Page 6 • Thursday, July 15, 1999
News
*
Radio battle sparks protest
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Pub
lic radio station KPFA, a longtime
outlet for radical politics in fa
mously liberal Berkeley, has been
rocked by arrests, firings and
demonstrations in what staff
members see as a battle against
corporate conformity.
Staffers say the station’s parent
company, the nonprofit Pacifica
Foundation, is trying to make KPFA
more mainstream.
“These people have come in
and have stolen the station," said
Lavarn Williams, one of 30 people
holding a day-long protest outside
the station yesterday morning. “In
stead of free speech, they want
government-controlled speech.”
Williams is a consultant
brought in to help the station —
one of the nation’s oldest listen
er-supported stations — cele
brate its 50th anniversary. In
stead, she found herself caught
up in an escalating series of
clashes over KPFA’s soul.
The unrest has escalated so
much that yesterday, the doors
were locked and managers were
playing tapes of old shows.
“Everyone at KPFA has been
placed on administrative leave until
we’re able to cool things off,” Pacifi
ca spokesperson Elan Fabbri said.
Longtime staffers say Pacifica’s
board wants to give KPFA a more
conventional image so that it can
attract corporate donations. They
also suspect that Pacifica, which
owns five radio stations, is inter
ested in selling KPFA.
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Barak set to present
Mideast peace plan
WASHINGTON (AP) — Expec
tations are high as Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Barak takes his case
for cautious Middle East peace
making to President Clinton.
“I’m eager as a kid with a new
toy,” Clinton said of their talks.
The aim is to energize the
peace process,
and as Barak flew
to Washington
yesterday on the
Israeli Air Force
001 jetliner, ad
ministration offi
cials struck a
conciliatory
stance on the
timetable for a
pullback on the West Bank and on
his strategy for negotiations with
Palestinian leader Yassef Arafat.
With the 1998 Wye River accord
on hold, along with its promised
handover of a further 13.1 percent of
the West Bank to Arafat’s Palestinian
Authority, Clinton is hoping for a
BARAK
breakthrough in his talks with
Barak, which begin today at the
White House.
“I hope that we can begin to en
ergize the peace process in the Mid
dle East on terms that are just and
fair and will guarantee genuine se
curity for Israel and a way of living
for the Palestinians,” Clinton said.
Also, Clinton intends to discuss
prospects for land-for-peace talks
with Syria. In principle, at least,
Barak and Syrian President Hafez
Assad seem to be interested.
According to a report by Israel Ra
dio, a senior Israeli official said dur
ing the flight here that if Syria wants
to resume talks with Israel, it would
not be difficult to find a formula.
The official, who was not iden
tified, also cred;ted the Palestinian
Authority with arresting 2,000 ac
tivists in the Hamas radical move
ment over the past several months.
This is more cooperation than ex
pected but. could be even better, the
official was quoted as saying.
Study: Heart valve
could offer warning
of future problems
AP — The hardening or thick
ening of a tiny heart valve — a
common condition among the el
derly that doctors usually dismiss
as inconsequential — may be a
powerful predictor of heart at
tacks and strokes.
Previous studies have shown
that a severe narrowing or blockage
in the left aortic valve is a predictor
of heart disease. A new study, pub
lished in today’s New England
Journal of Medicine, has shown for
the first time that a precursor con
dition called sclerosis can also be a
warning sign.
Sclerosis is a hardening or thick
ening in the aortic valve, often due
to a buildup of calcium deposits.
The condition is found in roughly
25 percent of all adults over 65.
The study offers hope that a
simple screening procedure can
accurately forecast the risk of
heart disease in people with no
other symptoms. The procedure,
called echocardiography, uses ul
trasound to produce a two-di
mensional picture of the heart and
costs roughly $350 to $600.
“Sclerosis itself has been
thought to be just a benign, inci
dental finding of aging because it’s
so common,” said Dr. Catherine M.
Otto of the University of Washing
ton in Seattle, who led the study.
“Having it is not benign.”
Otto said she does not recom
mend routine echocardiograms
for everyone.
Echocardiograms are usually
done after a doctor detects a heart
murmur using a stethoscope. Otto
said that in light of her findings, the
image should be closely examined
for sclerosis of the aortic valve.
The researchers studied the
echocardiograms of 5,621 men
and women 65 and older. The
valve was normal in 70 percent. In
29 percent, the valve was harden
ing or thickening, but there was
no obstruction. The valve was
narrowing, meaning there was
some degree of obstruction, in 2
percent.
Following up five years later, the
doctors found that hardening of the
valve is associated with a 50 per
cent higher risk of death from heart
disease compared with those
whose valves are normal.
The researchers do not believe
that sclerosis is a direct cause of
death but rather a “marker” for
heart disease.
In an accompanying editorial.
Dr. Blase A. Carabello of the Hous
ton Veterans Affairs Medical Center
said aortic valve sclerosis should be
viewed “as a harbinger of future
events.”
“What makes these data re
markable is the fact that this
condition has been well known
for decades and yet has general
ly been considered benign,”
Carabello wrote. “Textbooks that
mention the condition usually do
so in passing.”
Officials concerned I ^
rising ethnic violem
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) — Ethnic attacks on
Serbs and Gypsies must stop before justice can return
to war-ravaged Kosovo, a top U.N. official said yes
terday.
The month-old peace in Kosovo has been clouded
by ethnic violence blamed largely on ethnic Albanians
seeking vengeance for Serb forces’ brutal campaign of
killings and expulsions during NATO’s 78-day bomb
ing of Yugoslavia.
“Killings, kidnappings, forced expulsions, house
burnings and looting are daily occurrences,” Sergio
Vieira de Mello, interim U.N. administrator for the
province, said. “These are criminal acts. They cannot
be excused by the suffering that has been inflicted in
the past.
“Kosovo’s future must be built on justice, not
vengeance,” he said in a statement.
Despite the continuing ethnic strife, NATO’s supreme
commander for Europe, U.S. Gen. Wesley Clark, said the
rebel Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)was largely in com
pliance with demilitarization requirements.
In other news yesterday:
• In the northern Serbian town of Subotica, 5,000
people gathered yesterday to demand that the gov
ernment of President Slobodan Milosevic step down.
Government supporters hurled eggs at opposition
leaders but police restored order, separating the two
groups.
• The town council in Becej, 30 miles south of Sub
otica, also urged Milosevic to step down, the private
Beta news agency reported, becoming the fifth Serbian
city or town to pass such a resolution.
• Top U.N. war crimes prosecutor Louise Arbour
visited the site of a mass killing in the southwestern
Kosovo village of Celine. Walking amid the shoes and
clothing of children buried there. Arbour said she was
“profoundly moved.”
War crimes investigators said they have exhumed
57 bodies so far from nine separate gravesites in the
village, 9 miles northwest of Prizren. All the victims
— including 11 children — were believed to have been
shot by Serb forces in March.
Since the NATO-led peacekeeping force KFOR ar
rived Monday, there have been scores of ethnic Al
banian attacks on minority Serbs as well as Gypsies,
YUGOSLAVIA Serbia
Kosovs!
3K&_
Mitrovica /
Kosovo
Celine
Pristina
Gnjilane^
►Prizrea
OSkop r :
ALBANIA
lACEDOfi
or Roma, whom the Albanians say supper 1
Serbs. Many people have been forced iro|
homes, which often have been burned in the
KFOR troops found bodies of Serbs and Ros
had allegedly been detained by the KLAato
and released three Serbs and four Romaatano:
cording to Manoel de Almeida e Silva,
spokesperson. He did not specify thenurabet
ies found or give other details.
The U.N. refugee agency said both KFOR a
KLA "expressed concern” about reported chi
tivity in the southwestern Djakovica area!
armed Albanian gangs in KLA uniforms.’’Itsafction t
troops have found nine bodies in the regionoifcat tyj
last 10 days. I “w e 1
Yesterday, KFOR sources said Serbs wereM n t s k r
ently to blame for an attack TUesday in sotiEB
Kosovo in which four ethnic Albanians wereliB
at least one wounded.
Resendez linked to 9th dea
Officials say accused killer appears willing to cooperoj
HOUSTON (AP) — The man ac
cused of being the railroad killer
appeared eager to cooperate with
authorities in Texas’ death penalty
capital yesterday, twice admitting
he committed burglary in one of
the slayings.
“Can all this be done very quick
ly so I can say I’m guilty?” Angel
Maturino Resendez, wearing an or
ange jail jumpsuit and handcuffs,
calmly asked state District Judge
William Harmon.
Shortly after the packed hearing,
the 39-year-old rail-hopping drifter
was linked by a palm print to a
ninth slaying — the death in Octo
ber of 87-year-old Leffie Mason in
the east Texas town of Hughes
Springs.
Mason, who lived most of her
life within 50 yards of a rail line
that cuts through the town of
2,000, was beaten to death with
her antique iron by someone who
entered her home through a win
dow. Her body was covered by a
blanket, as were several other vic
tims believed to have been killed by
Maturino Resendez.
Hughes Springs Police Chief
Randy Kennedy said he will seek a
capital murder charge, which could
bring the death penalty.
Maturino Resendez, who turned
himself in Tuesday after a six-Week
manhunt that made him one of the
most wanted fugitives in America,
is charged with two slayings in Illi
nois and one in Kentucky and is be
lieved responsible for five other
killings in Texas. During the man
hunt, the FBI referred to him by
one of his aliases, Rafael Resendez-
Ramirez.
The only charge against him so
far in Texas is burglary, at the scene
where Dr. Claudia Benton, 39, was
killed Dec. 17 in the Houston en
clave of West University Place. She
was beaten in the head, stabbed
three times in the back and covered
with a blanket.
Maturino Resendez’s finger
prints were found on parts from the
woman’s stolen car, and prosecu
tors said DNA evidence might also
link him to the slaying.
“I don’t care if
he gets the death
penalty seven
times. I want him
in Kentucky.’
— Sgt. Mark Barnard
Lexington (Ken.) Police Department
In Texas, a charge of capital
murder can usually be filed only
when there is evidence that a mur
der occurred during the commis
sion of certain felonies, such as
burglary.
The decision of whether to
charge Maturino Resendez with
capital murder rests with Harris
County District Attorney Johnny
Holmes, whose county has the
most death-penalty convictions in
Texas — which is easily the most
active state for executions in the
nation.
Of the 469 people on death row
in Texas, 146 — about one-third —
were sent there by Harris County.
If Harris County were a state, it
would rank third in then
people executed in thenatio;
56. Virginia has executed6‘|
There have been ISOexec
in Texas since the U.S.Siii
Court allowed capital pun
to resume in 1976.
Maturino Resendez a;
plead guilty after a proseciii
scribed the bloody sceneo!
ton’s killing. But hisadmi
guilt was not an official pi
cause his court appearance
terday were only to set I
sign him a lawyer. He
without bail.
After hiding out in Meric
turino Resendez surrender
Texas Ranger at an El Paso:
station Tuesday in a dealt®
by his sister.
It is still unclear why he
himself in. Mexico doesno
the death penalty and does:
turn suspects to countries |
they may face the death pi
But Mike Cox, a Texas’
merit of Public Safety spoil
son, said Maturino Resende|
have feared bounty
$125,000 reward had beemf
for his capture.
Texas’ hold on Maturil
sendez may also mean tte
tucky and Illinois officials"
er get to prosecute him. Leri
Ky., police Sgt. Mark Banu'
he hopes that is not the cast
“I don’t care if he gets the
penalty seven times,” Barna:
“I want him in Kentucky.”
Maturino Resendez is tho-
have traveled by hopping:
trains. All of the victims weif
near the tracks. Investigate!
said they have no idea whai
vated the killings.
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“Th(
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Researchers blast Clinton, teacher certifkatic
WASHINGTON (AP) — Math and science
students whose teachers hold “emergency” cre
dentials do no worse on tests than students
whose teachers are fully certified, all else being
equal, say researchers critical of plans by Pres
ident Clinton and some states to end such hires.
“Education is the last remaining field in
America where people think
you can boost quality by tight
ening the rules and multiply
ing the regulations,” said
Chester E. Finn Jr., president
of the Thomas Fordham Foun
dation, a privately run school-
reform research organization.
The foundation on yesterday clinton
released a collection of reports
criticizing a slate of teacher hiring, training, and
evaluation trends.
Researchers say students whose teachers
have any kind of certification (standard, emer
gency or alternative) outperform students
whose teachers have no certification or are cer
tified in a different subject.
Students whose teachers possess a bache
lor’s or master’s degree in math outperform oth
er students in math, they said, regardless of the
teacher’s certification.
“This result should cast doubt on assertions
that standard certification should be required of
all teachers,” the reports said.
Currently, 44 states require teachers to pass
a test to earn a license. But the tests, which vary,
grant teachers credentials based on a range of
measures from basic skills to knowledge of a
specific subject to teaching performance.
States often fill classroom shortages by al
lowing teachers to use emergency certificates or
alternatives. The Education Department is
spending $1 million to study how states license
teachers.
Finn said teacher hiring should be left to lo
cal school leaders, which he said contrad
Clinton proposal outlined in this year’sSi
the Union Address, to make states and
districts phase out emergency-certifiedtf :;
The reports say teachers have weaf
and math skills and not nearly enouglF
college major or minor in the subject
teach. But even some standard statecred
fall short of putting better teachers in
room, they said.
In California, Ohio, New York and
nesota approved preparation programs!
have very low entry requirements, nof :
quirements and low subject content.:
searchers said.
“Licensure isn’t a regulatory intrusion
standard to protect children,” said Bob 1
president of the National Education Assoc
the nation’s largest teachers union. Ttisl
for teachers to know the subject matter#1
tent of what they are teaching.”
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