NATION/WORLD
Fridav. November 17, 1995
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
5A
Doctors say Janet Reno has Parkinson's
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — With medication controlling the shaking of her left hand, Attorney General Janet Reno said her newly diagnosed Parkinson's disease would neither force her from office nor cease her weekend walks along the Potomac River.
"I feel fine now," the 57-year old attorney general told her weekly news conference yesterday. "I continue to take my long walks. I don't feel like I have any impairment. I feel strong and feel like moving ahead."
She has an excellent long-term prognosis, said her doctor, Jonathan Pincus, a neurology professor at Georgetown University Medical Center. The mild tremor in her hand was completely eliminated with modest doses of medication.
Reno disclosed that she was
diagnosed three weeks ago with the progressive disease that undermines muscle control. Doctors assured her that, like hundreds of thousands of other Americans with Parkinson's, she could continue working without impairment.
For reporters, who previously had noted a tremor in her hand, Reno thrust out a steady left hand to demonstrate that medication has controlled her only symptom. She takes 1 1/2 Sinemet pills before each of her three daily meals.
Earlier in the morning, Reno had advised the White House. She said chief of staff Leon Panetta was very supportive. President Clinton telephoned Reno later in the day.
"The president has complete confidence now, as he always did, that the attorney general will continue to pursue her job in the
"I don't feel like I have any impairment. I feel strong and feel like moving ahead."
Janet Reno
Attorney General
excellent manner she has in the past," said a statement issued by the White House press office.
Reno made clear she had no intention of resigning.
Reno would be the first public figure to hold high office with Parkinson's. Former Rep. Morris Udall, D-Ariz., stayed in Congress for 12 years after his Parkinson's disease was diagnosed in 1979.
"If I didn't think I could do the
job, I'd be the first to tell President Clinton," Reno said.
It is estimated that nearly one million Americans have Parkinson's, but only half have symptoms severe enough to have been diagnosed, said Stanley Fahn, a neurology professor at New York's Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center.
The disease, which worsens over time, destroys brain cells that produce a substance called dopamine, which transmits signals in the brain.
Over time, it can cause tremors in the hands, shuffling gait, slurred speech and eventually can incapacitate people who have it. But Fahn said existing treatments
could control symptoms for years, and some experimental therapies show promise of reversing them.
"I first noticed my hand shaking over the summer, and I thought it would go away," Reno said. "When it didn't, I went to see the doctor."
teno said she had read that stress might exacerbate the symptoms. But Pincus said there was no evidence that job stress worsened the symptoms.
Reno said the disease would not interrupt her personal routine. She has been walking in segments along the Potomac River from Washington's Georgetown section toward Cumberland, Md. She already has covered 72 miles, including a 17-mile walk this fall.
Reno said she expected to walk another 20 miles in the next two weeks. "I put on my old floppy hat, and I don't look like an attorney general at all," she said.
Gingrich claims snub on Air Force One
Speaker says Clinton sat away from him and Dole
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Clinton said yesterday he was sorry if House Speaker Newt Gingrich took offense at the way he was treated on Air Force One.
Gingrich reporters that he and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole felt slighted by Clinton in a trip to and from the funeral of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
The alleged snub, the Georgia Republican told reporters, was "part of why you ended up with us sending down a tougher continuing resolution" — the stopgap spending bill that Clinton vetoed Monday. That veto led to a partial shutdown of government operations Tuesday, Wednesday, yesterday and today.
As for Gingrich using his ire as an excuse for drafting a tough spending resolution, Clinton said, "I just don't understand it." But, he said with a laugh, "I just work here."
He said he made a point of visiting with Gingrich and Dole before Air Force One landed to say goodbye and thank them for accompanying him.
"It is bizarre," said Leon Panetta, White House chief of staff, of Gingrich's reaction. "I think all of this is outrageous that they would use that kind of pettiness to shut down the federal government."
Gingrich said Wednesday that Clinton did not allow him and Dole to sit in the front of the plane during the long flight to and from Jerusalem.
that they had to exit from the rear of Air Force One — rather than with the president at the front door.
'Both of us got on that airplane ever
Furthermore, Clinton barely spoke to them during the trip, Gingrich said, and he and other congressional leaders were told upon arriving at Andrews Air Force Base
President Clinton
ing to spend several hours talking about the budget and how do we avoid the shutdown." Gingrich said, in reference to himself and Dole. Gingrich cautioned reporters against trivializing an incident he had more to do with signals than social graces.
What happened, by the speaker's account, is that Clinton walked by twice at the beginning of the trip. Panetta came back at 4 a.m. as the plane was approaching Andrews
Air Force Base and said that maybe a compromise could be reached.
"The conversation with Panetta was three minutes out of 25 hours," Gingrich said.
Find thought to be warriors' burial site
The Associated Press
MACCABIM, Israel — Archaeologists believe they have uncovered a 2,000-year-old burial cave of the Maccabees, a clan of Jewish warriors who revolted against a Syrian king that still is celebrated today with Hanukkah.
The find appears to confirm ancient Jewish accounts of the clan, a spokeswoman for the Antiquities Authority said yesterday. "This is the first proof that the Hasmoneans lived and were buried at this site," said Efraf Orbach.
The burial cave, 19 miles north of Jerusalem, was uncovered Monday when a tractor leveled ground for a highway.
The find initially was kept secret to allow archaeologists to remove the bones without interference and take them to a lab for examination.
After the discovery was announced yesterday, ultra-Orthodox protesters went to the site and shouted, "You are stealing bones!" at workers, who were guarded by police.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews believe it is forbidden to remove remains from burial sites.
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