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Farmers' Crisis Cues
Funding Squabble
Democrats and Republicans
will continue the discussion
of aid when the Senate
reconvenes in September.
By Courtney Hathaway
Assistant State & National Editor
U.S. Republican and Democratic leg
islators are still squabbling over an
emergency aid package for struggling
fanners, while an unlucky combination
of a year of bad weather and low prices
has the farmers fighting to keep their
heads above water.
To further emphasize their struggle,
hundreds of U.S. farmers and ranchers
are flying to Washington on Sept. 13 to
continue lobbying efforts for more
emergency funding and to confront leg
islators.
Erika Hovland, communications
director for the National Farmers
Union, said the farmers planned to
lobby for adequate short-term assistance
and longer-term relief.
The $7.5 billion package designated
to aid farmers in need was not included
in the Senate’s
standard appropri
ations, said Mark
Kimball,
spokesman for Sen.
Tom Daschle, D-
S.D. Last year the
Senate spent $6 bil
lion on emergency
relief, he said. The
package has not yet
passed in the
“(The aid package) would
provide immediate aid to make
sure farmers can farm
another day. ”
Andy McDonald
Congressional Spokesman
House.
Kimball said Senate Democrats had
originally pushed for sll billion for
relief, but the Republicans thought that
amount was unnecessary. “We’re happy
with what we got,” Kimball said. “We
had to drag (the Republicans) kicking
and screaming all the way.”
He said a conference committee has
been organized and should be able to
reach a compromise when Congress
reconvenes in September.
“This would provide immediate aid
to make sure farmers can farm another
day,” said Andy McDonald, spokesman
for Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn.
“The greater challenge is to get out of
the price crisis, which is what is making
life so miserable for farmers,” he said.
“Prices are at a record low and show no
signs of rebounding.”
McDonald said the farmers’ plight
would ripple out into the surrounding
communities.
“We’re faced with farmers who are in
freefall which affects whole communi
ties,” he said. “For example, banks give
loans to farmers but farmers can’t pay
them back.”
But some Republicans think the relief
program is too much too soon.
Andy Fisher, spokesperson for Sen.
Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said the
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Republicans were wary of spending
more money until after Congress recon
venes in September.
“We won’t have a full understanding
of the farm crisis until after Labor Day,”
Fisher said.
“We shouldn’t put that much money
into it until we know how it will best
help farmers.”
But Hovland said providing emer
gency relief money was not enough.
“Something’s not working,” she said.
“They shouldn’t have to keep coming
back every year passing emergency
relief programs.”
Prices have reached record low lev
els, she said.
“There’s been a pretty extreme
decline in commodity prices,” she said.
“They’ve been declining since the latter
part of 1997. (The result has been) a
decline in farm incomes.”
Hovland said the forecasted prices
for the coming year indicated even
more price drops. Wheat prices are
expected to drop 42 percent, com prices
39 percent and soybeans 26 percent.
The net farm income is projected to be
16.5 percent lower than 1996 levels. But
she said the net farm income would be
33.4 percent lower
than 1996 after
government assis
tance was deduct
ed.
Hovland said
meat prices have
also been affected.
Hog prices have
fallen 20 percent
since 1996, and
cattle prices have
fallen five percent.
“This crisis is unique because it’s
across the board,” she said. The low
prices are a result of the drought, the
Asian economic crisis, and demand
decrease.
Kimball said the meatpacker monop
oly was largely to blame for low meat
prices.
“(The meat industry) is concentrated
within a few companies,” he said.
Kimball gave an example of a ham.
He said a family might pay S3O for a
good cut of ham, but the farmer might
have sold the entire hog to the meat
packer for S3O.
Kimball said it cost the farmers more
to raise prices than than their profit from
selling it. “Good producers are going out
of business,” he said. “And consumers
are paying more for food than they
probably should.”
“The situation is dire,” he said.
“We’ve seen it happening for two years,
and we don’t need to wait anymore.”
Hovland said she agreed the situation
was perilous. “The danger is that this
will drive family farmers and ranchers
out of business,” Hovland said. “Then
who will be producing our food?”
The State & National Editor can be
reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.
Rashes of Syphilis
Orange County and Durham County residents have reported a dramatic increase in syphilis cases from 1997-1998. Experts from the N.C.
Department of Health and Human Services blame drugs and prostitution. 1 — ——
Enlargement of second stage syphilis
Number of Syphilis infections by County infection:
County 1997 1998
Alamance 34 44 i j,
Durham 44 83 \ ' J
Forsyth 156 85 x
Guilford 260 180 M f \
Orange 17 39 W T -J \
The Stages of Syphilis and Treatments
Stage 1: The first symptom of syphilis appears as a small, round sore (known as a chancre). Appearing at the point"
of bacterium entrance, the chancre goes away in one to five weeks.
Treatment for Stage 1: Single injection of penicillin.
Stage 2: A rash breaks out in patches on the skin. The rash can be accompanied by fever, sore throat and fatigue.
These symptoms disappear in two to six weeks.
Treatment for Stage 2: Three doses of penicillin injections.
Stage 3: No visible symptoms are found in this stage. The bacteria begins to attack internal organs including the
brain, heart and liver. If left untreated, infection may be fatal.
Treatment for Stage 3: A 10-day intravenous treatment of penicillin.
SOURCE: CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL, DR. BILL MILLER, N.C. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES DTH/DAN HELIAS
County Syphilis Cases on Rise
Officials say the growing
level of syphilis in Orange
County mirrors outbreaks
in other counties along I-40.
By Bart Wojdynski
Staff Writer
Health officials believe that drug use
and prostitution are the largest factors in
a dramatic increase in syphilis over the
past few years in Orange and several
other North Carolina counties.
The groups that have been most
affected are men and women in their
late thirties, said Dr. Kim Fox, medical
epidemiologist for the N.C. Department
of Health and Human Services.
The number of reported cases of
syphilis in Orange County more than
doubled from 17 in 1997 to 39 in 1998.
Durham county showed a similar
increase, from 44 to 83 reported cases.
“The syphilis problem in North
Carolina has, as in other epidemics,
been linked to crack cocaine,” Fox said.
“The big risk factors have been use of
crack, trading sex for money or drugs
and high numbers of sexual partners.”
Bill Miller, professor of epidemiology
at the UNC-CH School of Public
Health, said he did not know the cause
of the outbreak, but he saw a clear pat
tern.
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News
“There seems to be a wave moving
from west to east,” he said. “There was
an increase in Guilford County, then
Alamance, Orange, and Durham and
Wake counties, subsequendy. It’s moved
eastward along the 1-40 -1-85 corridor.”
According to the Web site for the
Centers, www.cdc.gov, the South as a
whole has had particularly high syphilis
rates in recent years.
Eight southern states had rates any
where from 2 to 12 times higher than the
overall national rate.
Syphilis is a treatable disease that is
transmitted through sexual contact or
from mother to child. Unless the disease
is treated, the appearance of a sore will
be followed by a rash that may vary in
appearance. like the sore, the rash will
disappear on its own, usually within 5
weeks. If left untreated, the disease can
ultimately lead to death.
To control the spread of the disease,
the state health department has appro
priated grants to eliminate syphilis from
the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention in five North Carolina coun
ties: Orange, Durham, Alamance,
Forsyth, and Guilford.
The state health department used the
funds to establish an outreach educator,
or “syphilis eliminator” position in each
of the five counties. The educator will
use money from the grants to coordinate
prevention and education programs.
“First of all, we are going to set up
t f>/ft,p, formatter and. cjut this /other UNC-CH programs:
call a Study Abroad Advisor at
email us at abroad#unc edu .
or check out our website at http;//etudy-abroad.unc.edu
- - —
syphilis prevention programs in jail set
tings and rehab centers,” said Lateacha
Hodge, outlook educator for Orange
County. “We’re also going to go out to
community functions to spread the
word.”
Syphilis is treated by penicillin,
Miller said. The administration and
duration of the treatment depends on
the stage of the disease that is being
treated. According to the CDC, the best
defense against syphilis is the proper
use of a condom during any kind of sex.
The City Editor can be reached
at citydesk@unc.edu.
don’t sleep
through campus life.
See the Daily Tar Heel Wednesday to
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Friday, August 20, 1999
Bug Plagues
New E-mail
Software
The glitch in Microsoft's
"MSN Messenger" system
gives strangers access to
others' e-mail accounts.
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Microsoft Corp.
acknowledged Thursday a bug in its
new Internet chat software that permits
coworkers and others to see a person’s
e-mail password.
It promised to fix it by week’s end.
The glitch in the company’s new
“MSN Messenger” software means that
others who have access to a person's
computer could impersonate that per
son to read and even send e-mail using
his “Hotmail” account without anyone’s
knowledge.
Microsoft said that even if customers
delete their saved password and enter it
manually, it still becomes visible if
another person types a specific
sequence of strokes on that computer.
Microsoft, whose software runs most
of the world’s personal computers,
promised to fix the problem by the end
of Friday.
The company said it was made
aware of the bug earlier this week.
Deanna Sanford, the product man
ager for MSN, said the bug’s ill effects
were mitigated because a person must
have physical access to the victim’s
computer, meaning the problem will be
worse in offices than for home users.
5