Banner Graphic, Volume 21, Number 160, Greencastle, Putnam County, 12 March 1991 — Page 3
President produces pictures proving persona to prying pupil
ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) Eight-year-old Anthony Henderson wasn’t taking anything for granted just because this tall guy with a big, black limo and a lot of bodyguards claimed to be president of the United States. “Are you really the president?” the boy asked, tentatively. “YEAH! YEAH!”* the man replied with all the conviction possible for a 6-foot-4 man perched on a pupil-sized chair in an elementary school library. “Let’s see. Let me see if I’ve got an ID.” He gingerly pulled a black wallet from his hip pocket and fished around in it for a few seconds. “Here’s my drivers license. See what that says? B-U-S-H.” “Bush, George,” the boy read. “George Herbert,” the president added. “So you are the president,” the youngster said. OBVIOUSLY RELISHING the moment even though Anthony by now was fully convinced Bush went on to pull out some pictures of his grandchildren. Eventually he asked the boy, “Do you accept American Express cards” and flashed a piece of green plastic, which Anthony examined carefully front and back. Anthony finally accepted an autographed card from the president, but not before protesting politely that he had been instruc-
nation
Judge who called plaintiff ‘homo’ asked to quit case
WASHINGTON (AP) A federal judge is being asked to disqualify himself from a case after he used die word “homo” in court to describe a homosexual who is challenging his dismissal from the U.S. Naval Academy. The statements by U.S. District Judge Oliver Gasch “are the equivalent of directing racial epithets at an African-American plaintiff in a case alleging racial discrimination,” according to legal papers filed by attorneys for Joseph C. Steffan. GASCH DECLINED to discuss the matter on Monday. “I don’t want to comment on this case,” said Gasch, 84, a senior judge and former American Bar Association president. “These people are making a big brouhaha about it and what I say. I’ll say in court.” Gasch cannot be impartial in handling Steffan’s challenge to the policy barring homosexuals from military service, said the court motion, which asked the judge to remove himself from the case. “I WAS CERTAINLY shocked and surprised to hear that he would use a statement like that and above all to use it in a courtroom,” Steffan said in a telephone interview from his home in Sharon, Conn. Gasch did not immediately schedule a hearing on the motion to disqualify himself. Steffan was dismissed from the Naval Academy six weeks before he was to graduate in 1987, based on his statement that he was homosexual. He was not accused of homosexual conduct, but military regulations bar homosexuals from
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GEORGE BUSH Yep, he’s the Prez
ted not to ask for autographs. “Well, maybe you shouldn’t ask for them, but I gave it to you. Just tell her (your teacher) I gave it to you,” replied Bush. BUSH ALSO distributed cards to the other seven pupils participating in a small ceremony at Barcroft Elementary School, where the president appeared to honor a group of Marines as his 400th “Point of Light.” The Marines have adopted the school and do volunteer tutoring. Anthony told a reporter later he was skeptical because Bush just didn’t look like what he was expecting.
membership in the armed forces. GASCH’S statements occurred during a March 6 hearing as the judge was asking Steffan’s attorneys about military documents they were seeking regarding other homosexuals in the military. “The most I would allow is what relates to this plaintiff, not every homo that may be walking the face of the Earth at this time,” Gasch said, according to an official transcript of the hearing. Shortly afterward, while discussing the military’s policy and Steffan’s dismissal from the academy, the judge said, “On what basis do you contest it?” ATTORNEY Marc Wolinsky answered, “On Mr. Steffan’s affidavit.” “That he’s a homo and knows other homos. Is that it?” Gasch replied, according to the transcript. “When he said it a chill went right through me,” said Steffan’s attorney, Sandra J. Lowe, an attorney for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York, a group that does legal work for homosexuals. “I would have a hard time believing that this was just an innocent slip of the tongue,” Ms. Lowe said. “I think he knows exactly what he said."
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Democrats are planning to move quickly on a new civil rights bill
WASHINGTON (AP) House Democrats say they hope to move swiftly on a new civil rights bill while focusing heavily on its benefits for women, a strategy aimed at blunting charges that passage would lead to quotas in hiring. With the bill expected to clear its first congressional hurdles today, House Education and Labor Chairman William Ford said supporters didn’t plan to delay because of opposition from President Bush at a time of his enormous postwar popularity. “I DON’T LEGISLATE on the basis of poll results,” said Ford, DMich., a key supporter of the bill. “I wouldn’t bring out a different bill if his popularity were at an alltime low.” The bill, designated House bill No. 1 as a symbol of its importance to majority Democrats, was expected to be approved today by a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee and, separately, by Ford’s committee. Supporters hope it will be scheduled for a floor vote soon, perhaps following Congress’ Easter recess. With the Gulf War concluded, Congress was expected to turn increasingly to domestic issues, including the Bush administration’s crime bill, which the president outlined Monday to state prosecutors at the White House. THE PRESIDENT sent the crime legislation to Capitol Hill as part of a domestic agenda he has asked Congress to pass in 100 days. House Majority Leader Richard
Rural Americans are less likely than city dwellers to have health coverage
WASHINGTON (AP) Rural Americans are less likely than citydwelling residents to have private or Medicaid health coverage, a research organization reported today. In addition, fewer health care services are available in rural areas, compounding the problem of finding affordable medical care in thinly populated areas of the country, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said. “MANY RURAL residents simply cannot afford health care,” Laura Summer, a health-policy analyst for the center, said in the preface of her report. The center is a liberal group that specializes in analyzing policy issues that affect low- and moderate-income Americans. The report analyzed data from various private and government sources, including the Census Bureau and the National Center for Health Statistics, to illustrate the health-care dilemma for rural residents. Most of the data were for 1988, which tends to be the latest year for which figures are available. • 111 rural counties had no physician at all. • Rural areas had 97 practicing physicians per 100,000 people, compared with 225 per 100,000 people in metropolitan areas. • Nearly 17 percent of rural residents under 65 had no health insurance coverage, compared with 15.4 percent in the urban areas. • Among small businesses in 1989, 72 percent in urban areas provided health insurance to employees, compared with 54 percent in rural areas. • Among the non-elderly rural
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RICHARD GEPHARDT Close last year
Gephardt, D-Mo., said in an interview the civil rights bill is one of several that Democrats hope to move on quickly. The bill is similar to one Bush vetoed last year, when he argued it would lead to quotas in the hiring and promotion of workers a point civil rights leaders dispute. THE BILL PASSEDThe bill passed both the House and Senate last year with large majorities but short of enough to override the veto. Backers believed they gained strength in last year’s election but are still in need of votes. “We came very close last time,” Gephardt said. “I think we can do it”
poor, 37.1 percent lacked health coverage, compared with 34.3 percent in cities.
• 39.7 percent of the rural poor had Medicaid coverage, compared with 44.8 percent of poor city dwellers. Rural states also tended to have more restrictive Medicaid eligibility, and their programs offered fewer health care services, the report said.
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GEORGE MITCHELL Women will gain
A major portion of the bill is devoted to reversing a series of 1989 Supreme Court decisions that rolled back the rights of minorities in job discrimination claims against employers. SUPPORTERS have built a public campaign this year focusing on the bill’s creation of a basis for new monetary damage claims by women who are victims of sexual discrimination, putting their cases on the same legal footing as race discrimination cases. “The principal beneficiaries of this legislation are American women,” Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine, said Sunday on ABC-TV. Mitchell said
IT RECOMMENDED increased government spending for several programs, including Medicaid, to ease the health care problem for the rural poor. It did not estimate how much money would be needed.
The report called for bolstering the National Health Service Corps, which recruits physicians and other health care professionals to areas that lack their services.
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11 71 JI Ji
March 12,1991 THE BANNERGRAPHIC
opponents “want to make it into a race issue to exploit that aspect of the American political process.” Opponents argue the act would encourage large damage awards against employers and prompt them to use rigid quotas to avoid job bias claims. SUPPORTERS WERE put on the defensive by descriptions of an unreleased poll and research survey done by a private firm on their own behalf. It was first disclosed by The Washington Post, which said the studies found important groups of white voters have come to see civil rights advocates as pressing for special, preferential benefits instead of equal opportunity. Ralph Neas, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a coalition of groups and sponsor of the study, disputed those conclusions in an interview. But he said the group was not willing to make public its survey results. Neas said the poll showed that when voters understand the bill does not impose quotas, it “receives overwhelming bipartisan support.” IN HIS CRIME bill remarks Monday, Bush chided Congress for failing over the past two years to enact provisions to restore the death penalty, restrict appeals of death-row inmates and allow the use of evidence in court from illegal searches of the officer thought he was acting properly.
Although the Bush administration is seeking more money for the program, its fiscal 1992 request for $96 million is far below the spending peak of $153 million in 1980.
THE REPORT also said more money should be added to the budgets of community and migrant health centers, which provide primary health care services in medically underserved areas.
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