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GUAM -- On Guam, today, the government has scheduled what they call "Pride In Our Progress" demonstrations. What ever it is, it is not based upon the ideas expressed in the U.S. Constitution.
The Guam government claims its authroritarian ways, instead, under The Guam Organic Act which has gagged and stifled economic progress here since it was summarily enacted by the U.S. Congress 50 years ago. It gives too much power to envious, greedy, and self-serving public officials. Thus politicians -- as always -- were and still are sacrificing Guam's freedom to stupidity and greed. Evidence of rampant corruption, waste, and abuse are scarcley concealed.
Standing up for basic economic freedoms like the right to own and be secure in one's land, has all but vanished as government officials and local judges have destroyed this very foundation of economic security and independence. Government dependency on a welfare chit is a major obstacle to economic growth of private enterprise.
Something from nothing leaves nothing. The poor economic condition on Guam is evidenced by record unemployment and mortgage foreclosures. The sudden out-migration of large numbers of Guam's people off the Island has alarming social and political consequeneces. This month, for example, Guam officials, die-hard supporters, and political clones are revelling in their dictatorial power over the people.
Instead, GuamGov should not be patting itslef on the back. It should get to work and clean up its act. To begin with, the historic Ordot Dump quagmire should be removed and the land restored and its rightful owners compensated by the government for economic damages from entering and developing their land for the past 50 years. More, WWII toxic debris and unexploded ordinance throughout Guam should be removed. When basic health and safety issues are resolved, then we can begin to move forward and maybe have something to celebrate. However, the reality here, is the idiocy of unending welfare chits.
We obviously need to restore democracy and justice through revitalizing the sanctity of private property with the respect it deserves. We must bring back the old standard, which has been proven to work. It is inexpensive and still practical for today's problems. Help us speak out against suppression of our constitutional freedoms in what was once the justly proud paradise "where America's day begins."
[Editor's Note: Tony Artero may be conacted at his e-mail -- tony@netpci.com Mr Artero may is the Daily Republican Newspaper's Bureau Chief on Guam testified before Congress on Oct. 29, 1997 at the Resource Commitee on Draftting of HR 100 - Guam's Commonwealth Act -- Guam Commonwealth Act - Title I: Political Relationship - As drafted it would have created the Commonwealth of Guam, granting the people of Guam the right of full self-government through adoption of a Constitution and within specified guidelines. (Sec. 102) specified the recognition of the right of self-determination of the people of Guam. It directed the U.S. Government to promote preservation of the Chamorro culture, enhanced economic, social, and educational opportunities for Chamorros, and training of Chamorros for employment. It directed Guam to establish a land trust for the benefit of the indigenous Chamorro people and to establish residency requirements under the Constitution of Guam for voting and holding elective office. The preamble read as fllows: "In recognition of the long-cherished aspiration of the people of Guam to direct the course of their own destiny, and with the belief that mutual respect, understanding, and compromise among people form a more perfect Union, the people of the United States of America, nurtured in the ideals of liberty and democracy, conscious of their obligations under the Treaty of Paris of 1899 and the Charter of the United Nations, do hereby embrace the establishment of the Commonwealth of Guam, ever mindful that the right of self-determination and the heritage of the Chamorro people of Guam shall be protected. This Act reflects the will of the people of Guam to attain a greater measure of self-government in concert with the United States of America, and reaffirms the principle that governments derive their just powers only from the consent of the governed. To this end, the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, now adopt this Act."]2000 Copyright, The Daily Republican Newspaper. All rights reserved.
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TOKYO -- In recent public statements a number of Tokyo economists have publicly admitted that Keynesian theory is fatally flawed and inadequate to explain such phenomena as Japan's long-term recession.
The Keynesians characterize the situation in Japan as a downward spiral created by "deflationary expectations," others maintain that personal spending remains sluggish in Japan because of general fears about the future--uncertainties regarding job security, the pension system, and so forth. In such an environment, deregulation will not create an equilibrium but merely worsen fears and thus exacerbate the deflationary spiral.
As Masaru Kaneko explains in a recent book, bankers are reluctant to lend, corporate executives are compelled to restructure, and consumers feel the need to save. The aggregate result of this behavior is a drop in effective demand. Yoshiyasu Ono sheds more light on the irrational behavior that can delay economic recovery by noting that people hold on to money for its own sake, not simply to buy or invest.
When this happens, aggregate supply will continue to exceed aggregate demand. Here again, the key is fear. The Keynesian theory applies best to the markets of the Nineteenth Century. Now that the Twentieth Century is drawing to a close, it is time to reassess Keynes and recognize that a "philosophy of money" must play a part in our understanding of business cycles.[Editor's Note: The above comments appear in the in The Japan Economic Update published by The Tokyo Mainichi Newspaper. To obtain a full-length version e-mail requests to jeu@japanecho.co.jp indicating you woiuld like to ottain "the philosophy of money" article and your postal address. The service is offered free of charge.]
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WASHINGTON -- German and U.S. officials and lawyers signed a historic deal on Monday to compensate hundreds of thousands of Nazislaves and forced laborers from a 10 billion marks ($4.8 billion) fund.
The fund is likely to be Germany's last big payment for crimes committed under Adolf Hitler's rule which have cost Germany $60 billion in reparations since World War Two.
Representatives from the governments of Germany, the United States, Israel and east European countries and American lawyers for the victims signed the final deal in Berlin. Agreement was reached after 18 months of often acrimonious negotiations.
``Unfortunately it's too late for many victims. In the end it's an acceptable compromise for all,'' German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said at a ceremony.
The German government contributed half of the compensation with the other half pledged -- but still not yet raised in full -- by over 3,000 German companies. First compensation payments to survivors should be made this year.2000 Copyright, Reuters. All rights reserved.
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GUAM -- In 1969 and again in 1989 Congress attempted to grant the Territory of Guam self-government. Three years ago Congress drafted legislation that would have created an independent Commonwealth of Guam granting to its people the right of full self-government. I testified during the Guam Commonwealth Draft Act hearing. In the closing hours of that process, Guam's delegates objected to some of the language in the final draft version and the legislation again stalled. In the latest administrative delay and after more than thirty years of delaying tactics employed by Guam's special interests, Congress has yet to enact Commonwealth status for the Territory of Guam.
While Congress delays, the people of Guam are experiencing serious economic and social degredation. The most damaging economic development has been political manipulation of Guam's tax base through the denial of the individual's economic freedoms. This, together with limited economic expansion and ongoing expansion of government services has left the local economy in shambles.
Guam's labor force is about 20,000 out of a 65,660 population. The best paying jobs are in federal and territorial government. GovGuam's budget includes spending $360 million on services. The economy depends mainly on US military spending supplemented by meager tourist revenue.
Over the past 20 years, the tourist industry has grown rapidly, creating a commercial zone construction boom for new hotels and expansion of older ones to accommodate more than a 1 million tourists who once liked to visit Guam each year. That is not the case today.
Guam has more than 100 years under the US flag, yet, democracy, in Guam, has been a mixed message. The people, here feel they are without a voice and that they are ruled by a tyrant - a creation of he US military enclave which has taken up permanent residence on the Island
The people's voices demanding restoration of individual property rights confiscated by US Navy admirals at the close of WW2 and other economic freedoms guaranteed under the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights has fallen on deaf ears. Similarly, there has been no action for the implementation of a holistic land use plan incorporating aviation and ground transportation safety, conservation, storm drain systems, comprehensive clean up of World War II debris, war reparation, and development/redevelopment in harmony with the environment,
In response to the degradation of the environment and the weakened social fabric of the society, new business are not relocating here. It comes with little surprise this week as GovGuam finds itself with insufficient funds. All three branches of this government are now moving forward another new tax and spend agenda based on tobacco litigation money for their shortfall bailout.
The government, on Guam, since World War II, has failed to pursue policies that support a private enterprise infrastructure. Lacking this incentive based economic foundation the global marketplace has passed Guam over in favor of third world dictatorships. Many families have packed up and left this island. Many are planning on leaving, while others have resorted to a life of crime in order to survivor from day to day.
In retrospect, before World War II, there was law and order. The people on Guam enjoyed the right to own and use their land. We had clean potable water and there was an abundance of wildlife. The people lived by their individual resilience, initiative, improved their land, and saved money. These were fundamental principles of family and community values here. Today these core values are unrecognized on Guam.
Government handouts were unheard-of and would have been refused by the people. The productivity of Guam's people was so efficient that during the Japanese occupation in World War II Guam fed itself and at the point of a gun, fed the Japanese Army
The people of Guam fought and recovered their land from Japanese invaders only to lose it to the US Navy. Land was confiscated for military use at the close of WW2 when the ground was contaminated with discarded munitions, poison gas, spent fuel, sewage, and the spoil's of war, toxic waste. By this time the island's deep underground springs have been contaminated. Wildlife once found in abundance has left this place. Many believe the damage to Guam's biosphere and its economy is now irreversible.
Today, Guam is an ignoble monument of bureaucratic stupidity and dissoluteness. Government actions border on complete insanity and are hostile to sustainable economic growth, wholesome environment, and domestic tranquility.
These inumerable insanities are ever American's concern. As we address the people of the US and the world, our brothers in knowledge, justice and freedom, we appeal to you to raise your voices - your voice of reason - and help us speak out against suppression of our constitutional freedoms on our island paradox that used to be the paradise "where America's day begins."
[Editor's Note: It is ironic that Guam tourism industry suffered a serious setback beginning in 1998 with the fallout from the continuing Japanese recession. Japanese tourism on Guam usually meant almost 90% of the seasonal economy for Guam. Most food and industrial goods are imported. Guam faces the dilemma of building up the civilian economic sector to offset the impact of military downsizing. With a labor force of about 65,660 of which: federal and territorial government employs up to one-third of the adults. GovGuam receives large transfer payments from the general revenues of the US Federal Treasury into which Guamanians pay no income or excise taxes; under the provisions of a special law of Congress, the Guam Treasury, rather than the US Treasury, receives federal income taxes paid by military and civilian Federal employees stationed in Guam. Tony Artero, the Daily Republican Newspaper's Bureau Chief on Guam testified before Congress on Oct. 29, 1997 at the Resource Commitee on Draftting of HR 100 - Guam's Commonwealth Act -- Guam Commonwealth Act - Title I: Political Relationship - As drafted it would have created the Commonwealth of Guam, granting the people of Guam the right of full self-government through adoption of a Constitution and within specified guidelines. (Sec. 102) specified the recognition of the right of self-determination of the people of Guam. It directed the U.S. Government to promote preservation of the Chamorro culture, enhanced economic, social, and educational opportunities for Chamorros, and training of Chamorros for employment. It directed Guam to establish a land trust for the benefit of the indigenous Chamorro people and to establish residency requirements under the Constitution of Guam for voting and holding elective office. The preamble read as fllows: "In recognition of the long-cherished aspiration of the people of Guam to direct the course of their own destiny, and with the belief that mutual respect, understanding, and compromise among people form a more perfect Union, the people of the United States of America, nurtured in the ideals of liberty and democracy, conscious of their obligations under the Treaty of Paris of 1899 and the Charter of the United Nations, do hereby embrace the establishment of the Commonwealth of Guam, ever mindful that the right of self-determination and the heritage of the Chamorro people of Guam shall be protected. This Act reflects the will of the people of Guam to attain a greater measure of self-government in concert with the United States of America, and reaffirms the principle that governments derive their just powers only from the consent of the governed. To this end, the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, now adopt this Act."]2000 Copyright, The Daily Republican Newspaper. All rights reserved.
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WASHINGTON - Scientists at a key U.S. nuclear weapons facility have made "contradictory statements" about security breaches which suggest someone is hiding something -- either espionage or negligence that could cost them their jobs, a senior official said on Sunday.Edward Curran, director of the Energy Department's Office of Counterintelligence, said "several contradictory statements made by these people (with access to two highly sensitive computer hard drives) ... tend to indicate they had some knowledge" of how and why the hard drives disappeared and then reappeared on Friday under suspicious circumstances.
Asked by a television interviewer if he could rule out espionage at this time, Curran said "absolutely not." He added that the FBI is treating the room where the hard drives were found "as a crime scene."
Noting that all 26 people who had access to the vault in which the hard drives were kept had been given lie detector tests, Richardson said, "I believe there has been no espionage. It doesn't appear the disks left the division."
Edward Curran, director of the Energy Department's Office of Counterintelligence, said "several contradictory statements made by these people (with access to two highly sensitive computer hard drives) ... tend to indicate they had some knowledge" of how and why the hard drives disappeared and then reappeared on Friday under suspicious circumstances. He blamed the incident on "human error, a mistake..."
Curran said the FBI is putting all of its resources into determining whether the hard drives were copied, or tampered with, and "hopefully, we'll have some answers here today."
The "best-case" scenario is the hard drives were misplaced out of negligence or inattention to security procedures and never left the secure area at Los Alamos where they were found, said Curran, speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation."
Under that scenario, the scientist or scientists who misplaced them may have not come forward because they are "terrified" of the consequences, he said. A breach of security could lead to lost jobs or possible criminal prosecution, even if there was no criminal intent.
"There are contradictory statements being made and there are several people involved" with access to the hard drives, Curran said. "We were not even notified of this for three weeks. That in itself is a major violation of the rules."
Richardson said the three-week lapse "is inexcusable. I am outraged." He vowed to "get to the bottom of this" lapse.
"I have brought massive, massive security upgrades to the lab," he added, upgrading physical security with armed guards, and computer security with procedures that stop classified information from being transferred to unclassified computers, as well as introducing polygraph tests.
While refusing to rule out espionage, Curran also said "there is no question in my mind this is a cultural question," where scientists at the facility resist or resent security procedures and seek to circumvent them.
He cited efforts by researchers to avoid taking polygraph tests to protect lab security, and to ensure they pass the tests if they are forced to take them. "We know scientists scheduled to take the polygraph are preparing to defeat the polygraph," Curran said.
Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," Deputy Energy Secretary T.J. Glauthier defended improvements in security at Energy Department labs over the past year, but conceded "we had not properly accounted for the human element" and needed to make greater efforts to "change the culture at these laboratories."
While no evidence of espionage had been uncovered and "the vast majority are doing their jobs well" at the department, Glauthier admitted the agency probably harbored "a few bad apples" who had compromised security out of negligence or, possibly, criminal intent.
Sen. Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican and chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, told "Face the Nation" he found the reappearance of the hard drives tucked behind a copier highly suspicious. "The FBI had done a rigorous examination of the room and didn't find anything" in two previous searches, he said.
The hard drives, which contain what officials describe as highly sensitive information on nuclear weapons, were found to be missing when parts of the lab were evacuated after wildfires threatened the facility last month.
Shelby called on Richardson to resign and said the security breach at Los Alamos, the second major lapse at the lab discovered in just over a year, "is just another example of the lax attitude" toward security in the Clinton administration.
He cited the loss of sensitive laptop computers at the State Department and the failure to prevent the transfer of secret documents to an insecure personal computer at the home of a former director of the CIA.
Shelby, also appearing on "Fox News Sunday, said security breaches under the Clinton administration are endemic and pose a continuing threat to the United States and its allies. Shelby called the failure to guard national secrets a "malignancy" at the heart of the U.S. government.
Richardson and other officials tried to shift the blame to the University of California, which conducts research at Los Alamos and other labs under contract to the Energy Department.
"They are very strong on science. They are a great institution. But on security ... they haven't done a very good job, " said Richardson, who said the government might have to sever its contract with the university.2000 Copyright, Reuters. All rights reserved.
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WASHINGTON - The nation's nuclear secrets have been stolen. Protection of this naton's nuclear secrets from falling into the hand of terrorists is the higest duty of of the Clinton administration. Yet, he White House so preoccupied by ipolitical fund raising and personal theatrics that it has presided over the removal of two Top-Secret computer hard drives containing information on dismantling the U.S. nuclear deterrent.
Comments from the administration in the past few days are not reassuring.
Edward Curran, the Energy Department's chief of counterintelligence, told reporters that though the lapse was serious, "we shouldn't overreact." John Browne, director of the Los Alamos lab, said that "it is premature to call this a security breach."
Meanwhile Eugene Habiger, the Energy Department's head of security, told Reuters that the classified hard drives were probably misplaced rather than stolen. He defended those with access to them as "dedicated, loyal Americans," who are not suspected of spying.
The fact that some of the most sensitive national secrets have been missing for a month or longer should be sufficient grounds for a major Congressional Oversight Committee investigation of this latest Clinton administration moral lapse.2000 Copyright, The Daily Republican Newspaper. All rights reserved.
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WASHINGTON - I question the savings from base closings. Instead of selling base property at the market, they usually give it to some local political subdivision for their own socialist experiments.
If that was all, we might live with it, but the military is required to return base land to some arbitrary cleanliness that has no relationship to public health and safety, except that when harmless "contaminated" soil is shipped far away to some approved dumpsite, someone might be run over with a truck.
As an example, McClellan Field, north of Sacramento, was an aircraft repair facility for over 50 years, with the consequence that vast quantities of solvent were drained into the ground.
The Air Force paid to bring in water to the semi-rural area, but must still spend vast sums of money to eliminate a non-existant threat.
The cost of that cleanup would very likely pay for a major medical facility, but it goes instead to pay for "Remediation."2000 Copyright, The Daily Republican Newspaper. All rights reserved.
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WASHINGTON - This week the U.S. Senate reversed direction in two Clnton administration moves to close additional military bases.
The Senate voted 63-35 against two Wite House efforts to close more U.S. bases and to halt military operations and weapons purchases.
Republicans, still angered by Clinton's base closures, said a new president should be allowed to oversee the process starting next year.
``Should we not accord him the courtesy to address this issue?'' said Sen. John Warner of Virginia, Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee.
Some opponents of the measure said they had little faith that any president could keep politics out of the issue.
``I don't have any confidence in the process,'' Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah said. ``It doesn't work. When you get it into politics, it just doesn't work.''2000 Copyright, The Daily Republican Newspaper. All rights reserved.
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Related Story: Cold War Heroes Such As These - 01/10/97
WASHINGTON -- The Albert Gore(D) luke-warm campaign for POTUS sank to its lowest form of politics as usual on Saturday when the Vice President belittled Governor George W. Bush(R) for proposing to deploy a missle defense system for the U.S. Mr. Gore depicted as a Hollywood version of "Star Wars".
The Vice President told reporters, "Governor Bush dangerously fixates on the cold war past" and is "... Stuck in a cold war mindset, Governor Bush continues to view Russia and China primarily as present or future enemies."
In contrast, Mr. Gore says he views Russia and China not as enemies but as "vital partners." He emphasized he is looking foward to giving strong support for permanent normal trade relations with China.
Gore said Mr. Bush is a " ... right-wing, partisan" and tied to Senator Jesse Helms(R) the conservative Republican from North Carolina who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Mr. Gore told reporters, he believes, "It is wrong to isolate and demonize China."
Governor Bush has been critical of the Clinton-Gore administration's foreign policy.2000 Copyright, The Daily Republican Newspaper. All rights reserved.
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WASHINGTON -- Security lapses tolerated for more than six years by Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright have culminated in the mysterious disappearance more than two months ago of a laptop computer and highly sensitive files, including intelligence sources and methods related to weapons proliferation, senior diplomats said.
The Clinton administration and Ms. Albright, however are pointing the finger at the Bureau of Intelligence and Research to shoulder the blame. In the meantime, overall security at State has been reassigned to the Bureau of Diplomatic Security.
Ms. Albright is now openly admitting this breach of security has placed, "... our nation's secrets at risk." Of her performance, she intimated she deserved, "... a failing grade."
Disclosure of a missing laptop comes late, more than four months after officials discovered an eavesdropping device planed in a State Department conference room. Making matters worse, last year a man in a tweed sport coat reportedly walked into Albright's offices, and helped himself to an armload of Classified documents, therm walked away right in front of State Department officials and employess who made no effort to stop him.
Clinton administration officials told reporters on Monday they had not yet determined whether the missing laptop computer's classification was more than "Top Secret."
But department officials suggested the files it contained on its hard-drive were from sensitive human and electronic sources.
A chagrinned James P. Rubin, said "We are talking about extremely sensitive information here."
Members of Congress are extremely concerned over the Clinton administration's carelessness with State secrets. Representative Benjamin A. Gilman(R) chair of the House International Relations Committee, toold reporters he would hold hearings into security failures at the department.
Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr.(D) faulted cutbacks in the State Department's budget, including a Republican-led move this month to cut international financing more than 10 percent.
A senior State Department official said there was no excuse. "The issue is, do they have proper security procedures."
[Editor's Note: The incident comes just four months after F.B.I. agents arrested a Russian diplomat who they said was carrying equipment for monitoring an evesdropping device embedded in a State Department conference room.]2000 Copyright, The Daily Republican Newspaper. All rights reserved.
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WASHINGTON -- University leaders need to dedicate more resources to educating teachers, says a report set for release today by the American Federation of Teachers. The report, "Building a Profession: Strengthening Teacher Preparation and Induction," also urges teachers' colleges to raise their entrance requirements and toughen their curriculums.
The report was prepared by a committee consisting of the union's officials from elementary, secondary, and higher education. It calls on college presidents to spend as much on teacher education as they do on training other professionals, to "strengthen relationships between the arts-and-science and education" faculties, and to encourage cooperation between college faculties and local schoolteachers.
The report also calls for unions in higher education to use their influence to enhance teacher education. "The union, through its contract, can work to ensure that the institutional reward system favors clinical work in the schools, and that the hiring and training process for clinical faculty meets high standards," the report says.
Universities should revise their academic requirements for their teaching programs by adding a core curriculum and requiring an academic major. Though the report's authors acknowledge that "there is no current consensus on the core content of teacher education," they assert that a curriculum could now be developed. "Advances in research on the process of learning and in effective teaching practices suggest that the raw material now exists to develop such a core, certainly in fields such as reading," the authors state.
According to a 1998 study, the report says, research institutes place colleges of education third to last in order of financial support received, surpassing only social work and accounting departments. "Dollars do not tell us everything, but what they do tell us is extremely disturbing," the report says.
2000 Copyright, The Chronicle of Higher Education. All rights reserved.
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New York -- The Nasdaq Composite Index plunged 9.7 percent, led by Qualcomm Inc. and Intel Corp., completing the worst week in its 29-year history. The Dow Jones Industrial Average had its biggest point drop ever.
If rates rise more than expected in coming months, it ``will be another kick in the pants for stocks,'' said Daniel Goldfarb, a portfolio manager at David L. Babson & Co., which has about $20 billion in assets. ``People were thinking maybe we were close to
the end of rate increases.''
The Nasdaq fell 355.49, or 9.7 percent, to 3321.29, its second-largest percentage loss and biggest point drop ever. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 83.20, or 5.8 percent, to 1357.31, as 87 of its 88 industry groups dropped. The Dow lost 617.78, or 5.7 percent, to 10,305.77, with American Express Co. leading all 30 stocks lower.
More than six stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange. Some 1.3 billion shares traded on the Big Board, the seventh-most ever. About 2.5 billion changed hands on the Nasdaq Stock Market, the second-most on record.
For the week, the Nasdaq lost 25.3 percent, while the Dow dropped 7.2 percent and the S&P 500 10.5 percent. Since its March 10 record, the Nasdaq has lost 34.2 percent.
The big losers this week included some of the technology shares that drove stocks' early-year rally. Oracle Corp., National Semiconductor Corp., Nortel Networks Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc., the biggest losers in the S&P 500, all dropped more than 24 percent for the week.
The Nasdaq dropped below 3500, its average for the past 200 days and a key level for so-called technical analysts, who try to predict market moves based on charts of stock and index prices. ``It could go down to 3000,'' said Michael Browne, head of European equities for Chase Global Asset Management Inc.
After rising as much as 24 percent for the year in March, the Nasdaq is now down 18.4 percent year-to-date, while the Dow has lost 10.4 percent and the S&P 500, 7.8 percent.
Qualcomm fell 21 1/8 and Intel dropped 10 5/8 to 110 1/2 to lead the Nasdaq selloff.
Other large technology stocks compounded the loss. Microsoft Corp. shed 4 13/16 to 74 7/16, Cisco lost 4 1/8 to 57, JDS Uniphase Corp. slid 12 11/16 to 79 5/8 and Nextel Communications Inc. dropped 8 11/16 to 104 7/8.
Emulex Corp. plunged 41 1/4, or 50 percent, to 41 11/16 after Paul Mansky, an analyst at U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray Inc., said the data-storage equipment maker faces a hard time shifting to new products, even as the company reported third-quarter earnings yesterday that beat analysts' estimates.
The stock has dropped 81 percent from its March 27 high. Stocks fell after the Labor Department said the Consumer Price Index rose 0.7 percent in March, the fastest pace in more than five years, and more than the 0.5 percent economists surveyed by Bloomberg News expected. The core rate, which excludes food and energy, rose 0.4 percent, more than the 0.2 percent increase economists expected.
The signs of accelerating inflation suggest the Federal Reserve may raise short-term rates more than the expected quarter-point when policy-makers next meet May 16. The central bank has raised rates by a quarter-point five times since June.
Higher rates raise companies' borrowing costs, cutting into corporate profit. Financial companies can be particularly hard hit because their lending business declines and the value of their bond portfolios fall.
The Philadelphia KBW Banks Index fell 7.1 percent, adding to yesterday's 2.1 percent fall. American Express lost 12 9/16 to 133 7/16, J.P. Morgan & Co. declined 9 1/2 to 122 and General Electric Co. owner of the largest non-bank finance company, lost 5 5/8 to 144 5/8.
Foundry Networks Inc. gained 3/16 to 78 1/4 after reporting quarterly profit of 17 cents a share, almost double the average analyst estimate.
Safeco Corp. fell 2 5/8 to 23 after the insurer said operating income will be below estimates because its property and casualty operations performed poorly and claims rose following storms in Texas. The stock has gained 37 percent in the past month.
Fifth Third Bancorp, Global Marine Inc. and Old Kent Financial Corp. reported profit in line with analysts' estimates.
Centura Banks Inc. fell 2 11/16 to 41 13/16 after it failed to meet analysts' estimates. The bank reported first-quarter profit, excluding costs, of 90 cents a share, a penny less than
estimates.©2000 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved.
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BELGRADE -- We, teachers, assistants and students of Belgrade University, are addressing once again to you, our colleagues in knowledge with appeal to raise your voice-voice of reason, against permanent aggression, which is conducted over our country.
One whole year passed since NATO bombs started to fall on Yugoslavia, started to destroy civil facilities and human lives of people whose only guilt is that they were born and they live on this territory.
Today, on the birthday of the shameful aggression, we have to remind you of the devastating consequences of the intention to "prevent humanitarian catastrophe" by throwing bombs under wings of "merciful angel" on the sovereign country which was punished just because it did not agree to be occupied by NATO.
During 78 days of barbaric killing, several thousands people were killed, and more than 6.000 people was seriously injured. Thirty percent among killed people and forty percent among injured people were children. More than 300.000 kids were seriously psychologically traumatized. Children were mostly victims of the cluster bombs with delayed action. Sixty bridges were destroyed or damaged all over Yugoslavia.
Industrial, economic and agricultural compounds, 117 of them, sustained huge material damage. Consequences of such damage are that thousands of people are brought to the edge of existence. Destruction of Yugoslav chemical compounds resulted in ecological catastrophe in the whole regions. Also, there is a long list of damaged medical facilities, 29 of them-11 only in Belgrade.
NATO aggression stopped education process for almost 1.000.000 pupils and students in Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. More than 480 schools and faculties was damaged or totally destroyed, as well as 50 facilities for kids.
More than 365 monasteries, churches and sacral buildings as well as cultural and historical monuments were damaged or totally destroyed. Some of them were under protection of UNESCO. Aggressor didn't spared even graveyards.
Ten TV and radio stations and more than 50 broadcast compounds were destroyed, and that represents the worst form of aggression on the freedom of speech. It is also the biggest civilization shame on the beginning of third millenium.
Nineteen embassies and diplomatic residential buildings were damaged or destroyed. Preliminary estimations of the destruction made during aggression are more than 100 billion dollars. The consequences of the destruction of one independent country under cover of "preventing the humanitarian catastrophe" in Kosovo and Metohija were expelling of 350.000 Serbs and other non-Albanian population.
Resolution 1244 of United Nations Security Council was supposed to end rough violation of basic rules of international law, and to bring peace to all people on this territory.
But, one part of our territory is still under aggression. During the period from June 10th 1999 to January 22nd 2000 on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija there was 4.080 terrorist attacks. Victims of those attacks were Serbs and Montenegrins in 3.866 cases. There were 883 persons killed, 640 persons injured, 833 persons kidnapped and missing, 50.000 homes burned, and 600.000 workers lost their jobs. More than 200.000 criminals and robbers entered into Kosovo and Metohija from Albania.
Dear colleagues, we are kindly asking you to defend civilization achievements stated in UN Charter in order to stop genocide over Serbian people. Ask for the strict applying of the resolution 1244 of the United Nations Security Council. Ask KFOR and UNMIK to stop terrorists activities of so-called KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army).
Do this civilization gesture of humanity not just for us, but for all others who will find themselves under attack of some other or differently called "merciful angel" made in heads of the creators of New world order lead by USA.
In the same time we express our thanks to all people who supported us from the beginning and in the name of truth opposed to the policy of their governments.
Every University in the world is the conscience of its country. University in Belgrade is inviting all Universities in the world to raise its voices in the defense of the rights to live and work and the possibility to get education.
Let's make the world better, and let's use science and technological pogress for the wellbeing of mankind.
[Editor's Note: Belgrade University Academiski Informationi Centar may be accessed at www.aic.org.yu].
2000 Copyright, The Bulldog Newspaper. All rights reserved.
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SAN DIEGO --In country after country that has benefited from new wealth, a rising, assertive middle class inevitably will demand political reforms. This was as true in South Korea in 1997, when voters chose long time anti-establishment figure Kim Dae Jung as president over the establishment’s candidate, as it was in Taiwan this past weekend, when Chen Shui-bian prevailed.
The problem when you give people power is that sometimes they will use it. You thought the Taiwan election was entirely about independence from the mainland? That’s not surprising, because that’s the way the Western media by and large played the story. They viewed the historic balloting through the telescope of the triangular relationship among Beijing, Washington and Taipei. But a lot more is going on in Asia and on the tiny island than that.
Taiwan, resplendently successful economically, is now the proud progenitor of the second successive presidential election in which power was transferred without violence. This is a first in 5,000 years of Chinese history.
Voters sent an unmistakable message that the people were sovereign, not the heretofore all powerful Kuomintang Party that has ruled since the Chinese civil war of 1949. So voters rejected the party of President Lee Teng-hui, despite his historic profile as the island’s first elected leader, because he was at the very top of the KMT behemoth that had become encrusted with five decades of arrant cronyism and complacent corruption.
Middle class voters said -- We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore. Again, the parallels with South Korea are striking. Until as recently as 1987, both were cruel, repressive military dictatorships. Open your mouth and go directly to jail, but only after the torturers had their way with you.
Indeed, repression in South Korea and Taiwan was not very different from that in the People’s Republic of China. Even today, corruption remains a problem in Korea and Taiwan, not to mention in China, of course; a couple of worthy elections does not cleanse a culture overnight. But it is hard to see how a place as vulnerable to change as mainland China can remain long immune to the rising desire of people for more participation and less corruption.
Indeed, the current Chinese government’s millennial conversion to government integrity undoubtedly comes in response to just such under the surface pressure. No doubt the Communist Party is in further fright now, having observed the astonishing comeuppance of the Kuomintang ruling party this weekend.
Surely our best understanding of the tie between healthy democracy and clean government comes from Transparency International, the Berlin based global nonprofit, which sees reducing corruption as essential to economic development and true democracy over the long run.
Transparency, founded in 1992, has vigorously argued that the denial of human rights and the menace ofauthoritarianism swim most easily under the surface, in the dirty cesspools of corruption.
Cutting that debilitating and demoralizing culture down to size raises the prospects for democracy -- and for a more equitable distribution of wealth. And for those internationalists that champion economic globalization for its greater efficiency in distributing wealth worldwide, note that Transparency International believes that here, corruption is the enemy, too.
Competitive bribery the inevitable product of official corruption -- can devastate economies, inhibit trade and deter new investment. “Decisions that are taken not for the public benefit but to serve private interests,” says famed Transparency founder Peter Eigen, “hurt the weakest in society.
Corruption is a universal challenge. No country is immune to it.” Not the West, certainly. Transparency claims, in fact, that America, notwithstanding its Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, is more of a bribe giver abroad than its citizens at home realize. This can make us part of the problem, instead of the solution. Just recently, Germany, despite its enviable postwar constitution and commitment to democracy, was rocked by corruption revelations involving none other than Helmut Kohl, the former German chancellor a man as high in profile in Europe as Lee Teng-hui in Asia.
Then there are all those allegations about illegal fund-raising plaguing America’s politicians, made cash voracious by the increasing demands of media budgeting.
But we don’t always recognize ourselves in this picture: When Singapore’s Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, at a dinner in Washington last year, fielded a blizzard of questions from U.S. journalists about the prevalence in Asia of “crony capitalism,” someone finally interjected that America had its own corruption problems, too.
The difference is, we don’t use the term “crony capitalism. ”Rather, it’s “campaign contributions.” Of course, very many contributions are far from illegal or even unethical -- the United States isn’t the Philippines or Nigeria in the corruption omnipresence department. But if we look at Asia as one unique backwater of corruption, we are running the risk of missing the larger picture of Europe, North America and Africa.
It’s truly an international problem, as Transparency International has been saying all along.
Taiwan voters were speaking for us all when they said they weren’t going to take it anymore. The world owes them a vote of thanks.
[Editor's Note: Tom Plate is Director and Founder of the Asia Pacific Media Network, a regional alliance of blue-chip news-media institutions. Professor Plate is a public policy ethicist at UCLA. Asia Pacific is edited by Alice Wu. She may be contacted at Email alicewu@ucla.edu -- Prof. Plate's Email is tplate@ucla.edu].
2000 Copyright, The Asia Pacific Media Network
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SACRAMENTO - After all the excitement of super Tuesday, Vice President Al Gore must have been feeling very confident. He charged ahead, having beaten Bradley out of the running, to attack the Republican-proposed idea of giving tax money back to the taxpayers. He called it a "risky tax scheme."
What would Gore do with the expected surplus of funds? Citing the recent tragic case of a 6 year-old boy shooting a 6 year-old girl, he said mandatory trigger locks were high on his priority. One can be sure that the boy's uncle, who had several stolen guns in the house, would immediately respond to federal law and put trigger locks on all his pilfered firearms.
In fact, all criminals will no doubt immediately place trigger locks on their weapons, too. Or maybe we should just take the surplus and burn it on the White House lawn, which would be as efficient a use of the money.
Like a spoiled child, Gore doesn't know or doesn't care where all this money is coming from. Returning tax surplus is a "risky tax scheme?" Who is responsible for the current economic success in this nation? Certainly neither President Clinton or Vice President Gore can claim their efforts have done it.
They have happily gone along with new taxes introduced by Congress, heedless of the fact that as taxes increase, savings and investment in the general populace decrease. It is no surprise that consumer debt is at an all-time high despite the great economy; the government has been siphoning off the money that would keep building the market. The economic boom enjoyed by the U.S. has been pushed forward by investors and new companies, not by any federal policy. The direction Gore would take the nation would undermine our present situation, not bolster it.
Any good businessman knows he must reinvest the majority of his capital to make his company grow. For the government, that would mean giving surplus funds back to the citizens who provided them. Equally responsible would be to pay toward the principal on our huge national debt, reducing the need to collect taxes. Instead, Gore is all set to spend millions, perhaps billions of dollars on making sure citizens who already use their guns safely have trigger locks installed.
Like a child, he wants to spend the money to get toys rather than use it responsibly. It seems the citizens handle the funds better than the government, which is no surprise to most of us. Where does Gore see risk in entrusting money to those who made it and will use it well?
This seems reason enough to make sure this man never sees the inside of the Oval Office after this year. Further reason comes as more Democratic money-launderers are investigated for taking money from China and making sure it reaches the coffers of the Democrats.
Recently, one woman who worked closely with Gore was found to be "an agent of Communist China." She helped gather funds and make them available for the current presidency.
Al Gore is a member of what is perhaps the most corrupt administration in the history of the U.S. He's been taught to lie by his mentor, President Clinton. He has accepted funds from enemies of our country and of our very way of life. Now he wants to waste our money. There has never been a better time to vote Republican.
2000 Copyright, The Daily Republican Newspaper. All rghts reserved.
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AGANA, Guam -- A little boy goes to his father and asks, "What is politics?" The father is silent for a moment. Then, with tears welling up in his eyes, explains to his son that politics is an example of just how bad humanity and the environment can get.
Here in Guam, he says, it is the politics of land an evil and hateful atrocity committed, for the most part, by dull and ordinary people who live in the White House at the people's expense.
That is what makes politics unique and is also the reason why we should study it in detail. We must study land politics -- to prevent it from ever happening again. Now the real story behind what went wrong with land politics in Guam USA - is a story as hard to hear as it is hard to tell. It is the story of what went wrong with America. Its a story of an indifferent Congress and the systematic dismantling of the Middle Class.
The loss of private property to confiscation by the U.S. Government in Guam is a casualty of the new economic order that requires the impoverished peoples of Guam to compete with well-heeled political contributors to the re-election campaigns of the President and Congress by foreign agents from Communist China, North Korea, Russia, Cuba, and South East Asia.
The tragic-comic Guam land grab parallels the U.S. Army's tragic history in Vietnam. The U.S. Army under presidents Kennedy and Johnson was so grievously wounded, wasted, that the U.S. came to near total collapse as a result of inept political leadership. The U.S. military was mortally wounded and heart broken. A proud band of soldiers who never lost faith in their country or their own ideals, have healed themselves and moved on to the low point where we are today in Guam, landless and subsisting on hand-outs.
In Guam, 56 years later, we find ourselves eagerly begging Congress for increased welfare and even soliciting foreign countries for economic support. That's the result of the loss of private property in the economy of Guam. For much of a younger generation, the politics of land in Guam has little, if any, meaning as do most of historical events. All things considered, the economic and political future of Guam is in deep kimche.
The uses and abuses of the politics of land by the Clinton administration are confronted and mourned by conservatives here. Americans should not trivialize the ultimate questions of good and evil that the politics of land present. Especially in Guam, we should not be surprised to learn that our suffering is less than a trivial concern to the present occupants of the White House.
[Editor's Note: Tony Artero, is the Bureau Chief for the Daily Republican Newspaper's Pacific News Bureau on Guam. He is also a former Submariner in the U. S. Navy.]
2000 Copyright, The Daily Republican Newspaper. All Rrights reserved.
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SAN DIEGO -- An economy that once seemed invincible is being held down by a stale political system. Reform will happen, but slowly.
If the U.S.-Japanese alliance is dependent on understanding, then it’s in big trouble. For it doesn’t seem likely that America will ever quite understand Japan. Consider last week’s release of new figures suggesting that Japan’s gross domestic product actually fell from October to December. At the rate it’s going, this once-Olympian economy, runner-up only to the U.S., might wind up closer to Germany than to the top spot.
Japan now has run up more than $3 trillion in government bond debt, more than any other nation. Its population is both shrinking in number and aging, an expensive combination; and there’s not enough money put away to meet future pension obligations. Bizarre business anomalies also throttle the economy.
The nation’s massive and troubled life insurance business, for instance, is required to invest customer premiums in government bonds that return only 1.6 to 1.8% annually. Then these companies have to pay back, in the form of annualized accruals, anywhere from 3.5% to 4.5% to customers. This year alone, the mismatch should cause the top 11 insurance companies to lose more than $26 billion. What a way to run an industry.
So let’s change things real quick, right? Let’s fix the insurance industry and a dozen other serious problem areas and get the economy moving again. Let’s open those markets, stimulate domestic demand, and clean up the banking system -- time is running out. Get the political establishment cracking. It should be so simple. Yet, it’s anything but.
The brutal truth of Japan’s Achilles heel surfaced anew at a confidential session earlier this year at the World Economic Forum in Davos, when a panel of experts, Japanese and not, were openly worrying about Japan. Suddenly, a prominent member of the Japanese parliament, well known in his country, rose from the audience with heart and courage to tell the truth. He said his nation’s problem is neither the much-discussed issue of the so-called immobile culture, and certainly it is not a lack of collective intellect or industriousness.
The problem is the political system: It’s a waterlogged, grid locked, broken down shambles. Fettered by interlocking coalitions, corrupt politicians and payoff politics, it is to today’s modern, with-it Japan what the old Monopoly Board game is to PlayStation II: hopelessly dated and as useless for telling the full story of Japan as a Geisha cliché. The governance system, inherited at the end of World War II as the successor to a strong-Emperor system, struggles just to keep a parliamentary coalition operating, rather than moving the country forward. In its own Japanese way, it’s nothing less than a political Tiananmen Square: For it massacres the hopes of the people without firing a single shot.
Japan has not been standing entirely still, despite its politics. It has put a umber of scandals and bad debts behind it, and it has been restructuring the manufacturing sector. What’s more, there are signs that savings-obsessed consumers have been developing the confidence to spend more (thus stimulating the economy). Big-time Western multinational players are still playing.
General Motors will be working with Toyota in a kind of partnership. General Electric has put $16 billion into Japan; Renault has acquired 38% of Nissan. Many smart players believe in Japan, even though it is now down. “An investment opportunity like this comes up once every 50 years,” says Kenneth Courtis, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs, Asia. The betting is that Japan will roar back again before too long.
But how long is too long? “It will take another four or five years before a new future begins to crystallize,” guesses Courtis, who predicted both the surprising Japan downturn and the surprisingly quick South Korean upturn -- “Japan will get there, but not in a straight line.”
This week, for instance, even their doldrums Diet, awakened by gales of public opinion, is to begin a grand debate on the creation of individual pension plans, just as ordinary people in America have portable 401(k) plans. This may seem only a slight technical adjustment to us. But for Japan, it’d be a monumental change. The very idea of the Japanese needing such a pension system because now they may have to move from job to job is revolutionary. The equivalent in America, in so many ways an opposite kind of society, would be if Congress were to make corporate downsizing of a workforce illegal.
In reality, under Japan’s surface, subterranean forces are swirling in the deep that won’t make it to the surface for years. When they do, though, they will be as large and awesome as a whale surfacing. But the whale will have to find its way with only a minnow of a political system to guide it.
[Editor's Note: Tom Plate is Director and Founder of the Asia Pacific Media Network, a regional alliance of blue-chip news-media institutions. Professor Plate is a public policy ethicist at UCLA. Asia Pacific is edited by Alice Wu. She may be contacted at Email alicewu@ucla.edu -- Prof. Plate's Email is tplate@ucla.edu].
2000 Copyright, The Asia Pacific Media Network
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WASHINGTON -- With presidential candidates debating the proper mix of religion and politics, two magazines look at the history of religion and politics in the South. Writing in the April Issue of "The Oxford American," H.W. Brands says that "the most important figures in Southern politics during the period of the American Revolution ... not only disliked the mixing of Christianity with politics but were not even Christians." Washington, Jefferson, and Madison were deists who viewed God as "the impersonal watchmaker who had crafted the universe, set it ticking, and generally left it to run on its own," writes Mr. Brands, a professor of history at Texas A&M University at College Station.
Mr. Brands notes that Washington went to great lengths to avoid saying "God" in public and that Jefferson was proud of the Virginia statute of religious freedom. "The fact that voters, a great majority of whom were orthodox Christians, repeatedly endorsed such unorthodox candidates demonstrates the degree to which the spirit, and not just the letter, of the First Amendment and the Virginia statute infused politics in those days," Mr. Brands writes.
In "Books & Culture," Harry S. Stout explores the growth of "political pulpits" in the Confederate period. Mr. Stout, a professor of American Christianity at Yale University, says that many historians wrongly view political preaching in the South as a modern contribution of the civil-rights movement.
In fact, he writes, it flowered in the Confederacy, when fast days and national days of thanksgiving -- accompanied by powerful sermons -- were promoted by Confederate political leaders and the (white) clergy. The tradition never died, Mr. Stout writes. "When defeat finally came, the Confederacy disappeared, but not the rhetoric of the jeremiad."
[Editor's Note: H.W. Brands is the author of Inside the Cold War...Rise of the American Empire, 1918-1961 Texas A & M University, Oxford University Press.]
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WASHINGTON -- A new year and yet another Chinese white paper on Taiwan. This one has set-off a sudden call for action by the United States.
The report issued last week by China's State Council cabinet, set out a clear policy of military force should Taiwan attempt to declare independence under its 1947 Constitution in opposition to reunification by Mainland China with Taiwan.
The Clinton White House and members of Congress are uneasy with the implications o by Beijing.
Meanwhile, foreign affairs watchers consider the present crisis in the Taiwan Strait as urgent justification for U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. In the face of this turn of events it is unlikely that Congress would vote to bring China into the World Trade Organization.
China scholars attending a UCLA conference this weekend were taken by surprise. It was attended by Chinese and U.S. government officials, as well as by academics, business leaders and journalists from both countries to argue for more responsible contribution by the mass news media. “There are too many absolutist positions, and not enough middle ground,” said conference panelist Orville Schell, dean of the UC Berkeley School of Journalisma China expert. “If you’re not for engagement with China, you’re for isolation. If you’re not for reunification of Taiwan, then you’re for Taiwan’s independence. But most of the sensible positions are in between, in the middle.”
Dr. Schell's warning against delaying reunification talks supports recent speeches by Chin'as Jiang Zemin in which he has said that reunification with Taiwan is a top priority, now that Hong Kong and Macao have been reunified with Mainland China. Schell started writing and reporting on China in the early 1960s. His grandfather was a visiting doctor there, and Schell has visited the country scores of times -- most recently to observe the British handover of Hong Kong. Schell recently co-produced an award-winning "Frontline" documentary called "Gate of Heavenly Peace" about the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989.
Just prior to the release of the China white paper, Adm. Dennis Blair, commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, was in Beijing for a previously scheduled visit with Defense Minister Chi Haotian and top Chinese military officials.
Adm. Blair has supported the sale of destroyers to Taiwan. In addition Aegis-equipped missle warships are on Taiwan's order. They have also asked to purchase the latest Patriot missile ground-based and advanced long-range radar.
Taiwan has also requested diesel powered submarines and surveillance aircraft.
China opposes the of the Aegis-equipped warship to Taiwan. Experts say, it is a type of upper-atmospheric missile defense.
[Editor's Note: Taiwan's National Constitution was approved on December 25, 1946, promulgated by the Taiwan National Government on January 1, 1947, becoming effective on December 25, 1947.A short sketch of Taiwan's Constitution: The National Constituent Assembly of the Republic of China, by virtue of the mandate received from the whole body of citizens, in accordance with the teachings bequeathed by Dr. Sun Yat-sen in founding the Republic China, and in order to consolidate the authority of the State, safeguard the rights of the people, ensure social tranquillity, and promote the welfare of the people, do hereby adopt this Constitution to be promulgated throughout the land for faithful and perpetual observance by one and all. Articles contain the following provisions: Article 1. The Republic of China, founded on the three Principles of the People, shall be a democratic republic of the people, by the people, and for the people. Article 2. The sovereignty of the Republic of China shall reside in the whole body of citizens. Article 3. Persons with the nationality of the Republic of China shall be citizens of the Republic of China. Article 4. The territory of Republic of China within its existing national boundaries shall not be altered except by a resolution of the National Assembly.]
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal investigators have concluded the July 16 plane crash that killed John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her sister was caused by pilot error on his part, Fox News Channel reported Thursday.
Fox quoted sources close to the investigation as saying that no mechanical problems had been found with the single-engine plane Kennedy was flying, and investigators now believed the
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash in which Kennedy's Piper Saratoga II plunged into the Atlantic Ocean off Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, killing all three people aboard, but has not released any findings thus far.
NTSB spokeswoman Lauren Peduzzi had no comment on the Fox News report, saying only, ``We have not made a probable cause determination.''
She gave no timetable for when the board would adopt a final report on the cause of the crash.
A finding by the NTSB that Kennedy, the son of former President John F. Kennedy, was responsible for the crash could bolster plans by the family of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her sister, Lauren Bessette, to file a wrongful death or negligence lawsuit against Kennedy's estate.
Fox News said it learned that Kennedy's sister, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, had offered the Bessette family $10 million to avert a lawsuit.
It said the Bessette family believed a settlement could be reached and had decided not to proceed with a lawsuit, but gave no source for its information.
[Editor's Note: William Heartstone contributed to this story.]
2000 Copyright, Reuters.
2000 Copyright, The Daily Republican Newspaper. All rights reserved.
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