North Carolina Newspapers

4The Daily Tar HeelThursday, September 21 , 1989 City -and State Democrat unveil -educatDOini goals City Police Roundup From Associated Press reports WASHINGTON Democratic congressional leaders stole a march Wednesday on President Bush's edu cation summit by announcing ambi tious and probably costly goals for America's schools. Bush, still mapping his strategy, at tended a private seminar with some of the nation's best-known educators a week before he convenes the two-day summit with the nation's governors in Charlottesville, Va. The Democrats assembled at a show case school in a Washington suburb to unveil six "National Goals for Educa tional Excellence," including lower dropout rates, fewer illiterates and early childhood education for all poor 4-year-olds by 1995 or earlier. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell of Maine called the list "Democratic education goals for the nation," and said his party "has long championed educational opportunity for all Americans. The major federal education programs were Democratic initiatives." While the Democrats staged their scene-stealing event at Eleanor Roosev elt High School in Greenbelt, Md., Bush , sat down for private talks at the White House with a dozen education leaders, assuring them at the outset that the deck was not "stacked" for the summit and that he was eager to hear their ideas. While Bush himself has said he hoped the summit would lead to new perform ance goals for the schools, Comer cau tioned against putting "more pressures on educators without creating ... the circumstances that can support them and make it possible for people to reach those goals." While the Democrats put no price tag on how much it would cost to meet their education goals, the list clearly would entail major increases in the $22 billion Education Department budget. The six Democratic goals are the following: Early Childhood Development: To get all "at risk 4-year-old children" into high quality early childhood de velopment programs by 1995 or before Basic Skills: "Raise the basic skills achievement of all students to their grade level or above" by 1993, and "sharply reduce the discrepancy in test scores" among minority and majority students Graduation Literacy: Improve the high school graduation rate yearly by reducing dropouts and the number of illiterate Americans Math, Science and Foreign Lan guage: Raise the performance of Ameri can students in these areas until they exceed those of students from other industrialized nations Access to Higher Education: In crease college-going rates of all Ameri cans, especially minorities, and "re duce the imbalance between grants and loans in financing a college education ' Teachers: "Alleviate the impend ing teacher shortage, especially among minorities," by expanding the pool of those qualified to teach. Sen. Claiborne Pell, D-R.L, chair man of the Senate subcommittee on education, urged Bush "to place educa tion among the very highest priorities in the federal budget." Condom use low in Canadian colleges From Associated Press reports HOUSTON About 75 percent of white, middle-class Canadian college students are sexually active but only 19 percent use condoms, even though they know condoms can protect against AIDS and other diseases, a survey found. The survey "suggests most educa tion and media campaigns to increase condom use are dismal failures," said Dr. Noni MacDonald of the University of Ottawa in Canada. She presented her findings Wednesday at a meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. "They know the facts; that's not the problem," MacDonald said. "More than 80 percent got the safe sex questions correct. But do they use it? No." MacDonald, a member of a Cana dian health ministry task force on sexu ally transmitted diseases, said her find ings would probably apply to white, middle-class American college stu dents. "If we've got it in middle-America Canada,' you must have it in middle America," she said. A recent study of condom use by adolescent males in the United States found that 57 percent reported use of a condom the last time they had intercourse, but that only 30 percent said they had always used a condom with their last partners. The author of the U.S. study, Freya Sonenstein of the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., said condom use has increased but it is lowest among adolescents who are most at risk, either because they have multiple partners or sex with prostitutes, for example. The Canadian study, in which 6,91 1 college students across Canada were surveyed, found that 30 percent of 14-year-olds had already had intercourse, as had 77 percent of college males and 73 percent of college women. One in four men and one in eight women reported having had at least 10 sexual partners. These findings held true "right across the country, coast-to-coast, little town, big town," said MacDonald. Twenty-six percent of the students said they had never used a condom, 19 percent reported regular use, and the rest used a condom some of the time. Condoms have been widely pro moted as a way to cut the risk of getting infected with the human immunodefi ciency virus, or HIV, that causes AIDS. But they can also protect against other sexually transmitted diseases, such as chlamydia, a common infection that can leave women infertile. Sonenstein found that reports of condom use among American adoles cent males doubled during roughly the past 10 years. . Dr. John Moran of the federal Cen ters for Disease Control said condom sales jumped by 20 percent shortly after the U.S. Surgeon General released his report on AIDS in 1986. In Chapel Hill: Bartley E. Maynor, 29, of 351 Polka Landing Rd. was issued war rants charging him with assault with a deadly weapon on a law enforcement officer, careless and reckless driving, and obstructing and resisting arrest. Maynor was charged with striking a Chapel Hill police officer with his truck on Aug. 27. He was held on $1,500 bond. Police were called to University Square parking lot Tuesday when an elderly man approached Howe Bog art asking for money. Bogart thought the man concealed a knife or other weapon in his hand. Officers found no weapon on the suspect and no further action was taken. Ginger Gay, a resident at 306-B Franklin Woods, asked officers to remove her ex-boyfriend from the premises. The man had been knock ing on the woman's door, but when officers arrived he left without further incident. Police charged two men with assault Monday in connection to inci dents at University Garden Apart ments. Joseph McLeod, 28, of Chapel Hill was charged with assault on a female after his wife reported that he had choked her. McLeod was held on $250 bond. Timothy D. Dillon, 33, of Greens boro was charged with assault on a female after he pulled Martha Dillon out of her car parked at the apartment. Jean Sharpless of 1 34 Berry Patch Lane phoned police Tuesday when she thought she heard someone walk ing on her roof. A brief search re vealed the noise was actually rodents in the woman's attic. Police responded to a call at 219 East Rosemary Street Tuesday when Helen Tucker reported that someone had tried to enter her home. Upon arrival police questioned one person in the area, but no action was taken. Judy Siddney requested police assistance at 2101 N. Lake Shore Dr. Monday after she heard her bedroom door opening and closing. Officers found no one in the residence, nor were there any signs of forced entry. A search found nothing missing from the residence. Police were called to 303 Hem lock Rd. Monday when a suspicious person was reported walking through a resident's yard. An officer con fronted the subject and found that he was a Duke Power employee reading the power meters. Suzanne Pomeranz called police to 412 North St. Tuesday when she reportedly heard screams coming from the Delta Upsilon fraternity house. Pomeranz also said several fraternity members had walked across her property. Upon arrival police heard no loud noise coming from the fraternity house. A member of the fraternity told the officers an effort would be made to keep the noise down. Esphur Foster of 410 Cotton St. called police Monday to report that someone had stolen the engine out of a vehicle parked in her back yard. Foster said she could not see the engine from underneath the vehicle. Officers raised the hood and found the engine in its proper place. compiled by Steven Adams Paod affirms safety of genetically altered organisms From Associated Press reports WASHINGTON Field testing of genetically modified plants and micro organisms "will not pose any hazard" to the environment if done carefully under existing laws, a National Acad emy of Sciences panel concluded in a study released Wednesday. Genetically engineered plants and microbes are "not intrinsically danger ous," the study found. But the experts said field tests should be allowed only after evaluating the effect on the envi ronment if the modified organism were to "escape" from the test area. ' "We feel fairiy confident that if this thing is done right, it will not pose any hazard," said Robert Burris, an emeri tus professor of biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin. "We hope that this will be reassuring to the pub lic." Jeremy Rifkin of the Foundation on Economic Trends, a long-time oppo nent of field testing of genetically al tered organisms, attacked the report as "irresponsible public policy." He said science has no way to evaluate the risks of releasing such organisms into the environment. Burris, who was chairman of the academy's committee on evaluation of introduction of gene-modified micro organisms and plants, said that some 80 modified plants and microbes have been tested in the environment and, "we haven't had any accidents as yet." The committee said that federal agencies reviewing field test proposals should base approval on three points: how familiar scientists are with the modified organism, how well the or ganism will be confined or controlled, and the probability of adverse effects on the environment if the organism were to escape from the field test. Science is now able to manipulate basic characteristics of plants and bac teria by adding, removing or rearrang ing genes. For instance, a bacteria that resists the formation of ice has been sprayed on strawberries to help the plants resist frost. Some bacteria has been experimentally altered so that they would break down pollutants. And some tomato plant genes have been altered to make the fruit more firm. Rifkin' s organization and some other public advocacy groups, however, have objected that field testing genetically altered organisms runs the risk of re leasing into the environment a plant or bacteria that could cause ecological disaster. He said some other nations, includ ing Japan and Denmark, have put a five-year moratorium on testing ge netically altered organisms because of the uncertainty of the risk. Rifkin said the National Academy of Sciences report is "politics and not science," adding, "We will oppose these recommendations." Burris said, however, that the com mittee examined the dangers and be lieves the hazards can be controlled if federal agencies follow the three-part guidelines in considering field test applications. The report said the "major environ mental risk" from genetic modification of plants is that an altered plant will escape cultivation and become a weed species, or that it will pollinate wild plants and create a new type of weed. "The likelihood of enhanced weedi ness is low for genetically modified, highly domesticated crop plants," the report said. Modified microorganisms, such as bacteria, pose another kind of hazard because they are prone to spontaneous mutations, suggesting the possibility that a damaging organism could de velop from one that had been manipu lated by man. The report said that such a hazard could be controlled by adding to the modified microorganism a "suicide gene." This would be a genetic instruc tion that would cause the organism to die when it encounters a temperature change or is deprived of certain types of nutrients. Genetic manipulations of this type, the report said, could "guarantee that the organism could not survive outside the target environment." The committee determined that there was no need to change existing laws. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency currently regulate field testing of modified organisms. "The laws that exist now are ade quate for this," said Burris. "We're not suggesting that any laws be changed." Burris said genetic manipulation of Hugo microorganisms and plants has great promise for a wide variety of uses. Some manipulated bacteria, he said, could be used to remove sulfur or other undesirable elements from mineral ore, leading to a concentration of minerals in an ore that might otherwise not be economically recovered. Microbes also could be manipulated so that they would "eat" toxic pollut ants, changing the poisons in chemical dumps, for example, into inert gases, he said. By manipulating genes, agricultural scientists could develop food plants that are resistant to insects, disease or drought, Burris said. from page 1 procedures for this time of year, be cause many coastal residents expect some weather problems during hurri- How're you going to do it? "This is going to be a breeze JLBM f SZs -l sss imJLwy 1 - 11 fcS-A if"Xoa gV sCS .... 'a t 0M feteft&B Great back-to-school prices on PS2 s. Just in time. You can pick up an IBM Personal System2 with easy-to-use software loaded and ready to go. And best of all, you get it at a special low back-to -school price. And that's not all. When you buy the PS2, you can get a great low price on PRODIGY the exciting new shopping, information and entertainment computer service. Start this semester up and running with a PS2 at a low, low price? 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Because North Carolina's coastline juts out into the Atlantic Ocean more than the coastlines of Georgia or Vir ginia, it is particularily susceptible to hurricanes like Hugo. Some Hatteras Island residents are worried about the Hebert C. Bonner Bridge, which links the island to the mainland. Water damage from the storm could cause erosion of access to the bridge, Call said. Earlier this year local officials decided to build supports for the Hatteras side of the bridge, but concern still exists. If evacution of Hatteras Island is necessary, residents would be able to wait out the storm in shelters in Rocky Mount, Call said. With updated equipment, new emer gency radios and new generators, Caro lina Beach officials are more prepared than they were in September of 1984 when Hurricane Diane struck, said Harold Wood, Carolina Beach police chief. Hurricane Diane was the last major hurricane to hit North Carolina. It resulted in $66 million in damage at Carolina Beach. Carolina Beach officials say they are ready to face Hurricane Hugo. "We don't have a lot to do but wait," Grisdale said. a Legal Problems ? call Orrin Robbins Attorney at Law 968-1825 b3 First 25 customers to visit The RAM Shop and see demonstrastion! THE AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION MEMORIAL PROGRAM WERE FIGHTING FOR OURUFE AmArifvin Unort Association !L This space provided as a public service.