NATION/WORLD UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, January 23, 1996
7A
Dealin' Dole wants change
The Associated Press
LITTLETON, N.H. — You say you want a revolution in Washington? Bob Dole says electing him president is the way to get it.
Although his rivals for the Republican nomination paint the Senate majority leader as a consumate capital insider, a dealmaker who is partly
responsible for government's problems, Dole is using his longevity as a pledge to make change happen.
- Magazine publisher Steve Forbes has gained some traction among voters in the nation's
first presidential primary state with his television ad blitz against Dole, tagging the five-term Kansas senator as a Washington politician. "It's time for a change."
But Dole told audiences during a two-day campaign visit to New Hampshire that many of the reforms being pushed by Congress — a balanced budget, term limits, a welfare overhaul — would become law if he is elected.
"If we're going to make fundamental change, if we're going to return power to the states, we need to change the person in the White House to someone who will sign these bills, not vet them," Dole recently told an Elks Club meeting in this town along the Vermont border.
And while his opponents use his years in Washington against him, Dole's supporters say that very experience gives greater weight
to his promises.
"It's very clear that he has the experience and the ability to put it into practice," said New Hampshire Gov. Steve Merrill. "In New Hampshire, we want people who can solve real problems."
At the Elks Club, Dole was given a newspaper clipping from 1984 detailing his selection as Republican Senate leader. In the clipping, Dole said the nation's top priority ought to be cutting the federal deficit.
Dole said the old article showed that the Republican revolution didn't start in 1994 with House Speaker Newt Gingrich and the large GOP freshman class. Dole often has been seen as a defender of the old guard and not a revolutionary, but he tells people in his speeches that the ideas are not new.
Activists rally on abortion bills
The Associated Press
TOPEKA — With four abortion bills already before the Legislature this session, abortion-rights activists say they see abortion opponents working harder than ever to whittle away at a woman's right to undergo the procedure in this state.
Abortion opponents who are members of Kansans for Life contend they are not trying to do away with abortion, they just want to make the procedure safer and involve parents in a minor's decision to have the abortion.
Both sides took the opportunity
yesterday to use the 23rd anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark Roe vs. Wade abortion decision as a benchmark from which to speak about pending legislation.
Abortion opponents, who held an early morning rally and distributed materials at tables in the State-house, focused their message on a proposal that would require physicians to provide women who sought abortions with information 24 hours in advance of the procedure.
Such information would include the doctor's name, what the procedure entails and alternatives to abortion.
"It doesn't have anything to do with choice. In fact, it makes the women make a better choice," said State Rep. Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, speaking at a Kansans for Life news conference attended by a handful of legislators and about 100 others.
"Once they learn that they have organizations that will back them, they will make the natural decision to not have the abortion," she said.
But Barbara Holzmark, president of the Kansas Choice Alliance, said the medical field is not held to such requirements for other medical procedures and should not be required to do so for abortion.
Abortion-rights activists focused
their attention at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on another proposal that would require parental consent before a minor can have an abortion.
Other proposed abortion legislation includes a bill that would outlaw saline injection abortions and one that would require the physician to anesthetize the fetus before performing the abortion.
At separate rallies yesterday, both abortion opponent and abortion-rights activist groups made their perennial gesture to legislators and Lt. Gov. Sheila Frahm with gifts hoping to sway them on the pending legislation.
Security gels secrets of Jell-O's stench
The Associated Press
WOBURN, Mass. — A few years ago, a lobbyist offered to help State Rep. Carol Donovan visit the big, four-smokestacked factory off Route 93, a four nails north of Boston.
But when Donovan appeared as scheduled, she was told she would not be given a tour. All she
food and tobacco conglomerate).
What's going on is Jell-O.
"If there's nothing on go,
why are they so protective,
and why are they keeping
everyone out, and why are
they so suspicious?" she
asked. "It makes me suspicious
of what's going on."
What is going on is not nuclear fission or top-secret weaponry.
What's going on is Jell-O.
For the past 75 years, at the Atlantic Gelatin plant in Woburn, workers have been making the stuff that wobbles, wiggles and jiggle.
"We are a food company, and keeping things very sanitary are of utmost importance to us," she said.
In the process, the plant emits both pleasant and unpleasant odors. Just don't ask to see how.
The factory, with its trim landscaping, American flag blowing in the breeze and sprawling brick building, is not easily penetrable — unless you're bringing in animal parts.
State Rep. Paul Casey, a Democrat who represents the neighboring towns of Winchester and Stoneham, was invited several years ago into a conference room to speak with factory officials, but the small room was as far as he got.
Repeated requests for a plant tour by The Associated Press were refused.
"We generally don't give tours of the plant to anybody because what goes on in our plants we consider proprietary," said Nancy Daigler, representative for Kraft Foods (Atlantic is a division of Kraft, which is a subsidiary of Philip Morris, the
Animal rendering, which heats fat to liquefy it, is at the heart of Jell-O manufacturing. And for years now, some residents of the stable, working and middle-class communities near the plant have been complaining that Atlantic Gelatin stinks up the neighborhoods.
Gelatin is made from the hide trimmings of cows and pigs, not from horns, hooves or meat.
First, the skins are washed and bathed in hot water to
remove the collagen. Once extracted, the collagen is soaked, filtered and purified, converting the collagen to gelatin, said Kraft representative Cathy Peru.
The gelatin extract is then evaporated and dried. It is sent along with flavored powders to Dover, Del, and San Leandro, Calif., for packaging.
As the hides are washed in 70-foot vats, bits of fat, hair and skin come off into the water, said Mary Persky, an environmental analyst with the state Department of Environmental Protection who has seen the inside of the plant.
Oils that are left in the hot water baths are sold for pharmaceutical and industrial use.
"The water's dirty and smells like dead animals," she said.
The plant does not emit odors all the time, she said, and when it does, the smell is likely to be fruity.
But sometimes, she said, especially when the weather is warm, the water in the vats sends a rotting smell through the surrounding hills.
Just ask Carolyn Thorne, who lives about a mile from the factory, downwind. Thorne, 53, grew up on Jell-O. But she doesn't eat it anymore.
For the last decade, Thorne has complained often to Atlantic Gelatin, the health department and the department about the odors.
She objects to the sweet smells, but the stink of rendering is worse, "it's like if you leave a piece of fat out in the sun too long."
After years of complaints, the department issued a 1992 order of compliance that forced Atlantic Gelatin to change some operating procedures.
Pernu told the plant, which employs about 270 people, had spent in the multimillions to address the problems. "We're doing everything we can to make sure we're a good neighbor," she said.
Things improved for a while, Thorne said, but the smells returned.
"If you have a month or so of odor-free air, you get that false sense of security. And then one night, you'll smell it and you'll say, 'Oh, my God, it's back.' she said."
Persky admitted that the odors still are problematic. But she said that Atlantic Gelatin had worked hard to commy with regulations.
And not everyone is disgruntled. Don Sweeney lives just a short walk from the plant. He likes the fruity smells that reach his home.
"I think it's like having a deodorizer for the whole neighborhood," he said.
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