Shareware Overload Trio 2/Shareware Overload Trio Volume 2 (Chestnut CD-ROM).ISO/dir26/on70.zip/ON9407A.ON

Text File | 1994-06-30 | 76KB | 1,215 lines

          [The following issue may be freq'd as ON9407A.* from
          Lincoln Legacy (1:109/909),(703-777-5987), HandiNet
          BBS (1:275/429), and other BBSs carrying ABLENEWS
          files. Please allow a few days for processing.]

                        OF NOTE...
                        News to Use

Vol. III, Issue 64                                July 1, 1994
Earl Appleby, Jr., Editor                         CURE, Ltd.

                         Able Aids

"Terry Nieder has been teaching unruly dogs proper house manners for 23
years, getting them to deliver the slippers, not eat them. Lately she's
also been training dogs to be the arms, legs, eyes, and ears for the
disabled. The 42-year-old Aquia Harbor (VA) resident has been a volunteer
for two national nonprofit organizations, Canine Companions for
Independence and National Capitol Top Dog, for about four years. She is
one of about five volunteer puppy trainers in this area, she said."
(Training 4-Legged Helpers, Susan Tremblay, Free Lance-Star, 5/26/94)
ABLEnews Editor's Note: For the rest of the story, see DOG9405.* wherever
ABLETEXT files are found.

                         Addictions

"In Washington, nothing lawyers do is supposed to shock anyone any more.
But a few lawyers were surprised when Richard Cooper, of Williams &
Connelly, and Arthur Levin, of Arnold & Porter, turned up recently as
defenders of the nation's two largest tobacco companies. Cooper, the Food
and Drug Administration's top lawyer during the Carter years, had always
been known as 'Mr. Clean...the guy above reproach,' one nonplussed lawyer
said. And Levine, one of the FDA's most zealous litigators for more than
20 years, was 'highly regarded...and beloved,' at the agency, said
another. How could these former FDA heavyweights turn around and
represent tobacco companies? Lots of attorneys believed that public
health was 'where their hearts were,' a lawyer in the health field said
of both men. 'Add to that the fact that if you were to rank all the
health hazards...way up at the op would be tobacco. So there seems to be
an inconsistency...[between] their genuine commitment to advancing the
public health and their representation of these companies that are doing
so much to damage the public health.'" (Two Former FDA Lawyers Come to
Tobacco's Defense, Saundra Torry, Washington Post Business, 5/9/94)

"The Government is currently attempting to prohibit cigarettes and
smoking just about everywhere in America. The EPA's announcement in 1993
that exposure to secondhand smoke causes lung cancer has fueled this
debate. After reviewing the EPA report and process in detail some
scientists and commentators have concluded that the data do not justify
the EPA conclusion. So is it time to ask questions?...As  is usually the
case, there are two sides to every argument. We believe that the solution
to most smoking issues can be found in *accommodation*, in finding ways
in which smokers and nonsmokers can co-exist peacefully. And we encourage
dialogue and discussion that will help solve the issues without resorting
to Government intervention. This opinion is brought to you in the
interests of an informed debate by the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company." (If
We Said It You Might Not Believe It, advertisement, Washington Post,
5/26/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: RJR's ad begins with a reprint of Jacob
Sullum's op-ed, Smoke & Mirrors: EPA Wages War on Cigarettes, from the
March 24 Wall Street Journal. The ad states" "Mr. Sullum is not
associated with the tobacco industry. His opinion is his own."


"Just months after his confirmation in 1990, Food and Drug Administration
Commissioner David A. Kessler found himself in a high-level strategy
meeting with senior management and tops aides. The subject: smoking.
Staffers had requested the meeting to present the commissioner with years
of citizen petitions calling for the agency to regulate tobacco products
as drugs--much the same way the agency regulates other substances from
over-the-counter antihistamines to pharmaceutical cocaine...Most of the
people at the meeting were 'willing to take a shot.' But Kessler was not
ready...Kessler told the group it was too early to take on tobacco.
'We'll get to it,' he said." (FDA Targets 'Nicotine-Delivery Systems,'
John Schwartz, Washington Post, 5/31/94)

"For most people a drink a day is not only okay but helpful. The main
evidence for this is epidemiological studies showing that people who
regularly have one or two drinks a day have less coronary disease
manifested by angiography--as well as by heart attacks, sudden death, and
other cardiac conditions...So even if people are very careful about diet,
exercise, and smoking, I would encourage them to drink alcohol moderately
if they have no religious or other objection." --Norman Kaplan, Professor
of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center,
Dallas. (Is A Drink a Day Okay? Yes, Kaplan, op-ed, WPH, 5/31/94)

"Certainly not for everyone. Alcohol affects different people
differently, and any potential benefits from moderate drinking must be
weighed against the risks...Balanced against those who may benefit is a
long list of people who should not drink at all, starting with recovering
alcoholics. People with a family history of alcoholism should be
cautioned that the condition runs in families. They may not be able to
maintain moderation. Pregnant women and women who are trying to conceive
should not drink, period." --Sam Zakhari, Chief, Biomedical Research
Branch, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. (Is A Drink a
Day Okay? No, Zakhari, op-ed, Washington Post Health, 5/31/94)

"Raleigh, NC--Here in America's golden triangle of nicotine, the
epicenter of tobacco farming and cigarette manufacturing, people have
begun to think the unthinkable--to imagine a world posted with no-smoking
signs. Tobacco is deeply rooted in the culture and economy of North
Carolina. But with each passing year, its clout here diminishes both as
an agricultural product and a political force...They still grow more
tobacco in North Carolina than in all the other states combined. But
agriculture here has undergone a revolution in diversity over the last 30
years. Livestock and poultry now outproduce the golden leaf, and the
fields of the state's eastern half that once were carpeted with nothing
but neat rows of Nicotiana tabuacum are now as likely to grow cucumbers,
sweet potatoes, and blueberries...'I don't know how to say this,' said
Philip Kirk, president of North Carolina Citizens for Business and
Industry, the state's largest business lobby. 'It would be disastrous if
tobacco were to disappear--but the impact wouldn't be as great today as
even 10 years ago.'" (North Carolina Watches the Gradual Fall of King
Tobacco, William Booth, Washington Post, 6/6/94)

"Mom the junkie, Mom the alky, Mom-in-bed-asleep, might-as-well-be-dead
Mom. In an era of achievement where being a 'good mother' is like getting
a degree in Family Arts & Engineering, the woman who excessively drinks
and does drugs flunks the course. But while society can shun her, her
children can't. Not in their memories, any way." (Addiction, a Family
Affair, Abigail Trafford, op-ed, Washington Post Health, 6/7/94) ABLEnews
Editor's Note: We absolutely reject the idea that a living human being
"might as well be dead" because they have an addiction or even because
they make wrong moral choices that are destructive to themselves and
others. While we believe society should shun such socially harmful
behavior, we should help not shun persons addicted to them.

"Cigarettes are no different than syringes. They are a drug delivery
device for nicotine. They should be regulated just as we regulate
morphine and heroin." --American Medical Association spokesman Randolph
Smoak. (Cigarette Regulation Urged, Washington Post, 6/8/94)

"The current frenzy of anti-tobacco litigation, legislation, and
regulation exhibits democracy at its worst. Rules of fair play and
evenhanded justice have been dishonored, and precedents embraced that
could haunt the future. A Florida law enacted last month...is emblematic
of the prevailing witch-hunt zealotry. It fastens on manufacturers,
distributors, or retailers of tobacco products financial responsibility
for the costs incurred by the state of Florida in treating Medicaid
patients afflicted with illnesses that are statistically correlated with
tobacco use. According to Gov. Lawton Chiles, that sum exceeded $1.2
billion over the past five years...The tobacco industry bears a most
trivial responsibility for steep climbs in Medicaid costs, which, in any
event, have been voluntarily assumed by the government. There is no
constitutional right to subsidized health care. In addition, afflictions
of Medicaid patients that correlate with tobacco use are attributable to
the voluntary choices of individuals to hazard known health risks in
exchange for temporary physical or psychological pleasures. The tobacco
industry does not foist those risks on anyone." (Passing the Butt on
Smoke Damage, Bruce Fein, op-ed, Washington Times, 6/9/94) Stay 'Tooned:
First Panel: It Used to Be...Three kids are hiding behind the barn,
passing a cigarette. The boy who is peeking around the corner says: Put
that cigarette out! Here comes my Dad! Last Panel: Now It's...Three
adults are hiding behind the same barn, passing a cigarette. The man who
is peeking around the corner says: Put that cigarette out! Here come the
police! (Asay, Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, 1994)

The question of the legalizing marijuana continues to stir spirited
public debate. National Review editor-at-large, William Buckley Jr. says
yes. "The blood lust by the DEA [Drug Enforcement Administration} against
marijuana users is being used to justify an abuse of civil rights," he
claims. But Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) says no. "I will fight with all
the vigor God has given me, any step that would expand the opportunities
for people to self-destruct." (Should Marijuana Be Legal? Bernard
Gavzner, Parade Magazine, 6/12/94)

                         AIDS Addenda

"Janice Jirau speaks poignantly from the grave. Her voice is loud and
clear and unmistakably angry. In life, the Southeast [Washington]
resident thought no one was listening to her. Not so. One woman in
particular is carrying on Mrs. Jirau's crusade to help women who are HIV-
positive. Maxine Haliburton, her youngest sister and primary caretaker,
is doing it now. 'I didn't walk a mile in Janice's shoes, but I took the
walk with her,' Mrs. Haliburton says. 'There's no cure for (AIDS), but
love is the best remedy we have. So Mrs. Haliburton, with the help of her
employers, embarked on a labor of love to help two independent filmmakers
finish a provocative documentary...about the complex issues facing women
living with the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS. The
Heart of the Matter...focuses on Mrs. Jirau's struggle against AIDS...A
secretary and real estate agent, Mrs. Jirau contracted the disease from
her husband, an intravenous drug user...Mrs. Jirau died of an AIDS-
related illness in September. She was 42." (Dead Victim, Sister Teach
About Women and AIDS, Adrienne Washington, Washington Times, 6/6/94)

                         Alternative Medicine

"When Deepak Chopra--endocrinologist turned best-selling author,
lecturer, Oprah Winfrey guest, Michael Jackson pal, and all-around rage
of the new age--strode into Yes! Bookshop in Georgetown on Friday night
for a quickie publicity stop, more than a hundred fans were waiting. Like
circus clowns crammed into a teensy car, they had filled the store to
near-comic capacity. And why not? It's only natural folks would want to
get a close-up peek at the man who insists age is all in the mind, that
the human body might be as durable as a Japanese-made car, and,
therefore, quite capable of running 120 years or more." (Om Is Where the
Heart Is, Tom Dunkel, Washington Post, 6/6/94)

                         Biotech Bulletin

"It's a match made on Wall Street: two scientists brought together by
well-heeled investors to decipher the secrets of human life--and turn
them into marketable drugs. J. Craig Venter and William A. Haseltine work
blocks apart in Gaithersburg and Rockville (MD) on the cutting edge of
one of the most important undertakings in the history of biology, the
description and cataloguing of the human genetic code. They have very
different personal styles and interests. But they share enthusiasm for a
maverick scientific approach that has attracted large financial support
while alienating many in the national medical research community. Critics
say Venter and Haseltine are trying to profit for themselves by staking
legal claims to gene research that should be available to all at no cost.
...Venter's role in the partnership is doing much of the critical
scientific work, based on techniques he perfected when he was a
researcher at the National Institutes of Health. His side of the alliance
is the Institute for Genomic Research or TIGR (pronounced 'tiger')...
Haseltine is chairman and chief executive of Human Genome Sciences Inc.,
a for-profit company created to develop commercial products from Venter's
work. By knowing the codes of human genes, scientists believe it will be
possible to develop drugs to combat inherited genetic defects and
diseases such as cancers, immunological disorders, and hemophilia and
other blood disorders." (Biotech's Dynamic Duo, Kathleen Day, Washington
Post Business, 5/9/94)

                         Cancer Chronicles

"Opinion swings sharply in our nation of extremes: action and reaction,
Yin and Yang. In most of the 20 years I have lived with cancer, the
belief that I should grin and bear it have been paramount. Although I was
lucky enough to be referred to a pioneer pain control team (at Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center) in the late 1970s, I still felt deep down
inside me that pain...was to be expected...The pendulum has become to
swing in the other direction. The word is out, and this book, by an
experienced science writer and the deputy chief of the Pain Service at
Houston's M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, carries the message: 'You Don't
Have to Suffer.' Cancer pain, too frequently undermedicated, can (and
should) be relieved for 90 to 99% of those who suffer it...In March, the
Public Health Service released to the medical community voluminous
guidelines for the treatment of cancer pain, and followed with a smaller,
consumer-friendly guide (available by calling the National Cancer
Institute at 1-800-4-CANCER." (Staying Ahead of Pain, Natalie Davis
Springern, Washington Post Health, 5/31/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: The
book reviewed, You Don't Have to Suffer: A Complete Guide to Relieving
Cancer Pain for Patients and Their Families, is written by Susan Lang and
Richard Pratt, MD, and published by Oxford University Press.

"Cleveland Indians reliever Matt Turner could use a little moral support
from Mario Lemieux and Scott Radinsky right now. 'They could give me a
call and help me out, let me know what to expect, what I'm looking
forward to here. That'd be all right,' Turner said yesterday in his first
meeting with reporters since he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease last
week. Turner, a relief pitcher acquired by the Cleveland Indians from the
Florida Marlins late in spring training, is facing six to eight months of
chemotherapy fir the disease, a type of cancer that affects the lymphatic
system. Lemieux was able to return from Hodgkin;s and resume his NHL
[National Hockey League] career with the Pittsburgh Penguins; Radinsky, a
reliever with the Chicago White Sox, has been undergoing for treatment
for the disease since a malignant lymph node was removed from his neck in
February. Turner said he has every intention of pitching for the Indians
again...'Ten to 20 years ago, people died of this disease,' club
physician William Wilder said. 'Now, with advances in chemotherapy, we
can tell Matt that he's going to get over it.'" (Hodgkin's Has Pitcher
Searching for Support, Washington Times, 6/1/94)

                         Child's Play

Baseball, America's national pastime, may be one of its most dangerous,
at least for Little Leaguers and their peers. Increase concerns about
baseball injuries have been voiced by pediatricians and sports medicine
specialists, lobbying for additional protective gear and safety
equipment. Some 5 million American youngsters, age 5 to 14, play
baseball. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, which lists baseball as
the children's sport with the most fatalities, reports more than 280,000
baseball players (5-24) were injured in 1990. According to Baltimore
pediatrician Donald Levy, of the American Academy of Pediatrics, sqays
five children each year die from such injuries. (Accidents in Youth
Baseball Put Focus on Safety Gear, Sandy Rovner, WPH, 5/31/94)

                         Country Roads

Dr. Byron Welch, an Austin, TX kidney specialist, studies the video
screen before his desk. Melvyn, an elderly patient, is lying in a bed in
the small town of Giddings, more than 65 miles away, staring back. With a
stylus and electronic pad, Dr. Welch adjusts the picture to focus on a
tube carrying Melvyn's poisonous wastes to a kidney dialysis machine. A
nurse is by the bedside as the physician and Melvin talk over an audio
link. Telemedicine--tech-talk for health care over distance--uses two-way
interactive video to link doctors, nurses, and physician assistants in
rural areas with specialists in urban centers for consultation, training,
and even diagnosis. Decrying distance and delay as the enemies of health
care in remote rural regions, Dr. Jane Preston, president of the American
Telemedicine Association, notes: "For the first time in history, we have
the ability to be right there at the moment disease or trauma strikes.
You have live people at either end, seeing each other. You can do
everything but touch the patient." (Telemedicine: Two-Way Interactive
Video, Robert Boyd, Washington Post Health, 5/31/94) CURE Comment: While
we applaud the improved care, telemedicine may afford, Dr. Preston's
"but" is not inconsequential. Boyd reports "some worry that electronic
medicine will further depersonalize health care especially since the bond
between doctors and patients is already strained by third parties such as
insurance companies and health maintenance organizations." We are
concerned that a supplement to rural health care not become a substitute
for improving its inadequacies IN the community with HANDS-ON treatment.

                         Courting Disaster

"Benjamin Weiser's article (Business, May 11) focuses on the internal
squabbling of the 17-person committee appointed by Judge Sam C. Pointer
Jr. to navigate the silicone breast implant settlement. As one of the 17,
I feel constrained to set the record straight. In addition to the normal
and expected internal friction that any diverse and committed group
engaged in a complex matter with conflicting issues is likely to
encounter (i.e., in the Senate, a judicial conference, or The Post's
editorial board), the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee has been hard at
work for the past two years on behalf of the silicone victims. By
focusing exclusively on personality clashes and the imaginative language
that lawyers are wont to use, Mr. Weiser failed to report...[that] in
large part because of the work of members of this committee, along with
the court and manufacturers, a workable, economic, and fast system may
soon be in place to compensate hundreds of thousands of women, with
reduced legal fees on both sides." (What Our Committee Accomplished,
Aaron Levine, letter-editor, Washington Post, 5/20/94)

                         Family Affair

"Republicans and Democrats may differ on how to reform welfare, but they
are in total agreement on one area: Dads must identify themselves and pay
their child support. 'Men must be required to meet their obligations to
their children. They must understand that they will be held responsible
for their actions.' said Rep. Jim Talent, Missouri Republican and sponsor
of the recently reintroduced Real Welfare Reform Act of 1994. Mr.
Talent's bill, which has a companion bill in the Senate sponsored by Sen.
Lauch Faircloth, North Carolina Republican, marks the latest Republican
foray into welfare reform...The Faircloth-Talent bill would deny welfare
cash grants to mothers who won't help establish the paternity of their
children. The bill also sends states new directives on how to catch
deadbeat parents." (Welfare Reformers Emphasize Dad's Duty, Cheryl
Wetzstein, 5/11/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: As a welfare case technician
in the 1970s, one of my biggest frustrations was the way the system
coddles "deadbeat dads," even when the mother seeks to pursue support for
his children.

A group of influential liberal Democrats in the House are circulating a
plan that challenges a bedrock tenet of President Clinton's welfare
reform plans by dropping its requirement that most recipients find jobs
within two years or lose their benefits. Liberals, including California
Democrats Robert Matsui and George Miller charge a strict "two years and
out" policy is impractical and could force many recipients to take low-
paying, dead-end jobs that would not break the cycle of poverty or to
forgo benefits. "Just putting in a draconian two-year cut-off without a
fully implemented program just asks poor children of this country to pay
a price for our shortcomings, and that is not going to sail," Rep. Miller
predicted. (Tenet of Clinton Welfare Plan Faces Test, Eric Pianin,
Washington Post, 5/20/94)

"The May 24 editorial 'Welfare Reform's Other Critics' chastised those
critical of terminating welfare benefits after two years for 'defending'
a system that 'maintain[s] people in poverty.' I raise not a defense of
the status quo by serious questions about how to make a new system
effective. 'Two years and off,' like 'three strikes and you're out,'
isn't serious policy, it's bumper-sticker politics...Rhetoric promising
the welfare reforms we all seek that is unmatched by comprehensive
funding is a sure guarantee of continued public cynicism about Congress's
commitment to real change. Funding services to support self-sufficiency
is surely expensive; so is multi-generational welfare dependency." --Rep,
George Miller (D-CA). (Bumper-Sticker Ideas About Welfare Reform, Miller,
letter-editor, Washington Post, 6/6/94) Stay 'Tooned: Clinton's Welfare
Reform Plan How It Should Work... First Panel: Social Worker Type,
writing at desk to man seated across from her: I'm sorry, but you haven't
done any work in the last two years... Second Panel: Social Worker:
Therefore, we will have to cut off your cash benefits. Third Panel: Man
(incredulous): Effective immediately? Final Panel: Social Worker: Yes,
Congressman. (Mike Smith, Las Vegas Sun, 1994)

President Clinton's decision to deny benefits to children born to mothers
who are on welfare has inspired an unusually broad coalition of 85 civil
rights and religious organizations, including pro- and anti-abortion
groups to challenge his "child exclusion" welfare reform policy in the
courts. "Pro-life" advocates charge the policy encourages abortion, while
"pro-choice" supporters claim it penalizes mothers for exercising a
personal choice. (Reluctant Allies Oppose Clinton 'Family Cap' Welfare
Proposal, William Claiborne, Washington Post, 5/27/94) ABLEnews Editor's
Note: It seems to me both camps are describing the same reality from
different perspectives as the "choice" being penalized is the choice not
to abort. For my part I agree with "civil rights activists [who]
complained that the policy would 'punish innocent children'"--which is
why I oppose it.

"I don't have a solution for America's welfare problem. More to the
point, I don't think anybody else does--including the Clinton
administration policy mavens struggling for the means to 'end welfare as
we know it.' Furthermore, I don't think anybody can have a solution until
we first develop a common language for talking about the welfare problem
and a common view of what the problem is. One example of the difficulty:
Blacks tend to believe poverty is primarily a matter of shortage of jobs,
while whites believe poverty stems primarily from such noneconomic
factors as family dissolution and inappropriate personal attitudes."
(Several Kinds of Poverty, William Raspberry, op-ed, Washington Post,
5/27/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: At the risk of a poor pun, poverty is
not a black-or-white matter. Moreover, we should not assume that black
and white poverty and their causes are necessarily identical.

"Even the most draconian welfare rules are said to be aimed at giving
welfare recipients 'better incentives' or 'the right messages.' It isn't
only a view expressed by right-wing Republicans eager to cut programs. It
has also been offered by President Clinton in defending his proposal to
require welfare recipients to accept jobs after two years or be tossed
off the rolls...It is one thing to say that if someone gets a government
check, the taxpayers have a right at some point to demand some work,. It
is another to use the welfare rules to affect other, more personal
aspects of individual behavior--for example, whether someone should have
an additional child. New Jersey and a growing number of other
jurisdictions have decided that this, too, should come under the welfare
rules. They have denied additional benefits to women who have children
while they are on welfare...Mr. Clinton is on record as supporting
this...Some civil liberties advocates have argued that because the New
Jersey rules affects one of the most personal decisions a person can
make, it is unconstitutional. A case on the matter is now in court, but
the civil liberties argument is not entirely convincing. New Jersey is
not telling anyone that she cannot have a child, simply that the state
will not support an additional newborn." (Hard Questions on Welfare,
editorial, Washington Post, 5/31/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: The last
sentence--properly understood--describes the problem IMHO.

"Today, President Clinton unfolds his long-awaited"'It will be said, and
it's true, that this isn't 'an end to welfare as we know it.' --
Washington Post editorial, June 12, 1994. The Washington Post has hit
upon the core of what Republicans should say this week when President
Clinton releases his long-overdue proposal to reform our welfare system.
The press will tend to focus on the internal White House turmoil that
preceded this package, and the protests it will engender from the
Democratic left. These will be convenient stories for the White House,
creating an image of an Administration that has made the 'tough
decisions.' They haven't and the Republicans should say so." ('Reform'
That Saves Welfare as We Know It, William Kristol, op-ed, WT, 6/14/94)
plan to 'end welfare as we know it.' But the public should remember that
Washington has reinvented welfare *six* times. Since 1965, the US has
spent $5 trillion on means-tested welfare. That's more, adjusted for
inflation, than America spent on World War II. Genuine welfare reform is
a Herculean task. Public support for Mr. Clinton's plan to employ many
welfare recipients in the private sector indefinitely will start out
strong and then fade. It reminds me of the discredited Comprehensive
Employment and Training Act program (CETA), for which I worked as a
counselor in college. Its make-work jobs and the poor work habits it
taught made a deep impression on me. And on others" CETA was killed in
1982. A new CETA is not the answer." (Welfare: Putting People First, John
Fund, op-ed, Wall Street Journal, 6/14/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: As a
former state monitor of the CETA program, I concur with Mr. Fund's
assessment and conclusion. As a Work Incentive Program (WIN) state
coordinator, I eliminated dead-end public service agreements in favor of
on-the-job training contracts in the private sector. Our program produced
$3 in savings for very dollar spent. It also improved the lives of many
mothers and their families.

                         Food for Thought

"Burger King, famous for its 'Have It Your Way' slogan is telling
vegetarians they can't have it their way--in Berkeley (CA) or anywhere
else in the United States. Miami-based Burger King Corporation recently
denied a request from Beverly Tabb, owner of a Burger King franchise
here, to add a soy-based burger to her menu. But Berkeley is not just
sitting on its buns and taking it. The City Council has jumped into the
fray and is mulling whether to ask the corporation to allow the
vegetarian option in Berkeley. City Council member Dona Spring, a
vegetarian for 20 years, said she received dozens of calls from
supporters of veggie burgers...'We have to keep the pressure on,' she
said. 'Just about every single health authority is saying Americans must
reduce their intake of meat and fat and increase their intake of fiber
and complex carbohydrates, which is what a veggie burger is.'...Burger
King spokesman Michael Evans said...'What Burger King is doing right now
is taking a stronger 'back to basics' approach: hamburgers, french fries,
and cokes."(Berkeley Vegetarians Air Beef with Burger King, Tanya Wills,
Washington Times, 5/11/94)

"George Watts of the National Broiler Council puts forth a false and
contradictory argument in his May 24 letter regarding fresh vs. frozen
chicken...But the most nonsensical claim in Mr. Watts' s letter is that
'fresh is not the opposite of frozen.' He wants us to believe that
chicken can be fresh and frozen at the same time. But despite the
outdated federal policy now being reviewed, which says chicken frozen as
low as zero degrees can be labeled fresh, I think most consumers would
agree that once food freezes, it ceases to be fresh. As my American
Heritage Dictionary says, 'fresh' means 'not preserved, as by canning,
smoking, or freezing.' In short, the National Broiler Council is wrong.
Chicken can't be frozen as hard a bowling ball, thawed, and still be
considered fresh, and consumers have every right to know the true
condition of the food they buy at the time of purchase." --Bill Mattos,
President, California Poultry Industry Federation, Modesto, CA.
(Chickens: Frozen Is Not Fresh, Mattos, letter-editor, WP, 6/8/94)

                         Forget the Vet?

"The white stones used in some patios, driveways, and walkways in the
Washington are have names and dates engraved on one side. Thousands of
weathered and damaged burial markers from graves at Arlington National
Cemetery have been discarded over the years, and many...were scavenged
from landfills and used for home projects, cemetery officials said....The
markers used to be left intact at a landfill. In 1987, the cemetery began
pulverizing discarded grave stones, the spokesman said, in part because
of calls from those who found the markers that had been discarded in
earlier years. Arlington National Cemetery is the best known of the
country's more than 100 military cemeteries...More than 160 of the
stones, turned face down, were made into a patio behind a Northeast
Washington apartment building. In the basement were three more of the
large, group markers inscribed with the names of 19 men who died in World
War II. Vietnam-era veteran Ed Siemion...hired to repair one of the four
apartments...discovered the stones and showed them to a reporter...'It
gave me chills when I saw them.'" (Homeowners Find Grave Markers in
Yards, Patios, Linda Wheeler, Washington Post, 5/31/94) ABLEnews Editor's
Note: We commend Mr. Siemion for calling attention to this despicable
situation and we deplore the seemingly cavalier attitude of Arlington's
deputy superintendent Herman Higgenbottom, who was quoting as saying,
"It's just somebody making use of discarded government property. He is
not the first one, for sure." Such callous comments reflect a government
bureaucracy that often treats the American veteran as "discarded
government property."

"As Washington awoke on Memorial Day morning 11 families sat on folding
chairs on a grassy hill and, far away from the day's more elaborate
events, cried in each others' arms. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial ebbed
like a black wave in the distance. The names of their loved one could not
be on that granite wall, because unlike the dead whose sacrifice was
etched there, their loved ones had died after the fighting had ended--of
Agent Orange poisoning, of injuries that never healed, ins suicides. IN a
war that has seemed exiled from the brotherhood of conflicts, these dead
are the lost veterans." (Remembering Those the Wall Forgot, Lorraine
Adams, Washington Post, 5/31/94)

"Prodded by veterans who say they have been forsaken by the nation they
served, the Clinton administration endorsed a bill Thursday that would
compensate victims of mysterious 'Persian Gulf Syndrome' ailments. 'This
legislation is revolutionary. We have never before approved payment for
something we're not even certain exists,' Veteran Affairs Secretary Jesse
Brown said in testimony to a House Veteran Affairs panel...'We're heading
in the right direction although we still have a long way to go,' said
Phil Budahn, spokesman for the American Legion. 'We would have wished it
had been faster.'" (Syndrome Pay, Martinsburg Journal, 6/10/94) ABLEnews
Editor's Note: It took some 15 years for the government to take similar
action on behalf of Agent Orange victims after the Vietnam War.

                    Health Care Plans and Pans

"In its reports on first the Clinton health reform plan and now the
Cooper-Breaux or managed competition alternative, the Congressional
Budget Office has neatly bracketed the basic problem Congress faces in
trying to change the health care system. The problem is that serious
change requires a degree of federal intervention that leaves many members
uncomfortable." (Steps in the Health Debate, editorial, Washington Post,
5/9/94) CURE Comment: And many citizens as well.

"It's pretty obvious that health care legislation has become the money
magnet for members of this subcommittee. Rarely do we see a more direct
correlation than this: Put a piece of legislation before the panel, and
watch the money come in." --Ellen Miller, executive director, Center for
Responsive Politics, on the House Ways and Means subcommittee on health,
whose 11 members have been showered with nearly $600,000 in contributions
from health and insurance lobbies. (Health Care Committee Gets Big Money.
Morning Herald, 5/11/94)

"If someone can show me how we can fill what I estimate to be a $50
billion hole in the year 2000, I will be glad to listen." --Rep. Dan
Rostenkowski (D-IL, chairman, House Ways and Means Committee, standing
firm in his belief--President Clinton notwithstanding--that new taxes are
needed in any health care reform package. (Rostenkowski Won't Budge on
Taxes for Health, Lee Bowman, Washington Times, 5/11/94)

"President Clinton goes to Capitol Hill today to ask nervous Democrats
not to bend to interest group pressure in their home districts or make
specific pledges that would gut the administration health care bill.
Worried that small business and other lobbies will use the 12-day
Memorial Day break, starting Friday, to extract promises from members to
oppose requirements that employers pay for their employees' insurance and
other key features of the Clinton plan, the president will...'remind
everyone why we're in this battle together, and why we have to stay the
course together.'...As Clinton attempted to keep Democrats in line,
Senate Minority Leader Robert J. Dole (R-KS) prepared to seek Republican
support for new stripped-down health legislation drafted by minority
staff members that could be a starting point for negotiations with the
Democrats. The partial plan, which has gone through 30 revisions by
Sheila P. Burke, Dole's chief of staff, rejects most of the key elements
of the Clinton plan, including the requirement that employers pay for
much of the cost of their employees' health insurance and that consumers
buy insurance through mandatory stat-run purchasing alliances." (Clinton
to Make House Call for Health Plan, Dave Broder and Dana Priest,
Washington Post, 5/25/94)

"Moderates on a Senate health panel quashed a conservative GOP assault on
proposals to provide long-term care to elderly, disabled, and chronically
ill people. Five Republicans joined with the 10 Democrats on the Senate
Labor and Human Resources Committee to turn back an attempt to make only
lower-income people eligible for a care program proposed for seriously
disabled people. The defeated amendment offered by Senator Judd Gregg (R-
NH) would have limited the program to individuals with annual incomes of
less than five times the federal poverty level. That would be %36,800
currently. Only Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN)joined Mr. Gregg in voting for the
amendment." (Conservatives Fail in Effort to Limit Long-Term Health Care
Plan in Senate, David Rogers and Hilary Stout, WSJ, 5/25/94)

"Hard as it is to believe. consumer advocates and insurance companies may
have found a group they distrust even more than they do each other: the
doctors' lobby. Consumers Union and the American Association of Retired
Persons have poured a lot of energy into accusing the insurance industry
of jacking up prices, dumping patients, and generally undermining health
care reform. But now, these two groups have formed an odd alliance with
two of the nation's largest insurers. Their goal: to prevent physicians
from winning looser antitrust laws...They are blanketing Congress with a
letter warning that the antitrust relief sought by the American Medical
Association is 'a real threat to consumer welfare.' Also signing on the
missive, which was reprinted this week as a full-page add in the Wall
Street Journal, are several big-business groups and an array of non-
physician health providers. The strange bedfellows demonstrate how even
the fiercest opponents in Washington can form coalitions of convenience
in the heat of battle. 'There is no one who is always our enemy or always
our friend,' explains Brad Stillman, of the Consumer Federation of
America. 'This is one where the insurers happen to be right.'...Earlier
this month, the AMA, along with 50 state medical societies and 40
medical-specialty groups, sent a letter to members of Congress blasting
the 'insurance-industry hyperbole.' It also took out a full-page ad in
the Washington Post accusing the insurers of doing 'not what's best for
you' but 'what's best for their bottom line.'...At a recent Senate
Finance Committee hearing, the AMA's witness pointed to an insurer that
had denied a patient a bone-marrow transplant initially recommended by
her physician. In the end, there was an $89 million damage award 'and a
husband and children mourning the loss of a wife and mother,' Richard
Corlin, a doctor from Santa Monica, CA told lawmakers." (Consumer Groups,
Insurers Launch Effort to Keep Doctors From Winning Looser Antitrust
Laws, Rick Wartzman, Wall Street Journal, 5/25/94)

"While House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski (D-IL)
agonizes over legal problems that threaten to end his political career,
his likely successor, Rep. Sam Gibbons (D-FL), has spent the week mending
fences with the White House and sending unmistakable signals to his
colleagues that he is anxious and ready to take charge. The jovial,
avuncular Gibbons' laid back political style and differing views on
health care reform have left the White House and congressional Democratic
leaders uneasy in recent days, as they contemplate the political
realities of a post-Rostenkowski era. Without Rostenkowski at the helm,
some fear, the Ways and Means Committee could badly splinter and
President Clinton's health care initiatives could flounder. 'He's
completely unengaged,' complained an aide to the House Democratic
leadership. 'He's a nice guy and a smart guy, but he's someone who hasn't
put a lot of time into helping us organize in the House.'...But Gibbons,
74,...a decorated World War II veteran,...assured the president and
Hillary Rodham Clinton in separate conversations this week that he would
set aside his own views on reforming the health care system and
vigorously push for passage of the president's plan." (In Gibbons, Ways
and Means Has Jovial Man Eager to Take Over, Eric Pianin, Washington
Post, 5/27/94) CURE Comment: And thus the independent voice of a veteran
--military and congressional--is reduced to parroting the nouveau Clinton
party line. Another American tragedy. Stay 'Tooned: Two patients in
hospital, arms and/or legs in cast, traction, etc.; their beds labeled
Health Plan and Rostenkowski. A single caption: As We Were Saying--
(Herblock, Washington Post, 1994)

"The very conservative American Medical Association has turned for help
to the very liberal Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-MN), a key advocate of a tax-
financed health system that would greatly expand government control over
medical care. The California Medical Association says 10,000 of its
members now favor Wellstone's system and so does the leadership of the
American College of Surgeons. What has caused the doctors to embrace the
kind of government intrusion they historically have spent millions of
dollars to defeat? Insurance companies. More specifically, insurer-owned
managed health care companies that are taking away from doctors their
nearly unquestioned autonomy...'Many doctors believe that maybe living
under the government is better than living under these companies. It's
been a big mood swing in the last year,' said surgeon Roland Lowe,
chairman of the board of trustees of the California Medical
Association...'Who is going to decide what kind of care [patients] get?
Patients? Their physicians?' AMA board chairman Lonnie R. Bristow asked
at a news conference...'Or will insurance companies and giant
corporations take over the examining room?, pushing the patient aside?'"
(AMA Welcomes Liberal Senator's Help in Swing Against Big Health Care
Firms, Dana Priest, Washington Post, 5/31/94) CURE Comment: We agree with
the critics of managed care--although the AMA to the chagrin of fee-for-
service physicians has broken bread with them in recent months. Dr.
Bristow's questions--as usual--are on target. As a patient advocates, we
believe patients should decide their care, hopefully with competent,
supportive medical consultation, not big business (Clinton/Cooper et
al.), nor big government (Wellstone), not even BIG medicine (physician
paternalism, often subverted to socially engineered ends).

"I think you know that the members who are committed to getting it done
are just as committed as ever. In a way, they're more committed because
it would be more a failure of the members than a failure of a powerful
chairman if this thing goes down. Obviously there are going to be new
relationships for people to feel their way through. It's impossible to
define 'different' as better or worse. You're just going to have to wait
for the product to make that determination." --James Jaffee, spokesman
for the House Ways and Means on the transition from Chairman Rostenkowski
to Chairman Gibbons. (Health Reform Wound Not Fatal, J. Jennings Moss,
Washington Times, 6/1/94)

"Can Republicans afford to go into the 194 campaign with the 103rd
Congress having failed to pass a health care bill? 'Absolutely!' is the
quick answer from House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich, and an increasing
number of Republican lawmakers agree. That is not bad news for many
Democratic strategists who welcome another chance to indict the GOP for
gridlock. The response by William Kristol's Project for the Republican
future in a paper to be released today: If Democratic 'obstinacy'
(insisting on mandatory insurance) prevents anything from passing, 'we
should take this battle to the country, make it a centerpiece of the fall
campaigns and explain why no bill is better than a bad one.'...Such GOP
stalwarts as Sens. Phil Gramm and Trent Lott...relish a fight on the
campaign trail over whether the president needs even larger Democratic
majorities in Congress. But there are prominent Republicans who are
terrified of contesting the 1994 election over health care and are
seeking a deal on President Clinton's terms. Which strain of
Republicanism wins will shape the politics of the '90s." (No Health Bill?
Robert Novak, op-ed, Washington Post, 6/6/94) CURE Comment: And, more
importantly, the health care of the '90s.

Taking over the House Ways and Means Committee in the wake of the
indictment of its veteran chairman Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-IL), Rep. Sam
Gibbons (D-FL) yesterday proposed a health care bill he claims will
achieve President Clinton's purported bottom line of "universal
coverage." In what the Post describes as "a novel financial proposal,"
the bill would divert monies employers would be required to pay for their
employees to provide coverage for the unemployed and workers in small,
low-wage firms. Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) admits that "what we are doing is
skimming a little." Committee members concede that Gibbons' bill is
"unlikely to attract even one Republican supporter and possibly would not
even muster the 20 Democrat votes it would need for committee approval.
(Gibbon's Health Care Legislation Claims More Benefits at Less Cost, Dana
Priest, Washington Post, 6/7/94)

"In spite of all the naysayers, our nation is closer than ever before to
achieving a goal President Truman set after World War II--real health
security for every American. Soon the House and the Senate will debate
and decide a bill that will make our anxieties about health care a thing
of the past." --President Clinton, praising Congress for "giant steps"
towards health care reform in his weekly radio address. (Clinton Claims
Early Victory in Health Care Reform Battle, Martinsburg Journal, 6/12/94)

"This really isn't the end. It's really the beginning," Sen. Edward
Kennedy (D-MA) proclaimed moments before his committee sent the first
health care reform bill to the floor of either branch of Congress, but
the committee's 11-to-9 vote may well prove the high water mark for the
plan modeled on the administration's own. "The moderates are losing
control," warns retiring Senator David Durenberger (R-MN). "The longer
the Democrats wait to come to the middle, the harder it's going to be."
(Health Bills Divisive for Democrats, Martinsburg Journal, 6/12/94)

Presidential adviser David Gergen, appearing on CBS's Face the Nation
Sunday said his boss might be open to various "trigger" mechanism being
proposed in Congress as a way to phase in universal coverage. President
Clinton "is open to any mechanism that gets us to universal coverage,"
Gergen declared. One proposal would have employer mandates kick in st a
future date should market measures fail to attain universal coverage.
Others would leave the response to future congressional action. A
Republican-backed trigger targets individuals not employers. (Health
'Triggers' OK, White House Says, Martinsburg Journal, 6/13/94) ABLEnews
Editor's Note: See also White House Softens on Health Mandate, Washington
Post, 6/13/94)

"If enough people do it, it achieves a reality of sorts disproportionate
to any claims it has on the objective order. For instance, we are talking
now about the difference between employer-backed health plans and payroll
tax-backed health plans. Sen, Daniel P. Moynihan, New York Democrat is
dubbed the 'moderate,' in contrast to Sen. Edward Kennedy, Democrat of
Massachusetts, and President Clinton...On and on it goes, this polyphonic
frenzy: more of this, less of that, up, down, sideways...The common sense
plan: 1. Eliminate tax deductions for employers' health costs. 2. Give
tax reductions to employees for their health bills. 3. Increase salaries
from the savings to employers. 4. Let employees buy their own health
plans." (Trails of Vapor on Health, William Buckley Jr., op-ed,
Washington Times, 6/14/94)

In a bid to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, President Clinton has
asked the Senate Finance Committee to postpone action on health care
reform. "We agreed," said Chairman Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY), "there
is not now a majority for any health care reform plan in the Senate
Finance Committee." Committee member Sen. Robert Packwood (R-OR) was even
blunter. "At the moment all plans are dead." The Associated Press
reported: "Demonstrating the importance to the White House of guaranteed
health coverage for all, Hillary Rodham Clinton refused to rule out the
possibility of sacrificing abortion coverage to reach that goal."
(Clinton Wants Senate Committee to Delay Health Vote, MJ, 6/15/94)

                         Heart Beats

More than 6 million Americans have heart disease--a.k.a. coronary artery
disease. "In people with coronary disease, psychological factors are
really important in addition to the traditional biomedical ones if you're
concerned with how well people are functioning in their lives," reports
Dr. Mark Sullivan, a psychiatrist at the University of Washington.
Researchers found that overly helpful spouses and minor psychological
problems may do more to interfere with daily activities than the physical
ailment itself. Dr. Sullivan said patients were more impaired if their
spouses were "very ready to say, 'Lie down, go to bed, I'll get your
medicine.'" (Study: Anxiety May Aggravate Heart Disease, Malcolm Ritter,
Free Lance-Star, 5/26/94)

                         Heart Stoppers

"With Dr. Jack Kevorkian's ridiculous acquittal on the charge of
violating Michigan's ban on assisted suicide and a federal judge's
voiding of a Washington state ban on the same act, the suicidemongers
definitely have something to cheer about this month. America is moving
slowly and steadily toward euthanasia, in fits and starts, to be sure,
but with increasing confidence. That for which the Nazi doctors were once
condemned will, in the not too distant future, become social policy in
the United States, a country that disdains half measures." (Death Is Not
the Answer, editorial, Our Sunday Visitor, 5/22/94) CURE Comment: For a
reflection on the above rulings, see Death on Demand, Earl Appleby,
Tradition, Family and Property Magazine, upcoming.

"Miscarriage often creates feelings of isolation, self-blame, and upset
equilibrium, experts say. A woman may feel her baby relied on her body
for sustenance and she failed to come through. No ritual marks the death.
People do not want to hear about pain. While the woman experiences the
loss of a baby...myths may cloud the perceptions of others and distance
them. 'Sometimes we get into hierarchies of suffering--miscarriage is
better than stillbirth, and stillbirth is better than SIDS (sudden infant
death syndrome), and this is a myth,' says Michelle Harrison, clinical
associate professor of family medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical
Society in New Brunswick, NJ. 'Loss is loss, it can't be categorized in a
hierarchy.'" (Miscarriage: It's a Death as Well as End of Pregnancy, Judy
Packer-Tursman, op-ed, Washington Post, 6/6/94)

"It's impossible to calculate the emotional and psychological cost of
losing a baby to miscarriage. There is no way to tally the sense of loss
and frustration. The experience is devastating and physically draining
for both would-be parents, and depressing long after the event. On the
other hand, tabulating the dollars-and-cents of losing a baby is
painfully simple. In our case, it came to $3,306.51. After my wife's
health insurance policy paid its share of the expenses, our out-of-pocket
portion of the bill was $978.10...It seems wrong to bring up the topic
when there's a dead baby involved. But somebody has to pay the bill.
There it is." (The Other Cost in Losing a Baby, James Dawson, op-ed,
Washington Post, 6/6/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: We concur with Dawson's
confession that: "Bringing up the subject of money as one of the traumas
resulting from a miscarriage may seem inappropriate, even heartless."
Especiall for The Washington Post to publish this ledger-book plaint
alongside the moving plea for sensitivity by Mrs. Packer-Turman, who lost
her first child to a miscarriage in 1993. Sociologists may theorize as to
the relevance of the fact that the former article was written by a mother
and the latter by a self-described "would-be" father.

                         Lyme Light

With tick season under way and with 10,000 volunteers, scientists are
conducting the largest-scale test to-date of a Lyme disease vaccine. "The
level of antibody produced was very encouraging, as was the safety,"
David Keeler reports in today's Journal of the American Medical
Association. Keeler, now with the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, directed a 1992-1993 study. Saying the study "shows promise,"
Martina Ziska, medical director of the Lyme Disease Foundation,
concluded, "I would be cautiously optimistic." (Lyme Disease Vaccine
Test, Washington Post, 6/8/94)

                         Mal-Practice

The Food and Drug Administration found an array or rules were violated in
the testing of fialuridine, an experimental hepatitis drug, that killed
five people. While the FDA could have barred the companies and
researchers from future clinical trials, the agency chose instead to send
"warning letters" to two drug companies (Eli Lilly & Co. and Oclassen
Pharmaceuticals Inc.) and three researchers (Dr. Jay Hoofnagle, who ran
the National Institutes of Health trial; Dr. Douglas Richman, Veteran
Affairs Medical Center, San Diego; and Dr. Lawrence Corey, Children's
Hospital, Seattle). The FDA sent another letter--which it refused to
label a "warning"--to NIH researcher Dr. Stephen Straus. (FDA Finds
Lilly, Others Violated Rules in Tests of Hepatitis Drug That Killed 5,
Laurie McGinley, Wall Street Journal, 5/16/94)

"Stricter controls are needed to ensure Americans don't become guinea
pigs when they're wheeled into hospital emergency rooms or become
mentally ill, patients and ethics experts told Congress...At issue is the
provision of informed consent--fully telling patients the risks of
scientific research...Witnesses told a congressional hearing Monday that
doctors abuse a special rule that allows them to waive informed consent
to save lives during emergencies. And they contended the mentally ill are
especially vulnerable to doctors who simply don't follow the law. 'The
system does not protect human subjects. It protects the researchers,'
said Gregory Aller of Los Angeles, a schizophrenic who contends a
University of California study abused dozens of patients. Witnesses told
the House Small Business subcommittee on regulation that: --UCLA didn't
properly explain to schizophrenics that stopping their medication in a
study on relapse rates put them at risk of psychotic episodes. Mr. Aller
said he didn't get his medication back even after he attacked his mother
with a knife and began hitchhiking to Washington to assassinate then-
President Bush....--Five hospitals sidestepped standard cardiopulmonary
resuscitation and substituted an experimental chest pump for heart attack
victims who physically couldn't consent." (Emergency Room Regulations
Urged, Frederick Post, 5/24/94)

                         Medicine Chest

Almost 3.7 million Americans--mostly children--contract chicken pox each
year. About 90% of Americans have had it by adulthood. For most the
disease means the discomfit of a week in the house with anti-itch creams,
antihistamines, and oatmeal baths, but each year nearly 10,000 Americans
are hospitalized from chicken pox (varicella), and as many as 100 die
from it. Chicken pox is the last of the common childhood diseases, since
measles, mumps, rubella (German measles), diphtheria, and a host of
others can be prevented by vaccination. Pediatricians and parents are
pressing the Food and Drug Administration to license a long-awaited
vaccine, submitted for its approval in May 1993. Britta Taft, died of
chicken pox at the age of 2. Her doctor San Diego pediatrician Steven
Balch says: "The vaccine is absolutely an important vaccine. The diseases
is not a benign disease, and the financial and social implications are
highly significant." (Do Americans Need a Chickenpox Vaccine? Sandra
Evans, Washington Post Health, 6/7/94)

"April 1994 figures show a continued drop in drug price inflation to a
new low of 3%. It's more proof that new competitive forces are working in
the pharmaceutical market. For more information call the Pharmaceutical
Research and Manufacturers of America." (Latest Figures Show Even Further
Decline in Drug Price Increases, PhRMA, ad, Washington Post, 6/7/94)
ABLEnews Editor's Note: You may call them toll-free at 1-800-538-2692.

A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, the song says, but Brian
O'Connell and colleagues at the National Institute of Dental Research,
have found another way. Researchers have genetically engineered the
salivary glands of rats so that drugs are made in their saliva naturally.
The technique, O'Connell observes, could help control yeast infections
plaguing people with suppressed immune systems, and the team hopes to
engineer salivary cells to produce proteins to fight periodontal disease.
The June issue of the American Journal of Physiology features a report on
the initial research. (Rats Produce Drugs in Salivary Glands, Rick Weiss,
Washington Post Health, 6/7/94)

"A Post editorial of May 18 welcomed recent steps toward making RU-486
available here but does not mention its dangers. In France, a woman will
not be given the drug if she is anemic; if she smokes; if she has
circulation problems, asthma, high blood pressure, fibroid tumors on the
uterus, glaucoma, stomach ulcers, colitis or infection of the female
organs; or if she recently had a Caesarean section...I refer you to the
book 'RU-486: Myths, Misconceptions, Morals, Janice C. Raymond et al., by
three doctors...who are against the use of RU-486 because of its dangers
to women and its deforming effect on babies when it fails to cause an
abortion." (Risks of RU-486, P.J. Bonner, letter-editor, WP, 6/7/94)

                         Mental Health

Are you feeling blue? Just plain lousy? You're not alone. A federal
health survey finds one in three Americans feels troubled at least a day
a month. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers expressed
surprise at their candor. "There is a general stigma about mental
health," says Peter Siegel, a medical epidemiologist in the CDC's
behavioral surveillance branch. "We did not expect such a large number to
admit to a stranger over the phone that they had a mental health
problem." Of the 45,000 adults (18 or older) surveyed, 31% acknowledged
mental health problems, including stress and depression, occuring at
least one day a month. A similar 32% confirmed poor physical health a day
a month or more. CDC analyst Dave Moriarity said researchers were also
surprised that individuals unable to work reported only 10.7 good health
days a month. Their conclusion? "People with disabilities tend to have a
lower quality of life." (Having a Bad Health Day? A.J. Hostetler,
Washington Post Health, 5/31/94)

                         No Place Like Home

"We in America are eternal optimists. We think that all problems are
solvable. We believe in the 'indefinite perfectibility of man.' as Alexis
de Tocqueville put it. But people are permanently imperfect., and all
problems are not solvable. Some will endure forever. There will always be
a sliver of society--especially in a nation as big, diverse, and
individualistic as ours--who will be more than desperately poor. They
will drop off the edge. Many of these people used to be called 'vagrants,
tramps, bums,' as the writer Tom Wolfe once put it. Homelessness is a
blander term, implying that the homeless bear no responsibility for their
plight...In a new book ("The Homeless,' Harvard University Press)
sociologist Christopher Jencks of Northwestern University...concludes
that a large part of today's problem results from the destruction of
'skid rows' and the 'deinstitutionalization' of mental patients...
Slightly less than a quarter of today's homeless have been in mental
hospitals. But as Jencks points out, this does not cover those homeless
with mental problems that might have been hospitalized under previous
policies. Including these, he reckons that perhaps a third of today's
homeless are mentally ill...Many...are barely employable...The odds of
helping them are long. If we had no other social problems, we might spend
heavily trying to beat the odds. But...spending more for the homeless
crimps spending for something else. Is the extra effort worth it? The
hard questions are best settled locally. People can weigh their own
conditions, competing needs, and moral sensibilities." (Homelessness: A
Local Problem, Robert Samuelson, op-ed, Washington Post, 5/27/94)
ABLEnews Editor's Note: Are there no poorhouses? --Samuelson, er,
Scrooge.

                         Oh, Oh, HMO

"When Charles W. Turner underwent a coronary triple bypass at Georgetown
University Hospital in December 1992, the hospital was paid $28,113. When
Shelly A. Fowler had the same operation at the same hospital less than
three months later, the hospital was paid only $10,987. Turner, a retired
road construction worker from rural Lonaconing, MD,  was covered by a
traditional fee-for-services insurance plan, which paid the hospital's
full charges. Fowler, an engineer at a high-tech company in Tyson Corner,
was covered by a health maintenance organization, which paid a negotiated
fee. The hospital said it made a profit of $12,481 on Turner, but lost
$7,160 on Fowler because of the deal it made with Fowler's HMO amounted
to a below-cost discount. Georgetown lost $6.2 million during its last
fiscal year on inpatients covered by HMOs and other managed care plans
that received discounts, the hospital said. The story of Turner and
Fowler and a broader analysis od Georgetown Hospital's finances over a
one-year period, show many HMOs and other health insurance plans that are
cited as models of cost effectiveness save money largely by shifting
costs to other insurers." (HMO's Save Money by Shifting Costs, David
Hilzenrath, Washington Post, 6/6/94)

                         Public Health

"Ever since Vietnam War veterans began complaining of problems for
headaches to lung cancer after exposure to dioxin-laden Agent Orange,
researchers have raised a firestorm of questions about the chemical's
effects. Now they think they have some answers. An Environmental
Protection Agency  study, due out next month, concludes that dioxin
provokes severe health problems in humans, even at low doses. According
to a draft of the report, it can cause increased risk of cancer, damage
to reproductive functions, stunted fetal growth, and weakened immune
systems. Dioxin and related compounds, the EPA estimates, are responsible
for between w in 1,000 and 1 in 10,000 of all cancers, and many adverse
effects occur at exposure levels very near the general population average
in industrialized countries" (Getting Some Answers on a Potential Killer,
Gary Lee, Washington Post, 6/13/94)

                         School Daze

"When California governor Pete Wilson called for an investigation of the
examinations being given schoolchildren in his state, it was a little
like the French inspector in 'Casabalanca' saying he was 'shocked' to
find gambling in Nick's nightclub. The charge is that the new exams ask
children about private family matters and their own sexual activities.
The usual attempts to smear parents who object to such intrusions as
'right-wing fundamentalists' fell through this time because not only the
governor but even some members of the educational establishment itself
distanced itself from this exam. If anyone is genuinely shocked by either
the questions or the avant-garde sexual propaganda then they must have
had their heads buried in the sand for a very long time. Although this
story received a front-age headline in the San Francisco Chronicle, it is
hardly news. Two years ago, I detailed similar examples from all over the
country in my book, Inside American Education." (Heads Out of the Sand,
Thomas Sowell, op-ed, Washington Times, 6/2/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note:
Mr. Sowell is an economist and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.

"I was there Tuesday morning when US Secretary of Education Richard Riley
revealed the sad news: American schoolchildren don't write very well. I
was there Tuesday evening when Wynton Marsalis explained why. Aside from
my presence, the two occasions had nothing in common. Riley had chosen
Harriet Tubman Elementary School (because it has an exemplary writing
program) to announce the latest findings from the National Assessment of
Educational Progress. Only about half of America's high school seniors
can write narrative or informative essays that are literate, decently
organized, and reasonably well developed, the NAEP found. That, as it
turned out, was the good news. The bad? Only one senior in six can write
a passable persuasive essay, and less than 2% can render persuasive
essays that are sufficiently developed and detailed to be considered good
writing. I saw Marsalis, the brilliant jazz and classical trumpet player,
at an impromptu party given in his honor...The word 'writing' never came
up, but in a few flashes of insight, he provided as much illumination on
the writing problem as Dick Riley and his entourage had provided that
morning. We were talking (naturally) about music--particularly about
jazz, black America's greatest musical contribution. Jazz--indeed,
virtually all sorts of music--is in trouble, he said...The quality of
jazz musicianship is down, with no sign of resurgence. The reasons:
inadequate preparation, misguided ethnocentrism, and overreliance on
electronic gadgetry." (Why Johnny Can't Write--or Play Jazz, William
Raspberry, op-ed, Washington Post, 6/13/94)

                         Spy vs Spy?

"The body if a CIA employee who died in a 13-story fall in the 1950s
about a week after the agency had given him LSD is going to be analyzed
by a team of scientists studying the cause of his death. Relatives have
long suspected foul play in the November 28, 1953 death of Frank R.
Olson, a biochemist...His death was listed as a suicide. "I have been
curious my whole life. I was 9 years old when he died," said Mr. Olson's
son Eric, 49, a psychologist in Frederick (MD). The body is to be exhumed
today. In 1975, the Rockefeller Commission's report on the CIA indicated
that the agency experimented with LSD and other hallucinogens in the
early 1950s and that a number of the experiments were conducted on
unwitting CIA employees, including Mr. Olson...James E. Starrs, professor
of law and forensic sciences at George Washington University's National
Law Center, is leading the team of scientists...Mr. Starrs said several
factors suggest homicide in Mr. Olson's death: He had a high-level
security clearance at Fort Detrick, where he was involved in germ warfare
work; he knew about clandestine CIA activities; and his reaction to the
LSD made him a security risk." (Tests to Be Done on CIA's LSD Subject,
Washington Times, 6/2/94)

                         The Whole Tooth

According to the National Institute of Dental Research, far fewer
Americans loose their teeth today than a generation ago. A report in the
May issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association cites the use
of fluorides, sealants, better nutrition, and better patient education as
reducing tooth decay and gum disease. (More Americans Keep Their Teeth,
Sandra Evans, Washington Post Health, 5/31/94)

Finish researchers writing in the March-April issue of Pediatric
Dentistry, report that mothers who share their spoons with their babies
and kiss them on the mouth may be protecting them against subsequent
tooth cavities. Their findings indicate that mothers who transfer their
saliva to their babies before their teeth come in help build the infant's
antibodies to bacteria that initiate cavities. (Saliva of Mothers May
Slow Cavities, Sandra Evans, Washington Post Health, 6/7/94)

                         Under the Dome

"Perhaps only in Washington could waiting in line become a cutthroat
business, complete with a police investigation. But even here, this seems
weird: a Capitol Police probe into lobbyists hiring surrogates to hold
their places in lines outside crowded congressional hearings. The
practice of 'line-standing' has grown over the past several years as
high-priced lawyers and lobbyists found that instead of showing up at 6
AM to wait in line for a hearing, they could hire bicycle couriers or
college students to do it for them. Rates range from $22 to about $40 an
hour; the place-holders get about half, with the other half going to the
courier or 'line-standing' services that employ them. Chalk it up to good
old capitalism: A need emerges, and an entrepreneur fills it...But where
there's money to be made, competition can drive people to cut ethical
corners. The Capitol Police have been interviewing witnesses for several
weeks to determine whether some have gained unfair advantage by hiring
insiders--congressional employees--to get in line early, before Hill
office buildings are open to the public. It could be a violation of
congressional ethics rules for an employee to use an official
identification card to gain access to an office building for the purpose
of earning outside income...Chris Van Horn, owner of the CVK Group, which
provides place-holding services to lobbyists and law firms, said his
company had complained to police that his people had often entered office
buildings when they open at 7 AM only to find as many as 10 people in
line ahead of them." (Cutting Corners in Line? Washington Post,
5/27/94)ABLEnews Editor's Note: Are you curious as I am how the lawyers
and lobbyists could show up at 6 AM when the buildings do not open until
7 AM? When I was a Senate staffer we did not have to wait in line to
attend Senate hearings but reported directly to the Capitol Police
guarding the door. Hence there appeared no legitimate need to stand in
line. But I have been off the Hill for some years now.

                         Telling Headlines

Abortion Re-Entering Health Reform Debate, USA Today, 5/11
Allergies to Antibiotics, Washington Post Health, 5/31
Asthma in Inner-City Children, Washington Post Health, 5/31

Blues Decide to Drop $12 Million Federal Contract, FP, 5/24
Boycott of RU-486 Firms Set, Washington Post, 6/2
Brown & Williamson Tobacco Paid to Get Brands in Films, WSJ, 5/16
Capriati Checks into Rehabilitation Center, Martinsburg Journal, 5/20
Clinton Has Called for Dioxin Task Force, New York Times, 5/17
Clinton, Pope Can't Agree on Abortion, Martinsburg Journal, 6/13
Clinton Sends Budget Officials for Ways to Fund Welfare Reform, WSJ, 5/25
Delegates: West Virginia Losing Ground with Health Care, MJ, 6/12
Effect of Insurance Law Unclear, Baltimore Sun, 6/8
FDA Checks Allergy Drugs Linked to Cancer in Mice, BS, 5/18
FDA Considers Anti-Herpes Medication; CDC Opposed, MJ, 5/20
Federal Employees' Health Benefits Seen as Good Plan for All, WT, 5/11
Female LEgal Eagles Shot Down by Stress, Washington Times, 5/11
Film Buffs Opt for Fat-Laden Popcorn, Washington Times, 6/14
FTC to Require Food Ads to Follow FDA Label Guides, WSJ, 5/16
Genes Found to Promote Some Aggressive Behavior, Free Lance-Star, 5/26
Health Care Bill May Be Combination of Insurance Mandates, WSJ, 5/16
Health Plan Gets Mixed Reviews, Martinsburg Journal, 6/11
Homeless Plan Needs More Work, editorial, New York Times, 5/17
Homeopathic Remedy May Shorten Diarrhea, Washington Post Health, 6/7
House Gives Push to Bill to Make Social Security Independent, BS, 5/18
Lawmakers Want FDA to Regulate Cigarettes, Washington Times, 6/14
Looking Beyond Standard IQ Tests to Identify Talent in Children, WPH, 6/7
Moms Would Work Under Welfare Plan, Martinsburg Journal, 6/11
Philip Morris on Offensive in California, New York Times, 5/16
Police Say Run on Baby Formula Not Drug Related, MJ, 5/20
President Signs Clinic Access Law; Foes File Lawsuit, WP, 5/27
Pro-Lifers Refuse to Pay Jury Award to Abortion Clinic, WT, 5/11
Protests Over World War II Greet Japanese Emperor, MJ, 6/13
Rare Bacteria Strains Hospitalize 2, Washington Post, 6/2
Report: Gap Between 'Haves and Have-Not's' Widening in US, MJ, 6/3
Research Shows Many Child Seats Ineffective in Airline Travel, WP, 5/27
Rostenkowski Disputes Payroll Charges, Washington Post, 6/13
RU-486--Here at Last, editorial, New York Times, 5/17
Seles Seeks $10 Million from German Federation for Damages, MJ, 5/20
Shield to Protect Mammography Patients from Infectious Disease, NYT, 5/16
Soda Industry Tries to Avert a School Ban, New York Times, 5/17
Start Young If You Want Golden Years to Be Bright, Washington Post, 5/25
Stroke Among Costliest Health Woes, USA Today, 5/5
Study Finds Higher Latex Allergy Rate, Washington Post Health, 6/7
Telemedicine Team Receives Praise, Stripe, 5/20
Thorough Scrubbing Does Not Guarantee Pesticide-Free Produce, WP, 5/20
Travelers Inc. and Met Life to Form HMO, Wall Street Journal, 6/14
West Virginia May Have Received a Shipment of Tainted Meat, MJ, 6/10
White House Chef Ready for the Challenge, Martinsburg Journal, 6/13

                         Wish We'd Said That...

     Words force us to focus our thoughts presented in letters
     strung before us, and also to use our imagination. Alec Baldwin
     might make a perfectly good Shadow in this summer's big movie,
     but somehow I doubt he will be as mysterious and spooky as the
     guy on the old radio shows. (John Schwartz)

                         ...Glad We Didn't

     It is my intuitive feeling a lot of inner-city crime is formed
     in utero. (Deepak Chopra, MD)

                         We Did Say It...

     It is my intuitive feeling that a lot of Dr. Chopra's gnostic
     babble is utter nonsense...at best. (Earl Appleby)

  Of Note is published biweekly by ABLEnews, a Fidonet-backbone echo
  featuring disability/medical news and information. ABLEnews is
  carried by more than 300 BBSs in the US, Canada, Australia, Great
  Britain, Greece, and Sweden. The echo, available from Fidonet and
  Planet Connect, and gated to the ADANet, FamilyNet, and World Message
  Exchange networks, is a public service of CURE.

  ABLEnews text files--including our digests: Of Note and Mednotes
  (suitable for bulletin and file use) are disseminated via the
  ABLEfile Distribution Network, which is available from the filebone
  and Planet Connect.

...For further information, contact CURE, 812 Stephen Street, Berkeley
Springs, West Virginia 254511 (304-258-LIFE/5433).