dentist who dabbles in chemistry, acknowledged that the coasters can identify just two of the many date-rape drugs — GHB and ketamine.
There are 36 drugs on the street classified as date-rape drugs, too many for police field tests to detect, said Trinka Porrata, a retired Los Angeles detective who is an authority on GHB.
"I'm horrified to think people are actually buying it and passing it out. I think it will do more damage than it will ever do good," said Porrata, a board member of Project GHB, a prevention and education organization.
"If it was that simple, we could shut down all of our crime labs," he said.
Islamic charity leader indicted on racketeering
The Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP) — The leader of a Chicago-area Islamic charity was indicted yesterday on racketeering charges accusing him of funneling donations to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.
Enaam M. Arnaout, 40, of the Chicago suburb of Justice, head of Benevolence International Foundation, has been held in federal custody since April.
The indictment said a criminal enterprise that existed for at least a decade had used charitable contributions of innocent Muslims, non-Muslims and corporations to support bin Laden's al-Qaida network, Chechen rebels fighting the Russian army and armed violence in Bosnia.
"It is sinister to prey on good hearts to fund the works of evil," U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said in announcing the charges in Chicago. "We will find
the sources of terrorist blood money."
Arnout was charged with one count each of racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to launder money, money laundering and wire fraud. He also was charged with two counts of mail fraud.
If convicted, Arnaout could be sentenced to 90 years in prison without parole. Ashcroft said.
According to the indictment, Benevolence International and Arnaud engaged in a pattern of racketering. The objective was to support Islamic warriors around the world by raising funds.
The organizations involved were al-Qaida and Hezb e Islami, a militant group.
Arnaout was charged in April with perjury after filing a sworn statement denying that he had provided support to terrorist organizations.
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