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PARTY E
THURSDAY, SEPT. 2
at SHADOW CANYON
Opening: Houston Marchman
“Passing Through” ava\\ab\e at Hastings
Brought to you by Mustang Entertainment
Page 12 • Tuesday, August 31,1999
Nation
Detroit teachers strike
eButtali'
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DETROIT (AP) — One day be
fore the start of classes, Detroit’s
teachers yesterday refused to extend
contract talks and called a strike, de
spite a state law barring them from
walking out.
The strike vote represented a set
back for a bold attempt to reform the
school system and improve Detroit’s
struggling schools.
The talks are the first contract ne
gotiations with the teachers since
Detroit’s elective school board was
replaced earlier this year with one
appointed by Mayor Dennis Archer.
“I would have to say the rejection
today does reflect an unwillingness
by some teachers to engage them
selves in significant change,” David
Adamany, the interim chief execu
tive of the 172,000-student district
said.
The previous contract between
the Detroit Federation of Teachers
and the school system expired
June 30, and an extension ran out
yesterday.
School and union negotiators had
agreed early yesterday on a new, 10-
day extension while talks continued.
However, thousands of teachers
took a vote later in the day, rejected
the extension and called a strike.
Adamany said he would wait to
see how many teachers reported to
work today before deciding whether
to hold classes.
The union has not walked out
since 1992. Under a 1994 Michigan
law, public school employees who
strike lose a day’s pay in addition to
being fined a day’s pay. The law has
never been tested.
Union president John Elliot said
he was disappointed with the vote.
The issues still unresolved in
cluded salary increases, merit pay,
extended work days and a dress
code. Teachers said merit pay was
the most contentious issue. Many
prefer to keep the old standards of
experience, seniority and education.
‘‘I don’t understand merit pay. I
think it needs a lot of explanation,”
Jennifer Poole, 52, a school social
worker with more than 12 years’ ex
perience, said.
Among those opposing the new
extension was Anita Griggs, 40, who
has taught elementary classes at
Stell Wagen Academy for 15 years.
“Once they get us in the class
rooms, there’s no reason to bargain
in good faith. They’ve got the labor,”
Griggs said.
The mayor said in a statement
that he is troubled by the strike vote
after all of the hard work the district
had done to prepare for the school
year.
The appointed school board —
an idea pushed by Republican Gov.
John Engler and approved by the
Legislature — followed decades of
declining performance and alleged
mismanagement and pork-barrel
politics in Detroit schools. Support
ers said an appointed school board
would be better able to make the
hard political decisions that need to
be made.
‘ Fugitive’r
inspiratii* ^
wife to bf"^
exhumed Wit>
Killer confesses to assault
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — A motel handyman who
admitted beheading a Yosemite naturalist also con
fessed to sexually assaulting two teen-age sightseers
before they were killed, the government said in court
documents filed yesterday.
Cary Stayner told the FBI he sexually assaulted Silv-
ina Pelosso and Juli Sund in their room at the Cedar
Lodge before killing them, according to a six-page af
fidavit to support a request for bodily fluid samples.
A judge ordered Stayner to comply.
Stayner also led the FBI to the knives he said he
used to decapitate Joie Armstrong and slash the throat
of Juli Sund, the affidavit said. The weapons had dried
blood and fingerprints on them.
The affidavit is the first public acknowledgment by
investigators that the two teen-age victims were sex
ually assaulted before they and Sund’s mother, Car
ole Sund, were killed. Stayner is the prime suspect but
has not been charged in their deaths.
Stayner, 38, has been charged with murder in the
July 21 death of Armstrong, a naturalist who led out
door education programs at the park.
In a jailhouse interview with a television reporter,
he claimed he did not sexually assault any of the
women,
Stayner has fought a request to give samples of his
blood, hair and saliva to the FBI.
Stayner lived and worked at the Cedar Lodge, the
last place the three sightseers were seen alive in Feb
ruary. Analysis by the FBI crime lab has yielded trace
evidence including “hairs in vacuum sweepings” and
“possible bodily fluid stains on a blanket seized in the
room,” the affidavit said.
The crime lab has also recovered two partial fin
gerprints from the anonymous letter that Stayner
claims to have authored and mailed to the FBI’s
Modesto office in March, directing investigators to Juli
Sund’s body.
CLEVELAND (AP)Mild be
son of Dr. Sam SMTexas /.
dropped his opposition*^ ty ad if
exhumation of his uBtively I.
body yesterday,allow®;iypossible
cutors to examine the: |to subjec
of the woman whose character-,
helped inspire "TheFijBitv
TV series. Such a slot
Prosecutors want toga ■rankly, r
samples fromMarilynSI foresight .
to help them defendthe di iversity
the wrongful impn'sn■fesu 11u.
lawsuit filed by the$lienBead, in -
son, Sam Reese Sheppa: pul to sti.
Sheppard spent aiieti | ac k ot pi ;
prison after being cornu lobnt v.
heating his wife to dealt he newly
1954. He was acquittedJhig most
trial in 1966. |o\. insh
The younger Sheppt
tends a window washt
his mother and has wo
the last 10 years to try
his father’s name.lthe
wrongful imprisonment
suit, damages could®
much as $2 million.
Sheppard, 52, of C
Calif., is upset about
humation because heteel
ecutors have had 45ye,
vestigate the case andvi
exhumation as a lasti
stalling tactic.
Sheppard’s attorney,
Gilbert, said the exhuns
was not worth fightingoi
“We feel it’s going to
firm our case or not dele:
much of anything, frankii
said.
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Conference: Decrease in AIDS deaths slowiui
Researchers question continued effectiveness of so-called drug cocktails as therapy for dm
[is is ant
as ever]
lyees vo
valuable p,
io unlcai
ATLANTA (AP) — The drop-off
in AIDS deaths since the introduc
tion of powerful drug cocktails has
slowed dramatically, raising ques
tions about whether the combina
tion of medicines is reaching the
limits of what it can do.
Last year, researchers were
stunned to learn that AIDS deaths
nationwide dropped 42 percent
from 1996 to 1997 — a drop attrib
uted to the potent drug cocktails
that can subdue the virus.
Yesterday, however, statistics re
leased at the first national confer
ence on AIDS prevention showed
that the decline in deaths slowed to
20 percent from 1997 to 1998, when
AIDS killed 17,047 people.
“As we anticipated, we are now
seeing the first signs of a slowing in
this trend,” Dr. Helene Gayle, direc
tor of HIV prevention at the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention,
said during the National HIV Pre
vention Conference.
“In a period of only two years,
new combination therapies cut the
annual level of death in half. But for
the time being it appears that much
of the benefit of these new therapies
has been realized.”
“AIDS drugs don't
work for everyone
and aren't a cure
for anyone."
Steven Fisher
AIDS Action
The CDC blamed the slowdown
on three factors:
• Some people still are not get
ting tested and treated for the AIDS
virus.
• Some are finding it difficult to
stick the complicated regimen of
pills, which must be taken at cer
tain times of the day, sometimes
with food, sometimes without.
• Drug-resistant strains of the
virus are emerging as patients fail
to keep on schedule with their
medicine.
Officials at the CDG, which re
leased the numbers, said it is still
too early to tell if the current treat
ments have pushed AIDS deaths as
low was they can go.
But one worrisome sign is that
the decline in deaths last year oc
curred mostly in the first three
months of 1998. After that, deaths
leveled off for the rest of the year.
“We might continue to see that
decline,” Gayle said. “But it is at
least a concern that most declines
were in the first quarter of 1998 and
not in the last quarter.”
After AIDS killed 49,351 in 1995,
deaths dropped 25 percent in 1996
to 36,792. They then plummeted to
21,222 deaths in 1997, a drop of 42
percent.
The numbers caused experts to
toast the so-called AIDS cocktails
that combine older drugs with
newer medicines known as pro
tease inhibitors. The drug combi
nations reducegfhe level of the virus
in the blood so low that it can not
be measured.
Some advocates pointed to the
CDC’s latest numbers as proof the
rthermo:
lo not te
fully
1 aware of
potential
jls of sa,
drugs are, not as effective
hoped.
“Our worst fears have ben
tragic reality,” Steven Fishet
advocacy group AIDS Adior.)
“AIDS drugs don’t workfoti
one and aren’t a cure for an]
The CDC acknowledges
problems with the pill n
drug-resistant strains andffi)
nosed people make it harder
duce deaths even more.
“We have gotten thedni®aust h«
to the people that know the™ trapped
fected,” Gayle said. “1 thinf» r a cor>l
we’ve got to do a betterjol)P or the
sure we get access to treat®! yeai
people who don’t know they'
fected, which means
people tested.”
The CDC estimates
many as 900,000 people it-
with HIV in the United State
new infections holding stei
roughly 40,000 a yearfortfij
decade.
The latest numbers
AIDS continues to kill
much higher numbers
racial groups.
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