2A
The Inside Front
Wednesday September 17,1997
News
from campus, the state, the nation and the world
CAMPUS/AREA
"Kansas Alumni," a magazine for KU alumni, has had its delivery date postponed after the UPS strike delayed ink and paper delivery to the printer.The magazine was printed Sept. 10. Originally, it should have been mailed by Sept. 2.
More than 78 corporations and 700 students are expected today at the Engineering and Computer Science Fair 1997.
NATION
Washington — President Clinton began an aggressive lobbying effort for his trade proposal yesterday, while organized labor countered with a costly ad campaign criticizing the legislation.
Washington — After two diet drugs were pulled from the market because of their health risks, consumer groups and doctors warn that other drugs could be similarly risky because of the way the Food and Drug Administration approves new drugs.
Cleveland — A city employee punched a 4 instead of 1, and $617,597 ended up in the hands of an anti-crime group. Now, the city is prosecuting members of the group for spending part of it.
INTERNATIONAL
Moscow — The latest scare aboard Mir was a U.S. satellite that zipped by the space station, Russian officials said yesterday, coming within 500 yards and forcing three crew members into an escape capsule for fear of a collision.
Jerusalem — Jewish extremists ignored Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's appeal to leave an Arab neighborhood of Jerusalem yesterday, causing fear that Palestinian anger could lead to riots.
CAMPUS/AREA
UPS strike delays printing of 'Kansas Alumni' edition
Forty thousand KU alumni and friends may be wondering what has happen to the fall edition of "Kansas Alumni" magazine.
The magazine should have been in the mail by the first week of September. But it lost its production date last month because the UPS strike kept paper and ink from arriving at the printer, Banta Publications, Liberty, Mo.
"All of our customers have been very patient and understanding," said Carmalita Anglin, a customer service representative at Banta Publications.
"Kansas Alumni," which covers campus events and alumni activities, is printed six times a year. The late issue is the fifth of the year.
According to managing editor Chris Lazarino, the issue should have been printed, labeled and mailed by Sept. 2.
"It been a little bit of added work for us." Lazarzio said.
Staff members are trying to work on the next issue while pushing for the last one to be printed, he said.
The editor, Jennifer Jackson Sanner, who is on maternity leave, had to spend a lot of time negotiating with the printer for a new date, Lazzarino said. The issue went to press Sept. 10 and should arrive in subscriber's mail by the end of this week.
Subscribers may not notice the magazine's tardiness.
"We decided to number the issues rather than assign dates, just for this reason," Lazzarino said.
— Kansan staff report
Engineering school holds job fair today at Holidome
The engineering school's Career Services Center will sponsor the Engineering and Computer Science Fair 1997 from 1 to 6 p.m. today at the Lawrence Holidome Convention Center.
Last year, 65 corporations were represented. Today's fair is expected to attract 78 corporations and more than 700 students.
Students can submit their resumes and talk with corporate representatives.
For more information, consult the school's Web site at www.engr.ukans.edu/~engr-car or call 843-3891.
NATION
More drug problems possible doctors, consumers warn
WASHINGTON — The diet-drug fiasco has consumer groups and doctors issuing a warning. It could happen again.
The Food and Drug Administration is under intense pressure to approve new drugs faster as Congress tries to further speed the process. Yet the country has no
"This is a tragedy and a disaster," said Raymond Woosley of Georgetown University. "As we get drugs approved more rapidly, it will happen more often."
foolproof way to catch surprise side effects like the heart damage that forced two diet drugs off the market this week after millions of Americans had taken them.
Woolsey joined a group of drug-safety experts who urged the government yesterday to establish an independent Center for Drug Surveillance to monitor the nation's 3,200 prescription drugs for unexpected safety problems.
For $100 million — or half a cent for every prescription written — such a center could provide a better early-warning system, Woosley said.
The FDA acknowledges that its own drug monitoring needs improvement. The FDA relies mostly on physicians voluntarily reporting slide effects to an agency program called MedWatch. Then a handful of FDA's MedWatch employees tries to spot dangerous trends.
"I've been real unhappy about our internal system," said Janet Woodcock, FDA drug evaluation director. She said that this fall the MedWatch program would be updated and computerized to better detect potential problems.
Today, the MedWatch office has four employees and a $140,000 budget. Drug monitoring is supplemented by other FDA staffs.
Stopping sales of already approved drugs is fairly rare. Counting the diet drugs Redux and Pondimin, withdrawn on Monday, only 13 drugs have been pulled off the market since 1980.
President battles Congress unions for trade legislation
WASHINGTON — Plunging into a difficult fight, President Clinton led an aggressive lobbying effort in Congress yesterday for passage of legislation designed to promote future trade deals.
Organized labor countered with a costly ad campaign.
While senior aides provided details of the long-delayed legislation to key lawmakers of both parties, Clinton went to the Capitol for a meeting with rank-and-file Democrats, many of them skeptical about the proposal.
In brief remarks before departing the White House, Clinton said that 12 million jobs were supported by exports. The nation must embrace global growth and expand American exports, he said.
The legislation would give Clinton the ability to negotiate international trade accords subject to a yes-or-no vote in Congress and without possibility of amendment—a procedure known as fast-track.
In a concession to majority Republicans, the administration's proposal does not contain the provisions many Democrats had sought to bar other countries from exploiting their workers or sacrificing environmental protection to gain advantage over American firms.
Instead, Clinton pledged to use his executive authority to negotiate side agreements covering labor and the environment—as he did with NAFTA in 1993.
Given the splits within the two parties, a
"It will be a tough job in getting the votes," House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, told reporters yesterday, stressing his insistence that Clinton submit a bill without the labor provisions sought by Democrats.
struggle as difficult as the one that led to passage of NAFTA is likely.
Republicans react cautiously to the details of the legislation released at the White House. "We appear to be off to a good, constructive start," said Rep. Bill Archer, R-Texas, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
The AFL-CIO announced it had begun airing television and radio commercials attacking the legislation as granting special powers to rush through flawed trade deals like NAFTA. The commercials will run in the districts of 13 lawmakers of both parties who are undecided, as well as statewide in California on radio.
inadvertent keyboard punches turn into a landfall for group
What happened next was itself a crime: Members of the organization converted the money into checks and spent a chunk of it, even though they say they didn't know where the money came from, prosecutors said.
CLEVELAND — A city employee inadvertently punched in a four instead of a one, and $617,597 wound up in the account of an anti-crime group.
Now, two leaders of the organization devoted to fighting Black-on-Black crime have been charged with grand theft. And the mayor, facing a primary on Sept. 30, has suspended seven city employees, including his finance director.
Art McKoy, founder of Black on Black Crime Inc. and chairman Abdul Rahim Ali Hasan could get up to five years in jail if convicted.
The men insist that the bank told them the deposit was legitimate, and that they thought it might have come from a grant they had applied for or from an anonymous benefactor.
They won't say how they spent the money — nor will prosecutors — but in the past week, the men have returned $146,000 and a 1991 Mercedes.
Mayor Michael R. White said the men had known exactly what they had been doing.
White has cleaned house in the wake of the blunder. Suspensions ranging from 10 to 30 days without pay took effect yesterday, and new bookkeeping procedures are being implemented. White also said he would bring in accountants to check the books.
The trouble started March 31, when a data operator made the typo on a city voucher, sending a utility payment intended for Cinergy Services Inc. to Black on Black, which received a mere $7,000 from the city last year.
Two clerks who are supposed to make sure payments are correct missed the mistake.
Both clerks and the data operator were among those suspended.
The April 1 wire transfer wasn't caught until August because the city was behind on balancing its books. It took five more weeks to track the money and notify White.
INTERNATIONAL
Speeding satellite whizzes by Russian space station
MOSCOW — This time, the scare didn't come from Mir's aging equipment or a crew member's error.
In a reversal of roles, American space officials played down the Monday night incident and said the defunct satellite had been twice that distance from Mir.
"It wasn't anything major. ...This happens every month," said John Lawrence, a representative of the U.S. space agency.
A U.S. satellite zipped by the space station, coming within 500 yards of Mir and forcing its three occupants into an escape capsule because they feared a collision, Russian officials said yesterday.
Vera Medvedkova, a representative at Russia's Mission Control, said it had been Mir's closest brush with an unrelated spacecraft in its 11 years in orbit. If two airplanes pass at 1,000 yards in U.S. airspace, it is considered a near-miss.
Near-collision or not, the incident provided a reminder of the hazards of space traffic and the deadly potential of a crash of objects crisscrossing at a sharp angle at 17,500 mph.
"at orbital speed, even a grain of sand carries the impact of a .38-berel bullet," said James Oberg, an American space engineer who tracks the Russian program closely.
Though Russian officials spoke matter-of-factly about it Tuesday, the rare decision to send the Russian-American crew into the Soyuz capsule as a precaution showed how serious they considered the risk.
"Had it hit the structure, you're talking about a catastrophic failure. The shock wave would have hit anything else in there." Oberr said by telephone from Houston.
Mir already has been dented by one cosmic collision — a June 25 docking exercise in which a cargo craft bashed into the Spektr module.
Still living with the effects of that crash, the crew had barely finished fixing the Mir's cranky main computer Monday night when they were warned that an object was approaching the station.
ON THE RECORD
A KU student's 1991 Honda Accord was damaged and Pioneer stereo compact disc player was stolen between 2:45 a.m. and 7:50 p.m. Saturday from lot 102, KU police said. The items and damage were estimated at $400.
A KU student's KUID with bus pass, driver's license, $15 and other items were stolen between 2:20 and 2:30 p.m. from Jayhawk Boulevard, KU police said. The items were valued at $131.
A KU student's $160 was stolen between 11:30 a.m. Thursday and 1:20 p.m. Monday from room 100 in Green Hall, KU police said.
CORRECTION
The Students Tutoring for Literacy training session will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in Alcove A of the Kansas Union.
ET CETERA
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