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                        OF NOTE...
                        News to Use

Vol. III, Issue 63                                June 15, 1994
Earl Appleby, Jr., Editor                         CURE, Ltd.

                         Addictions

"Humans crave it. So do the mice and monkeys. Give these animals repeat
doses of nicotine and they will practically beg for more. More than a
decade of laboratory experiments has established a scientific basis for
what smokers and research scientists have long suspected: that nicotine
is a powerfully addictive chemical that makes cigarettes as difficult to
kick as heroin, cocaine, or alcohol." (Nicotine Found as Hard to Kick as
Cocaine, Jonathan Bor, Baltimore Sun, 4/14/94)

The war against tobacco reached new heights yesterday with the release of
documents that seem to contradict the tobacco industry's repeated
insistence that it does not manipulate cigarette nicotine levels. Rep.
Henry Waxman (D-CA), Congress's leading tobacco critic and chairman of
the House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee, released a 1981 report
by Alexander W. Spears, vice chairman and chief operating officer for
Lorillard Tobacco Company, describing how higher nicotine levels can be
achieved in cigarettes by using specific tobacco blends and suggesting
their addition to low-tar cigarettes to boost their nicotine level. Yet,
Spears affirmed in congressional testimony March 25 that "we do not set
nicotine levels for particular brands of cigarettes."  Fumed Waxman,
"Once again, tobacco industry representatives have not only withheld
information, but they have misrepresented the truth. " (Papers Contradict
Tobacco Industry, Baltimore Sun, 4/14/94)

In California's San Mateo County, repeat drunken drivers are being asked
not only to swear off alcohol but sweets as well. The experimental
rehabilitation program, whose participants forgo candy bars, cake, and
cookies is believed to be a first. Based on the belief that the body of
an alcoholic metabolizes sugar differently, the program derives from a
nutritional program at a private Minnesota clinic and research at a San
Francisco counseling center. Kathleen DeMaisons, project director for the
program, says research indicates that alcoholics are more sensitive to
sugar and compulsive in its use. Alcohol, a simple sugar, often becomes
the focus os such compulsion and, consequently, physiological abuse.
Besides the usual jail, fines, and standard alcoholism rehabilitation,
participants in San Mateo's yearlong program consume a diet high in
proteins, complex carbohydrates, fruits, and vegetables. If the theory is
sound, their blood sugar levels will stabilize, decreasing their cravings
for sugar and alcohol. The project is funded by a $53,150 foundation
grant. Ironically, the average cost to the offender, the victim, and tha
taxpayer of a drunk driving-caused accident is $50,000. (Experiment Has
Alcoholics Curbing Their Sweet Tooth, Christine Wilson, WT, 6/6/94)

"What Paul Cox told fellow members of Alcoholics Anonymous was more
shocking than most of the stories in the recovery program. The 26-year-
old carpenter told them he believed that. in a drunken blackout in 1988,
he stabbed to death two married doctors as they slept in Cox's childhood
home in Larchmont--an affluent New York suburb. As horrible as the act
was, the people Cox confided to kept his secret. And the 1988 slayings of
Lakshman Rao and Shanta Chervu, Indian immigrants, remained a mystery
until the police were tipped of Cox's belief...Now Cox is on trial on
second-degree murder charges....Cox pleaded innocent. His lawyer, Andrew
Rubin, argued in his opening statement that if Cox committed the killing
he was temporarily insane. But the case has brought into question the
limits of confidentiality of therapeutic programs like AA. Members of
Alcoholics Anonymous are required to confess their alcohol-induced
wrongdoings to a higher power and another person. Rubin asked the judge
to block the testimony of AA members because conversations with them were
privileged, as with a priest or lawyer. The motion was denied. One of the
AA's 12 traditions says: 'The principles of anonymity have an immense
spiritual significance.' But a spokesman for Alcoholics Anonymous World
Services, who asked not to be identified, says confidentiality is not an
'AA word.'" (Drunken Stupor Turns Deadly, Bruce Frankel, USAT, 6/8/94)

"Federal regulators have decided against taking any action against Joe
Camel, the hip cartoon character RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company uses to
advertise Camel cigarettes, officials said yesterday. The Federal Trade
Commission voted May 31 to close an investigation of whether the company
uses Joe Camel to encourage children to smoke...'Although it may seem
intuitive to some that the Joe Camel advertising campaign would lead more
children to smoke or lead children to smoke more, the evidence to support
that intuition is not there,' the commission said. RJ Reynolds called the
decision 'a complete vindication.'" (FTC Fails to Find Joe Camel Ads Got
Children to Smoke, Baltimore Sun, 6/8/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: We do
not find fault with the FTC decision, but--unlike the Associated Press--
we do not find the drug-dependent dromedary "hip."

West Virginia will become the third state to sue the tobacco industry in
a bid to recoup the health care costs of taxpayers who smoke. On May 23,
Mississippi, seeking compensation for government funds allocated to
Medicaid, indigent care at state hospitals, and insurance on state
workers and state retirees due to smoking-related illnesses, sued 13
tobacco companies. A week later Florida's governor signed a bill that
enables the state to file suit on behalf of Medicaid patients who smoke.
(West Virginia Also Will Sue Tobacco Companies, Baltimore Sun, 6/8/94)

The largest study of its kind corroborates the findings of earlier
studies demonstrating a cancer risk from secondhand smoke. Dr. Elizabeth
Fontham, of the Louisiana State Medical Center, reports in this week's
Journal of the American Medical Association that nonsmoking wives who
live with smokers have about a 30% increased chance of developing lung
cancer, compared with women in tobacco-free homes. "The Tobacco
Institute, which had representatives waiting in the hall outside the news
conference room, immediately denounced the study." (Wife's Cancer Risk
Increases 30% If Husband Smokes, Baltimore Sun, 6/8/94)

According to the National Commission on Substance Abuse at Colleges and
Universities, the percentage of college women who drink alcohol to get
drunk has tripled since the mid 1970s and now nearly equals the rate of
college men who drink for the same reason. The report--released
yesterday--says "binge drinking," which it defines as at least five
drinks in one night, is the worst substance-abuse problem on campus and
concludes alcohol is involved in most major campus crises, including
academic difficulties, AIDS transmission, rape, and other violent crimes.
"Alcohol abuse must not be accepted as a rite of passage." --Rev. Edward
Malloy, Commission chairman, president, Notre Dame University. (Women
Drinking Like Men, College Alchohol Study Finds, Brooke Masters,
Washington Post, 6/8/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: See also, More College
Women Drinking to Get Drunk, Baltimore Sun, 6/8/94.

"College women are gaining ground on men in a race both would be better
off losing: the contest for campus drunk...Students of both sexes,
meanwhile, continue to drink excessively despite an overall decline in
the general population. All of this is easily passed off as a rite of
passage. 'So what,' people say, 'we did it, too.' Well, here's what, as
revealed in the Columbia [University] report: About 90% of all rape and
80% of all vandalism cases are alcohol-related, and alcohol is implicated
in 40% of academic and 28% of dropout problems. As many as 360,000 of
today's undergraduates will die from alcohol-related causes--more than
will get advanced degrees...Alcohol abuse as a rite of passage must yield
to responsibility as a way of life." (Deadly Drinking, ed, USAT, 6/9/94)

"Smoking causes cancer--not only for smokers but for those around them.
That's the irrefutable conclusion from the American Medical Association's
huge new study on cancer among nonsmoking women...The reality that
secondhand smoke causes 3,000 or so lung cancer deaths adds to the
overwhelming case made by previous studies for more stringent controls to
limit tobacco's damage. There's simply no reason asthma patients should
suffer a million attacks and 300,000 kids respiratory infections each
year so smokers can feed a habit...The facts are plain. Smoking endangers
non-smokers, too. It should be banned in buildings open to the public,
and smokers should be taught about and taxed for its awful consequences."
(Keep Up the Pressure to Discourage Smoking, ed, USA Today, 6/9/94)

"Puritanism, to paraphrase HL Mencken, is based on the impulse that
punishment is the only recourse against those who have the capacity for
happiness. Puritanism, it seems, by the steady and loud drumbeat against
smokers and smoking is alive and well in the United States. In the
crusade to make society 'smoke-free,' otherwise rational thinking becomes
unreasonable...It's time to let adults who have already heard the anti-
smoking message, smoke if that is what they choose. It's time to stop
arguing that smokers, who already pay billions more than non-smokers in
taxes, should pay extra so the government can tell them yet again what
they've already heard...It's time to recognize that the 50 million adults
who smoke--one in four adults in the United States--are due the same
rights and reasonable treatment accorded to those who do not smoke. It's
time to stop being the public nanny." (Stop Picking on Smokers, Brennan
Dawson, op-ed, USA Today, 6/9/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: Mr. Dawson is
vice president of the Tobacco Institute in Washington, DC.

                         AIDS Addenda

Despite stern condemnation of a method that killed one of the first
patients to try it, the Food and Drug Administration has agreed to allow
Dr. Kenneth Alonso to heat the blood of six AIDS patients to see whether
hyperthermia kills HIV, the AIDS virus. Dr. Alonso and a colleague
pioneered the method in 1990 but a report by the National Institutes of
Health slammed the research asserting that one subject for whom a cure
was claimed did not even have AIDS--he had cat scratch fever. In the face
of such crushing criticism, Dr. Alonso moved his experiment to Mexico
where the third person ever treated died. (Use of Heat OK'd in Bid to
Kill HIV in 6 Patients, Baltimore Sun, 4/14/94)

"Luke Sissyfag, an AIDS activist known for heckling President Clinton,
announced yesterday that he is running for DC mayor to force the other
candidates and voters to discuss battling the fatal disease. 'The
campaign is about AIDS. AIDS is the issue,' Sissyfag said at the National
Press Club, blasting Clinton, the DC government, and Mayor Sharon Pratt
Kelly for doing to little to prevent the spread of the disease and find a
cure...A political independent..., Sissyfag said he moved to the District
a year ago and is a full-time AIDS activist, relying on private donations
for financial support. He has grabbed media attention on several
occasions by yelling at President Clinton during public appearances,
accusing him of failing to live up to his campaign promises." (AIDS
Activist Luke Sissyfag Enters Race for Mayor, But His Camp Isn't All
Political, Nell Henderson, Washington Post, 6/8/94)

"A saddened Brunswick, MD community will gather today to again remember
the spirit and courage of Cindy Gibson, whose battle against AIDS touched
the town like few other events. Cindy, 18, a popular senior at Brunswick
High School, died Saturday from an AIDS-related stroke at Georgetown
University Hospital, just two days before her high school graduation
ceremony. 'She was extremely courageous,' said Amanda Jesse, 18, a close
friend and graduating senior who read a short speech about Cindy at
Monday night's ceremony. 'She took a risk by telling everybody she had
AIDS, and the risk was that people would not accept her...The community
support meant a lot to Cindy, and in turn she educated Brunswick and the
surrounding area not only about AIDS, but dealing with people with
contagious and terminal illnesses.'...Cindy, who had also suffered from
sickle cell anemia, contracted AIDS in December 1983 from a blood
transfusion. She learned at age 12 that she had HIV, the AIDS virus.
'Don't be afraid to be a friend to me,' her letter to the media and
schoolmates said some 18 months ago. 'I really need your friendship.'"
(Cindy's Courage, Matt Neufeld, Washington Times, 6/8/94) ABLEnews
Editor's Note: Requiescat in pace, Cindy.

                         Animal Rites

"Tel Aviv--Three dolphins stranded by a bankruptcy are the central
figures in the great Flipper Flap. From limbo in an abandoned pool, they
have been saved--or condemned, depending on who's doing the telling--to
perform in an amusement park. It is yet another controversy from Israel
taking on international dimensions. The dolphins were part of a
contingent obtained from Russia to put on entertainment shows at
Dolphinarium, a shabby 13-year-old beachfront building on Tel Aviv's
Mediterranean coast. Some months ago, the business went under...leaving
behind a stack of bills, including one to the power company, which moved
to shut off the electricity...Enter Haim Slutzsky, an entertainment
promoter (Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, the Bolshoi Ballet) and owner of
two amusement parks in Tel Aviv. He brought in generators to keep the
pool engines going and dug into his pocket to buy food...'I gave them a
place to survive,' he said. The place turns out to be a large metal pool
at Luna Park, one of his amusement centers. He proposed bringing three of
the dolphins there to perform...The animal tights groups that had lauded
Mr. Slutzsky for his quick action now were appalled...The groups began
raising a fuss. They staged demonstrations. They made appeals that
brought an avalanche of support from international save-the-dolphins
groups. Rick O'Barry. a Floridian who had helped train the original TV
Flippers (there were seven of them) jetted here to start a hunger strike.
...The feud soon engulfed public officials. Environment Minister Yossi
Sarid proclaimed that no more dolphins will be imported to Israel for
commercial purposes. But officials balked at deporting the ones here now.
Robi Damelin said he and his fellow Noah members are trying to speak up
for the dolphins, who cannot complain for themselves. 'The dolphins have
this smile that gets them into trouble,' he said. 'They always look so
cheerful. It's an illusion.'" Three Abandoned Dolphins Arouse Concern in
Israel, Doug Struck, Baltimore Sun, 3/17/94)

                         Cancer Chronicles

Examining records at the University of Pittsburgh in 1990, a breast
cancer researcher found that he had received two different reports on a
Montreal patient who was part of a large, federally sponsored study. The
reports showed different dates for surgery. The detection of that simple
discrepancy led to a startling discovery: For 13 years, Dr. Roger
Poisson, a Canadian surgeon had been enrolling unqualified patients in
large-scale clinical trials whose findings have changed the way,
physicians treat breast cancer. Disclosures about the belated discovery
and its haphazard publicizing has sent shock waves through the world of
cancer research, toppling such giants as Dr. Bernard Fisher of the
University of Pittsburgh. (Cancer Researchers Credibility Ailing, Kathy
Sawyer, Washington Post, 3/17/94)

"Through it all, Paul Anziger never said. 'Why me?' Not when he found for
certain that the searing pain in his right shoulder was cancer. Not when
he was so sick from  chemotherapy that he couldn't stand up. Not when he
woke up and found tufts of hair on his pillow. Not even in the dark
moments when he wondered whether he would be alive for them 1994 P.G.A.
championship much less defending his title in it. 'When something like
this happens, you can scream, 'Why me? Why me? Why me, God?'' said
Anziger. 'You can run away or you can do an about face and run to God.
That's what I did. He had a plan.'" (To Anziger, Cancer Becomes a
Blessing, Larry Dorman, New York Times, 5/17/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note:
Of course, it need not be an either/or proposition. Faith in God by no
means precludes questioning Him.

Despite growing evidence that tamoxifen increases the risk of uterine
cancer, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted yesterday to
allow clinical trials of the anti-breast cancer drug to resume without
major changes. Prior studies have found tamoxifen reduces the odds of
breast cancer reoccurrence by 40%. The new trial--suspended following
concerns about the accuracy of its data [ABLEnews Editor's Note: See
Cancer Researchers' Credibility Ailing above]--seeks to discover whether
tamoxifen can prevent breast cancer from occurring in the first place.
This intensifies the controversy as the drug, which appears to carry a
higher risk of causing uterine cancer than was believed when the FDA
first approved the Breast Cancer Prevention Trial in 1991, would be given
to healthy women, who do not have breast cancer. Adriene Fugh-Berman, of
the National Women's Health Network, told the FDA panel: "While tamoxifen
is a reasonable drug for women with breast cancer to take, it is too
dangerous for healthy women...When physicians knowingly administer a
carcinogen to healthy women, it is not only wombs and lives at stake, but
the integrity of the medical profession." But Leslie Ford, chief of
Immunology, Oncology and Rehabilitation, at the National Cancer
Institute, says that all cancers are not created equal. "It's not simply
a matter of counting cases. You have to look at the overall risks and
overall benefits. For the most part, endometrial cancers are curable."
ABLEnews Editor's Note: Ford cites the mortality rate for endometrial
cancers "as much as 20%" and that of breast cancer as "about 50%." (FDA
Panel Votes to Resume Tamoxifen Trials, John Schwartz, WP, 6/8/94)
ABLEnews Editor's Note: See also, FDA Panels Says Study of Breast Cancer
Drug Should Be Resumed Despite Fears, Baltimore Sun, 6/8/94)

"Dave Allen was blessed with a large circle of friends, many of them
musicians like himself. Tonight, he will be the focus of a tribute at the
Birchmere, a concert featuring 28 local musicians, most of whom
participated in a new 12 song-collection, 'Friends of Dave Allen:
Celebration of a Dreamer.' Money from the concert and album sales will go
into a trust fund for Allen's three children--Michael, 16, Nick, 11, and
Virginia, 5. Before his death from cancer in September of 1992, Allen's
had become a tale of two cities--Washington and Nashville--and of a
songwriting career just beginning to blossom. He'd recently had his first
national hit--the Forrester Sisters' version of 'I Got a Date'--and the
Nashville Bluegrass Band included two Allen songs, 'When I Get Where I'm
Going' and 'On Again, Off Again' on what would later become a Grammy
Award-winning album...Allen...was well respected as a songwriter and an
entertainer, but perhaps even more as a person, says Dusty Rose, who put
together both the album and tonight's concert. 'Dave had a way of patting
everyone on the back, says Rose...'He knew that to keep your own dream
alive, it's really good to help keep other's dreams alive, to encourage
people, to chase them, and not to give them up. Dave always gave that to
everybody, and he was definitely an inspiration.'...In April 1992, Allen
found out he had cancer of the esophagus but that it hadn't metastasized.
He was quickly enrolled in an experimental program at John Hopkins, but
on the day he was supposed to enter it, he suffered a stroke. According
to his sister [Barbara Moscovitz], 'in that 10-day period the cancer
metastasized and there was nothing they could do.' Allen's illness
unleashed a flood of responses: 'Letters came from all over the country
about how much his support had meant to them,' she said. More tellingly,
songwriters, musicians, and friends spent a great deal of time with Allen
during his hospitalization. 'To know Dave was to love him,' says [music
publisher] Woody Bomar, 'and people felt a real reciprocal affection. All
that knew him realized that if they were in trouble, he'd be there for
them and they wanted to be there for him.'" (Paying Tribute to Dave
Allen, Richard Harrington, Washington Post, 6/8/94)

                         COMPUTations

"As federal spending goes, $126 million is chump change, a mere pittance.
In Washington, they toss billions around like rice at a wedding. In fact,
I'm almost embarrassed mentioning so trivial a sum. The McGoofy Group
would probably throw me off their show if I brought it up. However, I
have just written a check to Internal Revenue, so right now $126 million
looks like an impressive wad. And I have found out that this particular
$126 million is what the new Clinton budget has set aside for grants to
help develop the ballyhooed 'information superhighway.' You've probably
heard of this 'information superhighway.' But chances are you aren't
quite sure  what it is. Don't feel left out. Few understand what it
means, including the politicians who want to toss the $126 million at
it." )Information Highway Trip Way Too Expensive, Mike Royko, op-ed,
Martinsburg Journal, 2/14/94)

"I'm trying to be real sophisticated about the proposed information
highway and skyway technology. When computer freaks say how wonderful
it's going to be for natives of New Guinea to be able to see 'Starsky and
Hutch' reruns or for a Tibetan monk to order Birkenstocks from the QV
shopping channel, I nod and say: 'I'm really excited about that. Think
how that's going to advance mankind.' I try to sound sincere when I'm
saying it. The idea of launching 840 satellites the size of refrigerators
into the atmosphere to link together the word is mind-boggling--
especially, in view of the fact that I am still trying to master the
phone system here on earth...The phrase made famous by the late Bobby
Kennedy, but written by George Bernard Shaw, says, 'You see things, and
you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were, and I say, 'Why
not?'" People like me ask, 'Who cares?'" (A Wreck on the Information
Highway, Erma Bombeck, op-ed, Baltimore Sun, 4/14/94)

                         Dateline World

"Faced with a deadly strain of bacteria that has killed 11 people this
year, government officials on Thursday tried to reassure the public. But
many Britons weren't buying the sell job. The Public Health Laboratory
Service announced that since January 1 they had confirmed 15 cases of
necrotizing fasciitis, a virulent flesh-killing form of the streptococcus
bacteria...Those figures were supposed to ease Britons' fears. 'The
public should be reassured that there is no 'killer bug' sweeping the
country,' said Dr. Diana Walford, of the government-funded service...But
others were concerned. David Blunkett of the opposition Labor Party
accused the government of 'gross irresponsibility' for cutting staff and
closing a research laboratory at the service, which investigates and
tries to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. In Gloucestershire,
the county with the largest number of cases, some residents were
concerned that doctors still don't know why it strikes. 'It's horrible,'
said Joanne Hodges, 19, who works in a coffee shop in the town of Stroud.
'The government obviously doesn't know ho to treat it; that's why so many
people are dead.'...Doctors are perplexed about the concentration of
cases in Gloucestershire...The streptoccocus A bacterium, which causes
the infection, is found in about one in every 12 people. Strep infections
are easily treated with antibiotics, but virulent forms can kill if not
treated properly...Hilda Renn, 72, a retired school secretary, was also
skeptical about the government's motives in trying to lay down the
disease. 'I'm always suspicious that it's a political thing,' she said."
(Strep Shows Off Its Deadly Side, Martinsburg Journal, 5/27/94) ABLEnews
Editor's Note: For a report on the US outbreak of necrotizing fasciitis,
see Killer Bacteria under Public Health below.

                         Family Affair

"With the unveiling of the president's welfare reform plan just weeks
away, the Clinton administration remains torn over a perennial question:
Should women on welfare be denied an automatic increase in their cash
benefits if they get pregnant again? Few other issues in the debate over
welfare reform stir such passions...Advocates for the poor say family
caps encourage abortion, violate a woman's fundamental right to decide
when to have a baby, and punish families who already cannot afford the
most basic essentials...Proponents of the caps say working mothers don't
get a raise when they give birth (although they do get another tax
deduction), so why should women on welfare? It is unfair, they argue, to
ask taxpayers...to subsidize a welfare mother's decision to get pregnant
again." (Welfare Reformers Debate Limiting Additional Babies, Baltimore
Sun, 3/17/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: But it is not the decision to get
pregnant but the decision to give birth that is underwritten hence the
impetus to coerced abortions.

"President Clinton has an unlikely chorus of new Democrats and old
Republicans singing from the same welfare reform hymnal. The refrain is
to 'end welfare as we know it' by requiring recipients to work after a
limited time on the welfare rolls. Many governors, including Governor
Schaeffer, have joined in the chorus. The Maryland General Assembly is
considering a bill to mandate work after 18 months. This movement has
been heralded as a fresh, tough approach to the catastrophic social
problem of welfare dependency. When Bill Clinton campaigned to bring
'change' to America, replacing welfare with work was a prime example. But
how much change is there in time-limited benefits followed by a work
requirement? And how much chance is there that they will succeed?
Regrettably, the answer to both questions is little to none. Work
requirements have been part of the welfare law since 1967...[when]
Congress passed the Work Incentive Program which generally forced
recipients to undertake work or training or face sanctions...There is no
reason to suppose that Mr. Clinton's work requirements will be any more
successful. First, there aren't enough jobs to go around. Even welfare
recipients who complete training must compete against other more highly
skilled job seekers...Even if more private- or public-sector jobs were
available; many long-term recipients would be unlikely to stick with them
if welfare benefits remained an alternative...When welfare is an
alternative, they don't stay attached to low-paying jobs that offer no
health insurance or child care, few promotional opportunities, and little
job security. Work requirements might work only if sanctions for non-
compliance were strictly enforced. Yet stiff sanctions are resisted
because children would suffer...There are trade-offs and risks all
around. Yet we know that work requirements, as proposed by President
Clinton, won't work. A new social compact--guaranteed jobs for all
Americans and a complete end to welfare might." --Kalman Hettleman,
executive director, Baltimore Mentoring Institute. (A New Framework for
Social Welfare, Hettleman, op-ed, Baltimore Sun, 3/22/94) ABLEnews
Editor's Note: As a former WIN state coordinator, I find the author
raises some valid points. In that role and earlier as a welfare case
technician, I learned the working poor are denied critical benefits
afforded welfare recipients. Many--if not most--AFDC mothers do not
choose to be on welfare. Those who leave the rolls--and I've been
privileged to help many to do so--often take jobs in the face of
significant economic DISincentives. Moreover, the welfare establishment's
resistance to justified sanctions aids and abets dependency and
encourages noncooperation with job placement efforts. Pardon the semi-
soap box mode, but I have only scratched the surface <smile>.

"Sitting around a table in Chicago's tough West Humboldt Park
neighborhood with a pirated copy of still unreleased White House welfare
reform proposals, a group of poorly educated welfare mothers concluded
last week that President Clinton--for all his learning--must be naive.
'What he needs is to go on welfare for six months with his wife and
daughter. Let him live in the kind of monthly check we do for six months
and see if he sings the same tune,' said Joyce Alexander, 33, a mother of
three who said she has been on and off welfare for about 10 years."
(Chicago Mothers Deride Clinton's Proposals for Reform, William
Clairborne, Washington Post, 4/7/94)

"When Maggie wants to attend a wedding, check out a new restaurant, or
take a trip. she knows she has two options: Go alone or take a friend.
After 20 years of marriage, she knows her husband won't be accompanying
her. 'He doesn't care for people; he's a loner,' she says...Maggie gave
up hoping for companionship from her spouse a long time ago: 'I've
distanced myself,' Maggie, 40, says. 'I have a lot of friends and I also
became very good at being by myself.' That's what usually happens when
loners marry, therapists say...'Even loners like companionship, so
frequently they will link up with a significant other--but they want that
companionship to be available as needed,' says Gini Cucuel, a licensed
marriage and family therapist in Winter Park, FL. Emmy Freeman, an
Orlando psychologist, agrees: 'They want someone to take care of them
unobtrusively, someone who didn't come into their space, or make demands
on them.'" (Life With a Loner, Lorraine O'Connell, WP, 5/20/94)

"Think receiving welfare benefits ought to be more convenient than it is
now? Apparently Uncle Sam does. The federal government will soon begin
dispensing welfare benefits at automatic teller machines nationwide. It's
part of the administration's 'reinventing government' plan--this time by
reinventing welfare....But making it easier for government to dispense
welfare and for beneficiaries to receive it is one government reinvention
we can do without." --Linda Chavez, director, Manhattan's Institute's
Center for the New American Community. (Why Make It Easier to Receive
Welfare? Chavez, op ed, USA Today, 6/8/94)

                         Food for Thought

Department of Agriculture guidelines designed to reduce the fat content
of school lunches has critics concerned that they will cause children to
think of school cafeterias as "nutrient-filling" stations rather than
places to enjoy food. "We need to be sure that the regulations do not
drive students away from school meals. Food is important not only for its
nutrition but for its nurturing. We must not promote a fear of food as a
cure for the disease of the month." The Ag Department's "fears" stem from
the fact that a week of school lunches in 1992 showed 38% of the calories
came from fat and 15% from saturated fat. The recommended rates are 30%
and 10% respectively. Challengers of the most significant change in the
government largest feeding program since its inception in 1946 call the
new guidelines complicated and realistic for school systems that are
already strapped for funds and expertise. (New Rules Have Schools Worried
They'll Flunk Lunch, Carole Sugarman, Washington Post, 6/8/94)

                         Front Lines

"Sen. Russ Feingold's 'Close Down That School' (op-ed, April 12) proves
once again that statistics can be used (misused) to prove any side of an
issue. Sen. Feingold says that the military physicians who are graduates
of the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences are not cost-
effective because their high retention rates increase the cost of their
salaries and retirement benefits. Hen then uses this claim to call for
shutting down the school. Isn't he really saying that the military should
recruit doctors from other sources, treat them badly, and force them out
before they get to the point of earning salaries paid to senior officers
and well before they are eligible for retirement? What about experience,
knowledge, and motivation? All else being equal, would Sen. Feingold
rather have his emergency surgery from a 45-year-old doctor or from a 27-
year-old? If a private company applied this retention logic to its
personnel costs--firing workers with seniority and expertise before their
salaries increased or pension costs were incurred--I suspect the same
senator would be up in arms to correct te 'injustice.' I also suspect
that there are already laws that prohibit the personnel management
policies that Sen. Feingold wants the military to espouse." --Stewart
Reuter, Washington, DC. (Spurious Argument for Closing a Medical School,
Reuter, letter-editor, Washington Post, 4/20/94)

"A key military researcher working on an experimental AIDS vaccine
engaged in 'a systematic pattern of data manipulation, inappropriate
statistical analyses, and misleading data presentation,' a consumer
health organization charged yesterday. Sidney M. Wolfe, director of
Public Citizen's Health Research Group, released a letter to Rep. Henry
Waxman (D-CA) calling for hearings on the research by Lt. Col. Robert
Redfield, chief of the department of retroviral research for the Walter
Reed Army Institute of Research. In his letter to Waxman, Wolfe cited
Army documents that he said indicated that Redfield had repeatedly put a
misleading positive spin on his research results. Waxman announced that
the would reopen an investigation into the vaccine, gp160, the
researchers and the manufacturer, Connecticut-based MicroGeneSys.
Redfield...has previously denied having committed any scientific
misconduct...An Army investigation into Redfield's research concluded in
August 1993 that 'Evidence does not support the allegations of scientific
misconduct.'...Wolfe cited a report by two Air Force medical researchers
saying Redfield's data analysis...was 'sloppy, or, possibly, deceptive'
and 'creates false hopes and could result in the premature deployment of
the vaccine.' Wolfe called the Army report clearing Redfield a
'whitewash.'" (AIDS Vaccine Research Misleading, Group Alleges, John
Schwartz, Washington Post, 6/8/84)

                    Health Care Plans and Pans

Last night the House of Representatives prepared for a unique experiment:
a bonafide debate on the House floor complete with opening statements,
rebuttals, and closing arguments from the Democrat and Republican teams.
The Oxford-style exchange over President Clinton's health plan is
expected to provide a chance of place for a deliberative body where short
prepared statements most often passes for debate. The Democrat team,
under the leadership of Rep. Richard Gephardt (MO), consists of Reps.
Henry Waxman (CA), Pete Stark (CA), and Rosa DeLauro (CT). Headed by Rep.
Newt Gingrich (GA), the Republican team includes Reps. Thomas Bliley Jr.
(VA), Bill Thomas (CA), and Nancy Johnson (CT). (Partisan House Squares
Off for Experiment in Debate on Health Reform, Kenneth Cooper,
Martinsburg Journal, 3/17/94)

"The health care debate took a sharp detour off the high road yesterday
when Rep. Pete Stark told a Republican member of his health subcommittee
that she had learned what she knows about the subject 'through pillow
talk' with her husband, a doctor. Mr. Stark, a California Democrat and
chairman of the House Ways and Means health subcommittee, later
apologized to Rep. Nancy Johnson, a Connecticut Republican, saying he
'had not intended to question her expertise in any area.' Ms. Johnson,
who is married to a gynecologist, is the only woman on the panel." (Stark
Snubs Female Colleague in Debate, Baltimore Sun, 3/17/94)

"Thibodaux, LA--It is a measure of how doggedly he pursues each vote on
the House Energy and Commerce Committee that John Motley showed up here
recently to make sure Rep. W.J. 'Billy' Tauzin (D-LA) keeps the faith on
health care reform. Usually, Motley patrols Capitol Hill for the National
Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), going no farther than the
House chamber to lobby a member as generally supportive as the Louisiana
lawmaker. But Tauzin is wily enough to be named the swamp fox, and with
President Clinton and the powerful chairman of Energy and Commerce also
bidding for his health care vote, Motley was leaving nothing to chance.
He invited 60 business owners to Tauzin's home town for a how-to course
in grass-roots lobbying." (Even Loyal Ally Feels Group's Pressure,
Michael Weisskopf, Washington Post, 4/5/94)

"If Hillary Rodham Clinton ever wanted a panorama of what is good and
about American health care, she has chosen the right place. This evening,
she is scheduled to pitch her proposals for universal health care during
a town meeting at the John Hopkins Medical Institutions, home to a
hospital and graduate schools of medicine and public health that rank
among the nation's finest. But within blocks of the grand Victorian dome
that anchors the complex, the first lady could see an East Baltimore
neighborhood that is ailing. It's a community where one-fifth of the
residents lack health coverage, less than a third have private insurance,
and nearly half qualify for state medical association--the name given to
Medicaid, a program of free medical care for the poor." (Health Care: A
Neighborhood's Ills, Jonathan Bor, Norris West, and Consella Lee,
Baltimore Sun, 4/18/94)

Yesterday Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell (D-ME) told an annual
legislative meeting of the Independent Insurance Agents of America that
he believes any major changes in medical malpractice laws should be left
to the individual states rather than be part of federal health care
reform. "I personally do not favor a national law. We should encourage
states to do what they think is appropriate." In a last-minute manoeuver
last month, the House Ways and Means health subcommittee voted to limit
awards for pain and suffering to victims of malpractice to a maximum of
$350,000. Sen. Mitchell was introduced to the gathering by his oldest
brother, an IIAA member. He told the insurers that some type of
government control of health care costs was "inevitable." "It will have
to occur in our society because the normal laws of supply and demand,
which serves to restrain cost, don't exist in health care," he said.
(Mitchell Rejects Federal Reform on Malpractice, Washington Post,
4/20/94) CURE Comment: While we concur with Sen. Mitchell that radical
revisions in malpractice laws should not be part of national health care
reform, we also oppose state attempts to gut the rights of injured
patients and families as detrimental to the quality of medical care.

"The Clintons have made a catastrophic error in the campaign for their
jerry-built health care program, which is why it is as dead as the
Volstead Act. Their mistake was to talk about the program's details in
broad daylight. Occasionally, they have advocated it to audiences of
intelligent adults, tsk, tsk. Hillary had the right idea when she put it
together in the first place, to wit, keep it behind closed doors. To talk
about it in public has been highly detrimental to its prospects on Earth.
In fact, the more the Clintons talk about it, the less support it has
with the American people." (Terminally Ill Health Reform? R. Emmett
Tyrell, Jr., op-ed, Washington Times, 5/20/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note:
Mr. Tyrell is editor-in-chief of the American Spectator. The Volstead Act
was the enabling legislation for prohibition.

In the interim between the congressional recess in early April and the
one that ends tomorrow, those seeking to influence the health care reform
debate have shifted the targets of their public relations campaigns.
Earlier their barrage was aimed at members of the House Energy and
Commerce Committee. Now their sights are drawn on members of the House
Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee--now seen as the
most influential, particularly the latter. The switch is also dictated by
political pragmatism as targeting a lawmaker more than once can prove
counterproductive. Noting that the Memorial Day recess "could be the last
one before the major committees produce bills for the floor," Bob
Chlopak, spokesman for the Health Care Reform Project, concludes, "We are
coming down to the point where if it doesn't happen soon, it is not going
to happen at all." (Battlers in Health Care War Shift Targets, J.
Jennings Moss, Washington Times, 6/6/94)

"Between the old-fashioned family doctor and the current high-tech health
care system, something has gone radically awry,...something 'universal
coverage' won't fix (and would probably make worse). The following story
...is typical of the best and the worst of our extended medical care
system.  A young middle-class woman in Washington, let's call her Rachel,
age 26, hit a bump on the road and went sailing over the handlebars of
her bicycle. She's in the demographic group the medical establishment
calls the 'healthy young.' Many don't have insurance because they're
betting they won't get sick. It's usually a safe bet. But Rachel, who
recently started a new job, joined an HMO a month ago, choosing managed
care because it's considerably less expensive than other programs....The
first care Rachel got after she went flying was excellent. Bystanders
called 911,...and Rachel, who had dislocated her elbow joint,...received
tender loving care on the sidewalk. The medics...took her to an emergency
room, where doctors told her they would do whatever was necessary for
her, no matter what kind of insurance she had...She was discharged the
next day and told that she could continue to see one of the doctors who
treated her. Alas, he wasn't included in her medical plan. She called her
HMO. An administrator told her that she must see a general practitioner
...before she could see an orthopedic surgeon...He wanted to unwrap her
bandage and look at the wound. When Rachel objected, he agreed. He said
he probably won't be able to do it as well anyway. His secretary looked
in the HMO book for recommended orthopedic surgeons and called three; all
were booked up for three weeks...There's no moral to this story; it's
anecdotal evidence, after all. But there is a warning: Before we set out
to destroy the medical system we have in order to save it, by layering
inefficient bureaucracy with more inefficient bureaucracy, we might take
a closer look to see what the real problems are." (Let's Not Throw Health
Care Out with the Bureaucracy, Suzanne Fields, op-ed, Washington Times,
6/6/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: For the rest of Rachel's story, see
HMO40606.* wherever ABLETEXT files are found.

"According to the finest tea leaves available, at least three
congressional committees will soon vote for health care reform
legislation that requires employers to provide insurance for their
workers...Sadly, the Senate Finance Committee, from which a Senate
compromise is most likely to emerge isn't one of the three. In Finance,
lawmakers are considering a compromise that would abort such universal
coverage before it ever draws a breath. In the compromise, Congress would
enact market reforms to make insurance cheaper and more accessible.
Lawmakers also would pass incentives and subsidies for employers to
insure their workers. And Congress would set a series of deadlines and
targets. If too many Americans remain uninsured after a certain number of
years, then a full employer mandate would be imposed automatically. That
is a 'hard trigger' because it dictates specific action. 'Soft triggers,'
which have also cropped up in some compromise proposals, tell Congress it
must do something but don't say specifically what. Hard or soft, a
trigger is a cop-out...Triggers don't guarantee Congress will do what ius
right, only what's easy...Mandating coverage avoids such problems, but
moderates from both parties fear the idea will look like another tax.
Substituting triggers lets them claim to have voted for universal
coverage but against employer mandates. Don't fall for it. Our health
care system is a costly mess, and only universal coverage can put it
right. If the proces requires some compromise. it also requires mandates
--more so, and right from the start." (Don't Compromise on Universal
Health Coverage, editorial, USA Today, 6/8/94)

"The US health care system is one of the country's greatest success
stories. Government data show we are now healthier than ever before.
Infant mortality is lower than ever. Adults are living to record spans,
including thousands of people now over 100. I write with feeling about
this, because I am almost 75...Without the great drugs, expert
specialists, an well-equipped hospitals in this country, I would have
been dead long ago. I have a son who is a medical miracle; he should have
died shortly after birth but was saved by a major new procedure, then
saved repeatedly again in his early years by extensive surgery. He is now
over 40. Why then the great clamor about reforming health care...? The
primary cause is the limitless ambition of Hillary Clinton, who wants to
go down in history as the reorganizer of American medicine. And the
primary weapon has been an unprecedented campaign of falsehoods...If for
our sins God punishes us by inflicting something like the Clinton system
on us (in the name of 'universal coverage'), medical care for most
Americans will get worse. We will not be able to get the specialists we
want when we ant them. We will be living essentially in a system of
rationed military medicine such as what I experienced as an infantry
private in 1944. The ability of the drug industry to find major new drugs
against AIDS, cancer, and other ailments. American medicine can be
improved by careful, targeted, incremental steps to help those who need
help...But such incremental improvements is very far from the Rube
Goldberg-type bureaucratic monster the Clintons want to impose, while
they enjoy the best care in the world without rationing." (Don't Ruin Our
Health Care, Harry Schwartz, op-ed, USA Today, 6/8/94)

"After an intense debate that hinted at the emotional showdown ahead,
abortion advocates scored an early victory yesterday in their drive to
assure coverage in health care legislation. The Senate Committee on Labor
and Human Resources voted 11 to 6 to reject a Republican attempt to limit
the abortion services included in the basic benefits package to be
offered to all Americans. Under the Republican plan, coverage would be
provided only in cases involving rape, incest, or where the life of the
mother is at risk. Only one Republican, Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont,
the lone GOP supporter of President Clinton's health reform bill, joined
with the panel's ten Democrats in defeating the amendment offered by
Daniel Coats, a Republican from Indiana. 'I don't think it's right to
require people to pay for something that they think is a termination of
human life,' Mr. Coats told his colleagues. He argued that if abortion
services are included in the basic benefits package, all Americans would
be indirectly paying for abortions through their premiums...Advocates on
both sides of the abortion issue insisted there will be a big fight on
the House and Senate floor either way. 'It would be quicker without it,'
Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell acknowledged yesterday when
asked if abortion would slow the already sluggish pace of health care
reform legislation." (Senate Panel Rejects Bid to Limit Abortion
Coverage, Karen Hosler, Baltimore Sun, 6/8/94)

"Showdown time on health care legislation finds the citizenry confused,
Congress groping desperately for a consensus or a fig leaf, and Hillary
Rodham Clinton's elaborate proposals heading for the Capitol Hill butcher
shop. What, if anything, emerges will depend more on political fear
factors than on widely supported reforms to fix a system that leaves
millions of Americans uninsured. One thing seems clear: Universal
coverage by whatever means will not come quickly...There are some
Democrats who would like to go to the polls in November blaming the
Republicans for obstructing health care reform. But their leaders seem to
realize this is a shaky position for a party in control of the White
House and Congress. There are some Republicans eager to slap down the
president, but a number of GOP lawmakers, perhaps sufficient to forge a
bipartisan majority, see grave dangers in such a course...This newspaper
remains convinced that health insurance reforms are needed so that all
citizens can obtain reasonably priced coverage. Congress and the
president can still take a first step this year, even if the long journey
is far from complete." (Showdown for Health Care Reform, editorial,
Baltimore Sun, 6/8/94)

The heart of the Clinton health reform bill: the employer mandate has
been approved by the Senate Labor Committee. Over the objections of
Republican members, who warned the cost to businesses would kill jobs,
the committee endorsed the controversial measure Wednesday in its first
vote on the issue. To soften the blow to small business, the panel opted
to let employers with less than six workers to opt for a 1% payroll tax
in lieu of the mandate. Businesses with six to 10 workers could choose a
2% payroll tax. But Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) declared, "Small business has
been mandated to death in this country." (Senate Panel OKs Mandate on
Employers, Judi Hasson and Jessica Lee, USA Today, 6/9/94)

"For every American family, health care is an intensely personal issue.
Usually, it is about a basic decision like which doctor to rely on.
Sometimes, it gets more complicated--weighing diagnoses, treatments, or
hospitals. And too often these days, it is also about the heartwrenching
choice between paying for costly care and affording necessities, such as
rent, heat, and food. Just as these healthcare decisions are personal and
private matters for millions of families, my efforts to fix our health
care system are motivated by similar feelings and motives...I have
personal reasons for caring passionately about health care reform and I
will not apologize for them...Congress will soon have to make the hard
vote on health care reform and defy the criticism for special interests,
political action committees, and the press; but that is precisely what
Congress is sent to Washington to do. If Congress has the political will
--and the plain old guts--to take charge and take on those now determined
to block reform; then just watch: With the good blueprint provided by the
president, Congress will guarantee health care security and peace of mind
to every American before the year is out." --Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV),
chairman, Senate Finance subcommittee on Medicare and long-term care.
(Watching My Mother Die, Rockefeller, USA Today, 6/9/94) ABLEnews
Editor's Note: "Similar," Senator? Last time we looked you were a multi-
millionaire. You HAVE millions. You are not LIKE millions.

                         Heart Stoppers

"Dozens of Kansas City high school students toyed with a decomposing body
for several days, some of them poking it with sticks, before authorities
were tipped off, police said yesterday. They said the boys from North
Kansas City High School discovered the body of Robert Mentzer in a field
near where they were fishing May 26. Mentzer, 44. apparently died in the
field in early March after walking away from an area hospital...Medical
examiners were unable to determine a cause of death because of the
extensive decomposition of the body. Major David Barton of the Kansas
City Police Department said instead of calling authorities, the two boys
told their friends and news of the grisly discovery spread through the
school 'like wildfire.'" (Missouri Teenagers Played with Corpse for Days,
Baltimore Sun,  6/8/94)

                         It's the Law

"A year after the District enacted a law prohibiting aggressive
panhandling, there appear to be fewer panhandlers harassing pedestrians.
But the problem is far from solved, say merchants whose complaints led to
the legislation. Under the law, police can arrest panhandlers who curse,
follow, or threaten pedestrians as well as those who beg from drivers
while standing in the middle of the street or demand tips for spotting
parking places. Between its enactment a year ago today and the end of
February, police made 421 arrests. The majority of those arrested paid
the $50 fine rather than go to trial and risk higher fines and jail time.
For all the efforts by police, business association leaders say there are
still problems. In Georgetown, some panhandlers follow customers up to
restaurants and shop doors demanding money. In Adams-Morgan, car jockeys
continue to hold public parking places for motorists, demanding a tip for
their service. In Dupont Circle, conditions are greatly improved, as they
are on Capitol Hill, but quickly worsen when police are not present."
(DC's Aggressive Panhandlers Are Fewer, But Not Yet a Memory, Linda
Wheeler, Washington Post, 6/8/94)

                         Mental Health

"The GOP candidates for US Senate from Virginia spent today debating
their mental health, with James Miller III acknowledging that he was once
treated by a psychiatrist, one day after he challenged Oliver L. North to
detail the psychiatric care he received. The exchange started in the
State Capitol when Miller called on North to release medical and other
personal records, an attempt to highlight the fact the retired Marine
lieutenant colonel was hospitalized for counseling 20 years ago. Then, in
response to a question, Miller disclosed that he too had once consulted a
psychiatrist. Miller said he sought help four or five years ago for a
mood disorder that runs in his family. He was evasive when asked,
repeatedly, whether he wanted treatment for himself or for relatives...
The turn of events seemed to alarm his advisers, who tried to cut off
questioning and usher the candidate out of the room. Trying to contain
the self-inflicted damage, the campaign later put out a statement saying
that Miller saw the psychiatrist several times after his father's death
from cancer...Neither Sen. Charles S. Robb or his Democratic primary
opponent, Sylvia Clute, has sought psychiatric treatment, according to
aides. State Sen. Virgil H. Goode, Jr. (D-Rocky Mount), another Democrat
hoping to get on the June 14 primary ballot, also said he had not
received any psychiatric care...North suggested today that part of his
[past] emotional turmoil was caused by his combat service in Vietnam. He
said that Miller was implying that 'those of us who saw the horrors of
Vietnam and sought treatment to deal with those wounds are somehow not up
to his standards.' However, his tour of duty in Vietnam ended five years
before his treatment, and in his best-selling book North blamed most of
his problems on his troubled marital situation. He and his wife [Betsy]
later reconciled." *GOP Rivals in Virginia Debate Their Mental Health,
Peter Baker and Kent Jenkins Jr., WP, 4/6/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: Are
you now or have you ever been a communist...er, patient?

"For years, Fran Sydney Scotch-taped her carpet to pick up specks of
dirt, washed her keys, and scrubbed her shoes in a sink. The Connecticut
mother of three painstakingly hung all her clothes in sequence by size,
and spent half an hour making and remaking her bed. She insisted that her
children bathe before entering their rooms, then stay there to avoid
recontamination. Unknown to Ms. Sydney, she was suffering from a disease
of the mind called obsessive compulsive disorder. First reported by
incredulous researchers at the turn of the century, OCD remains a medical
mystery, and many people haven't even heard of it. But in the coming
months, OCD will be talked about everywhere. Brochures about it will
sprout in doctors' offices. A prominent Washington scholar will release a
study declaring that OCD costs the US economy $8 billion a year. Doctors
who specialize in it will start appearing on talk shows and giving
newspaper interviews. So will Fran Sydney, offering harrowing sound bites
about her ordeal. OCD's sudden burst into public awareness will result
from a careful strategy by tow giant drug companies, Upjohn Company  of
Kalamazoo, MI and the Belgian firm Solvay SA. They make the medicine that
finally helped Ms. Sydney, a close cousin of Prozac called Luvox. Upjohn
and Solvay see a vast, untapped market for Luvox, now awaiting final
approval from regulators. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
estimates that OCD afflicts one in 50 American adults--some four million
--but fewer than half are diagnosed and treated. The disease is so
embarrassing and bizarre that many patients don't talk about it, and many
doctors don't think to ask." (With Remedy in Hand, Drug Firms Get Ready
to Popularize an Illness, Michael Miller, Wall Street Journal, 4/25/94)

"Last November a 34-year-old man filed a $10 million law suit against
Joseph Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago, charging that he sexually abused
him when he was 17 years old. He said he had remembered the abuse a month
before under hypnosis, while he was in therapy. Three months later, the
man dropped the charges saying, 'I now realize that the memories which
arose during and after hypnosis are unreliable.' In response, Cardinal
Bernardin commented, with grace and generosity: 'In terms of the future,
if there's an accusation of sexual abuse against anyone...I think that
accusation has to be taken seriously. I also think that in the final
analysis, truth will win out, that justice will be done.' The trouble is
that the Cardinal...was wrong. Truth often doesn't win out, and justice
often isn't done.Each year, a large number of children are sexually
abused in this country, yet the adults who abuse them frequently go
unpunished. And each year, some charges of sexual abuse are made, in the
full belief that they are true, that turn out to be false. In these
plague years of true and false memories of sexual abuse, the appearance
of three new books on the subject--Lawrence Wright's 'Remembering Satan,'
Michael D. Yapo's 'Suggestions of Abuse: True and False Memories of
Childhood Sexual Trauma,' and Lenore Terr's 'Unchained Memories: True
Stories of Traumatic Memories Lost and Found'--is deeply welcome." (The
Monster in the Mists, Walter Reich, New York Times Book Review, 5/15/94)
ABLEnews Editor's Note: Dr. Reich, a psychiatrist, is a senior fellow and
the director of the Project on Health, Science and Public Policy at the
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC.

                         No Place Like Home

"They remembered Erica Corbett yesterday as a bright little girl who
cared deeply for her three young siblings and trued to cope in a world
most children cannot imagine: a world of abandoned buildings to call
home, of days without school, and nights in a district overrun with drug
dealers and thugs and prostitutes. She was only 10 years old, that
delicate age of awakening when trust and tenderness can be everything,
when judgment and responsibility are not to be expected, and it is hard
to glimpse deceit behind the stranger's dark smile or the corrupt
generous offer. So on Saturday night, when a man entered the squatters'
flat in Bridgeport, CT, where she and her sister and brothers had been
left alone--first by her mother, then by her mother's boyfriend, the
police say--and the man promised to buy them all toys if she accompanied
him, she just went along. They found her two hours later in the lot
outside where the killer had dumped her. Her throat had been slashed and
there were other knife wounds on her thigh and on the hands she had put
up in a last, futile attempt to fend off the murderous thrusts...Beyond
the police investigation, there were other official recriminations
yesterday over the death of a girl who had been lost since September by a
school system and who had not been found by truant and child-welfare
officials in her netherworld of homeless people moving from one abandoned
building to another." (No One to Protect Her, Robert McFadden, New York
Times, 5/17/94)

                         Public Health

"Three more cases of bacterial infection that eats muscle and flesh have
been confirmed. A 4-year-old is being treated at Children's Hospital in
Denver. In Orange County, CA, a man in his 40s was being treated for
necrotizing fasciitis. In Monterey Park, CA, Michael Kyaw, 37, is in
stable condition after having part of his thigh cut away. The bacteria
has killed at least 11 people in England and infected at least three in
Connecticut." (Killer Bacteria, USA Today, 6/9/94)

                         School Daze

"They say you teach the way you have been taught, and Beverly Hoeltke was
no exception. In her second-grade classroom, she says, 'everyone sat in
their seats, we all sat in rows, everybody did the same thing, and I
followed the textbook to the T. My room was very quiet, and my teacher
evaluations were always very good.' The one day one of her students got a
phone call from home. It was the girl's mother asking for money to buy
food. The 7--year-old girl, who was failing math in school, would
actually hide, allocate, and budget the money from her mother's paycheck,
Hoeltke says. 'so that the mother wouldn't spend it in unnecessary ways,
or it would be gone and they wouldn't be able to live for the rest of the
week.' It was then that Hoeltke realized that it wasn't her students that
were failing their school work, but the school work--devoid of connection
to real-life situations and blind to the many different ways children can
be intelligent--that was failing the students. So 10 years into her
conventional reaching career, the Indianapolis educator 'began to search
a lot harder and a lot deeper' for answers to why bright children too
often don't succeed in school." (How We Learn, Linda Chion-Kenney,
Washington Post, 5/3/94)

"'I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional,' Wendy Kaminer's new book
criticizing the self-help movement, was loudly attacked by law students
at a writing seminar. The book so disturbed the would-be lawyers...that
they made the following arguments: (1) Miss Kaminer must have had a bad
experience with a support group, (2) she is lying when she denies this,
and (3) her book's affectionate portrait of her father must be dishonest
--since he had been abused as a child, as Miss Kaminer mentioned in the
text, he therefore must have abused her as well. None of these charges is
true, Miss Kaminer said in an op-ed article in New York Newsday, but they
show that universities are now turning out many students 'who only
believe authors with whom they agree.' Doctrinaire attitudes are no
surprise on campus these days. But there's another way of looking at it:
The culture is now so drenched in therapeutic thinking that psychologized
arguments, or nonarguments, routinely replace rational ones, even at law
schools. Like earlier critics of psychoanalytic theories, critics of the
therapeutic culture are apt to be accused of 'resistance' or 'denial,'
just as critics of the burgeoning 'repressed memory' hysteria are apt to
be accused of burying some awful memories themselves. The therapeutic
worldview, alas, is a dominant one in education now." (Higher Education
as Therapy, John Leo, op-ed, Washington Times, 5/20/94) ABLEnews Editor's
Note: Mr. Leo is a contributing editor of US News & World Report.

"The children in Gwen Faulkner's fourth-grade class [at Washington's
Harriet Tubman Elementary School] write all day, every day. That's the
way it has to be if students are to move past mediocrity when putting pen
to paper, the Education Department said yesterday. The 1992 'Writing
Report Card,' prepared by the department's National Assessment of
Educational Progress, found that schools appear to be putting more
emphasis on writing...But after reviewing writing samples from 30,000
children in grades four, eight, and 12, the report concluded, 'Many
students at each grade level continue to have serious difficulty in
producing effective informative, persuasive, or narrative writing.'"
('Writing Report Card' Shows Many Students Struggle to Express
Themselves, Baltimore Sun, 6/8/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: Translation of
Bureaucratic Gobbledygook: Johnny can't write. Yet as educators note,
"the ability to write persuasively, to state a case carefully, and reason
with others, is especially critical if students are to succeed."

                         Social Insecurity

"Some Americans may accidentally give up benefits, just because they do
not understand the notices that Social Security sends them, Congress was
told Tuesday. Ethel Zelenske, an attorney for the National Senior
Citizens Law Center, said Social Security notices are written in such
complex and archaic language that even experienced advocates find them
hard to decipher. As a result, some recipients may inadvertently give up
some important rights--such as the right to appeal a decision by the
agency--Zelenske said in a prepared statement for the House Ways and
Means subcommittee on Social Security. According to June Gibbs Brown, the
inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services, only
65% of Social Security customers find agency mail easy or very easy to
understand." (Social Security Mail Can Be Confusing, MJ, 3/23/94)

                         Under the Dome

A bill introduced into the West Virginia House of Delegates on Wednesday
would preclude the sale or rental of videos unless they are captioned for
the deaf and hearing-impaired. The legislation would apply to all videos
sold or rented after October 1, 1995. Sponsors include Delegates Jerry
Mezzatesta (D-Hampshire) and Sharon Spencer (D-Kanawha). Wednesday was
the last day bills could be introduced. (Bill Bans Rental of Videos Not
Captioned, Martinsburg Journal, 3/4/94)

                         Telling Headlines

Abortion Same as Infanticide, letter-editor, USA Today, 6/9
AIDS Virus Infects Vietnam's Revived Sex Industry, Washington Times, 5/11
Alps May Show Global Warning, USA Today, 6/9
Attractive Facial Features Aren't Just Average Matter, WP, 3/21
AZT's Side Effects May Cancel Benefits for People Who Have HIV, BS, 3/17
Cancer Institute Head Testifies on Flawed Data, Baltimore Sun, 4/14
Compound May Combat Alzheimer's, USA Today, 3/16
EEOC Rules on Religious Speech, Washington Times, 5/20
Firefighter Fights for Right to Read Playboy at Work, Baltimore Sun, 6/8
Firm Seeks Shelf Sale of Herpes Drug, Washington Times, 5/20
General Powell Issues Call to Reject Hatred, Washington Post, 5/16
Hemophilia Cure Expected by Year 2000, Martinsburg Journal, 3/24
Judge Rules Vassar Was Biased Against Married Woman Teacher, NYT, 5/17
New Leader at the Shelter, Washington Post, 3/16
New Medicaid Law Is 'Real Welfare Reform,' Martinsburg Journal, 3/27
1.6 Million Children Home Alone, Washington Times, 5/20
Pro-Life Protestor Arrested, Washington Times, 6/8
Rostenkowski Clibs Out of the Driver's Seat, USA Today, 6/9
Tax System Rigged in Favor of Rich, USA Today, 6/8
The NAACP-Farrakhan Axis, op-ed, Baltimore Sun, 6/8
The Pain of Infertility, Washington Post, 4/14
12-Year-Old Aviator Crosses Atlantic, Baltimore Sun, 6/8
US, Hanoi Reach Agreement to Open Diplomatric Missions, WP, 5/27
West Virginia Ranks 5th in Caesarean Deliveries, MJ, 5/20

                         Wish We'd Said That...

     If one accepts the argument put forth by Kevorkian and his
     lawyer that ending life by carbon monoxide poisoning was just
     ending suffering, then it would follow that the homeless could
     be gassed to end homelessness and the unemployed could be
     poisoned to end the unemployment problem. (Rita Marker)

                         ...We Did Say It

     "Would" follow, Rita?  How 'bout will follow? (Earl Appleby)

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