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Court orders
release of
secret papers
■ The Supreme Court
ordered the release of
39,000 tobacco documents.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON The Supreme
Court cleared the way today for the
tobacco industry’s forced release of
39,000 secret documents in a Minnesota
trial.
The court rejected an emergency
request in which the nation’s cigarette
makers claimed that most of the docu
ments are privileged information that
should stay secret.
A Minnesota trial judge had ordered
their release and within hours of today’s
action, about 20 boxes of documents
were delivered to the Minneapolis office
of Michael Ciresi, lead attorney for the
plaintiffs.
Today’s order meant all the docu
ments must be surrendered to lawyers
for Minnesota and Blue Cross and Blue
Shield of Minnesota. The state and the
insurance company are suing cigarette
makers to recover $1.77 billion spent to
treat smoking-related illnesses. They
also are seeking punitive damages.
The order does not make the 39,000
documents public.
Tobacco industry lawyers had argued
that release of the documents would
unfairly harm their clients in the
Minnesota case and also in “hundreds
of other pending cases.”
Today, defense attorneys said they
were disappointed with the high court’s
one-sentence rejection of their request
for an emergency stay, saying that it set
a bad precedent.
“I think it’s very unfortunate,” said
Greg Little, an attorney for Philip
Morris Inc. “It sends a very chilling
message to any trial lawyer that attor
ney-client privilege is not as sacred as it
once was.”
Lawyers for the state and insurance
company say some of the sought-after
documents may be the most significant
to their case.
Ciresi, lead attorney for the plaintiffs,
said his team is “already geared up" to
comb through the documents and to
start using them right away in cross
examining tobacco industry witnesses.
To All Carolina Graduate & Professional Students
~ during Graduate and Professional Student Appreciation Week ~
On behalf of the Administrative Board of the Graduate School,
the Graduate Faculty, and the Staff and Administration of the Graduate School...
Thank You
c or all the great things you do
for Carolina
Thank you for your brilliant ideas and great
scholarship.
Thank you for the important cutting edge
research you conduct.
• Thank you for the many ways you help the
people of North Carolina and people all over
the world through countless hours of public
service and community activities.
• Thank you for the enthusiasm and skill you
bring to leaching.
• Thank you for making us so proud that you
chose to come to The University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill.
To many, you are the glue that binds together
the different communities that make Carolina
And yet again, -
Thank You
Clinton issues order to ban guns
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON Vowing “to do
our best to keep our people alive,"
President Clinton today closed a loop
hole through which thousands of for
eign-made assault rifles entered the
United States despite a 1994 ban.
With the White House Rose Garden
and a wall of uniformed police officers
as a backdrop, Clinton issued an execu
tive order that permanently barred
importation of 58 assault weapons that
were modified for sport shooting in
order to get around the ban. Most of the
affected guns are variations of the AK
-47 and Uzi semiautomatic weapons.
The National Rifle Association
immediately promised a bid to overturn
Clinton’s ban in Congress. “We believe
the people who have responsibility for
writing gun laws are the Congress, not
the president,” said Tonya Metaska, the
NRA’s main lobbyist.
Metaska dismissed today’s order as
"nothing more than cosmetics,” saying
prohibiting these guns would do little to
stop crime. “These are not the guns of
Clinton can focus on country
after Jones’ lawsuit dismissal
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON President
Clinton says the dismissal of Paula
Jones’ sexual harassment lawsuit
removes an obstacle from his duties to
the nation, and keeping his private prob
lems and public obligations separate has
"been a test.”
Clinton scored a major victory last
week when a federal judge in Arkansas
threw out Jones’ case against him. But
he still faces independent counsel
Kenneth Starr’s investigation into his
alleged sexual relations with White
House intern Monica Lewinsky, and
Jones is expected to decide this week
whether to appeal.
In an interview in this week’s Time
magazine, Clinton said that if he were
“just an average citizen, Joe Six-Pack,”
he would have wanted the Jones case to
go to trial so he could prove his inno
cence.
As president, he said, having it dis
missed “and putting this behind us is
plainly in the best interest of the coun-
STATE & NATIONAL
choice of criminals,” she said. “They
weren’t in 1994 and they’re even less so
in 1998.”
Sea Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who
pressed Clinton to issue the order, esti
mated that his action would keep 1.6
million rifles from ending up in the
hands of criminals
“These guns are the tools of gang
members, grievance killers and those
who go up against police," Feinstein
said. “They do not belong on our streets
and President Clinton is right to keep
them out of our country.”
Clinton hailed an overall drop in vio
lent crime since he took office in 1993,
but said much work remains in prevent
ing violence as long as gun manufactur
ers “can make minor cosmetic modifi
cations to weapons of war” and send
them onto the streets of America.
“There are still far too many children
in harm’s way, too many families behind
locked doors, too many guns in the
hands of too many criminals,” he said.
Speaking directly to gun makers, the
president added, “You can read the fine
■<# Mg' l
try.”
Every president
since George
Washington, he
said, has talked
about how the
United States
deserves a chief
executive who is
able to completely
free himself of
personal concerns
“and become
totally obsessed
with the public
interest. It’s been a
test. But I’ve tried
to do that.”
FAULA JONES
is expected to decide
whether to appeal her
case against
President Bill Clinton
later this week,
officials said.
With the Jones
case dismissed, Clinton said he was
“freer to keep doing what I’m supposed
to be doing,” focusing on such issues as
tobacco legislation, education and
Social Security.
That was the theme of Clinton sup
porters on the Sunday television news
print in our law and our regulations all
you want, and you can keep making
minor changes, but we’re going to do
our best to keep our people alive and
stop you from making a dollar in the
wrong way.”
Rep. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who
sponsored die 1994 ban, said he would
introduce a resolution in Congress later
this month supporting Clinton’s action,
a maneuver he hoped would thwart an
attempt to overturn the ban.
“We can’t let a bunch of gun extrem
ists put lives in jeopardy,” Schumer said.
“They’ll continue to prod and poke in a
tireless search for new loopholes.”
Clinton's order follows a Treasury
Department review of 59 weapons,
done in consultation with state game
and law enforcement agencies and hunt
ing advocates.
The review determined that many of
the guns in question do not meet
requirements under federal law for
import for sporting purposes, mainly
because they can be fitted with large
capacity magazines.
programs, who emphasized that he con
tinues to receive high ratings among
most Americans for his political initia
tives.
“This president has chosen the poli
tics of ideas and the battlefield of ideas.
His opponents have chosen the battle
field of insult and innuendo,” senior
White House adviser Rahm Emanuel
said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“I think (independent counsel)
Kenneth Starr, no matter what bravado
he may put forward now, clearly must be
looking for an exit strategy,” Sen. Robert
Torricelli, D-N.J., said on CBS’ “Face
the Nation.”
Starr is under pressure from both
Democrats and Republicans to wrap up
his four-year investigation, which began
with an examination of the Whitewater
land deal in Arkansas. He is expected to
file a report within the next few months
to the Republican-led House, which
then must decide whether to launch
impeachment proceedings against
Clinton.
Medication reduces
risk of breast cancer
■v
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON ln what health
officials called a historic and significant
advance, federal researchers said they
have definite proof that a drug can effec
tively prevent breast cancer in women at
high risk of the disease, the first-ever
demonstration of such an effect.
“This is the first imperfect, but very
encouraging, step toward finding drugs”
that prevent a number of different kinds
of cancer, said Dr. Richard Klausner,
the director of the National Cancer
Institute.
Klausner today presented the results
of a study which show a drug called
tamoxifen is capable of reducing the risk
of breast cancer 40 percent to 50 percent
among women at high risk.
“We are now in a position to give
women an option. We can now inter
vene prior to the detection of breast can
cer and really reduce a woman’s chance
of developing the disease,” said Leslie
Ford, the National Cancer Institute offi
cial overseeing the trial.
ANDERSON
FROM PAGE 3
was not raised because of his illness.
With his next 12 rounds of
chemotherapy not scheduled until after
Easter, Anderson has some time before
he has to go through the pain again.
“Thank God, I’ll be off it for awhile,”
he said. “I believe in it. A lot of people
don’t. The doctor is part of the whole
CONTRACTS
FROM PAGE 3
not in keeping with the spirit of the pro
gram,” Tufts said.
Task force member Todd Pugatch, a
freshman from Revere, Mass., said sup
port from UNC was important to the
cause because UNC has the second
largest licensing program in the CLC.
“Whenever (the big) schools get
together and make a stand, it’s going to
follow throughout the United States,”
Pugatch said.
Even if the code passes, UNC will
not be the first university to take a posi
tion against unethical labor practices.
Tico Almeida, a Duke University
junior from Madison, Wis., who helped
write its code, said that although UNC’s
efforts were not unique, they were
Tuesday, April 7,1998
%'
Government officials acknowledged
that the protection came with an '
increased risk of another type of cancer' 1
and of blood clots.
But the research clearly showed, 1
Klausner said, that the benefits for~
women at high risk in preventing breast*
cancer outweighed the risk of side"
effects from taking the drug.
Ford added that any decision to com
mence treatment should be weighed
carefully.
“As with any medication, the deci
sion to begin tamoxifen therapy is a very
complex one,” she said.
“There are no simple answers,” she
said.
Ford predicted four years ago that if
16,000 women were recruited, tamox
ifen would be expected to prevent 120 to
125 breast cancer cases, while producing
58 to 80 new cases of uterine cancer
which is far easier to detect early and
cure than breast cancer.
Today, she noted that “none of the
risks were unanticipated.
scheme of tilings. God guides this hands
and brain. I include him in the whole
spiritual thing.”
While Anderson remains optimistic
about his chances of beating his cancer,
Gist said it was very serious.
“He’s beat it before, so he can beat it
again,” she said. “He’s very strong phys
ically. His work’s not done. Hank has
spent a lifetime contributing to the com
munity, and I want that to continue.”
important to the code’s success.
“In order for any code to be success
ful, it’s crucial that universities work in
collaboration,” Almeida said.
Though Duke’s conduct code allows
monitors to make unannounced visits to
factories, Almeida said specific methods
of monitoring were left out on purpose
to allow further discussion.
But Tufts said UNC was trying to
include other schools in an enforceable
code rather than making a public state
ment as Duke did.
“It’s my belief that if these schools
get together, it will have a much better
impact than if one or two schools go off
alone,” Tufts said.
“You can go on and have all the won
derful principles, but unless you can
enforce them, you really haven’t accom
plished very much.”
9