Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service articles from July 1999

Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service archives from July 1999

Business is eager to help: Flexibility, commitment are key to U.S. academic achievement.
July 30, 1999... BLOOMINGTON, Ill. _ A decade ago, education ranked 13th on the American people's list of national priorities. Today it's number one. Why? First and foremost: too many American schools are not delivering the goods and we _ parents,...

East Timor's story has now taken on global dimensions.
July 30, 1999... East Timor, a tiny, beautiful island province of Indonesia, is one of those out-of-the-way and tragic places that gets a hold on foreign correspondents' imaginations. I've never visited. But my ear has been bent by writer friends who...

Widow can't get Navy to change husband's status from 1973 deserter to murdered in 1973.
July 30, 1999... The Navy can never repay Leonard Smith's wife and kids for the pain and suffering it put them through. But the service, specifically Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jay Johnson, can surely stop torturing them. The Navy declared Smith a...

A bolder shade of yellow.
July 30, 1999... It is time some Americans changed their perception of the color yellow. That's yellow as in the fighting-words taunt, ``What are ya, yellow?'' Yellow, as in ``yellow-bellied'' and ``yellow streaked.'' All of which mean cowardly...

Instant messaging sweeping the online world.
July 30, 1999... ``Hey there, big boy,'' uttered a breathless female voice emanating from Mark Haas' computer around lunchtime one recent afternoon. No, it wasn't a come-on from a racy Web site. It was Haas' America Online Instant Messenger software...

GM has more financial curves ahead.
July 30, 1999... News item: ``General Motors wowed Wall Street when it announced record second-quarter earnings, shattering estimates by 10 cents a share and having industry analysts proclaiming GM has finally turned the financial corner.'' Horse...

SENATE SET TO APPROVE $792 BILLION TAX CUT; CLINTON VETO PROMISED.
July 30, 1999... Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service News Budget for Friday, July 30, 1999 KRT News Desk: 202-383-6080, news(AT)krtinfo.com News desk supervisor: Managing Editor Fred Povey, 202-383-6089, fpovey(AT)krtinfo.com KRT Photo...

MAGGLIO ORDONEZ: THE SECRET IS OUT ABOUT WHITE SOX YOUNG STAR.
July 30, 1999... Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service Sports Budget for Friday, July 30, 1999 KRT News Desk: 202-383-6080, news(AT)krtinfo.com Sports desk supervisor: Sports Editor Tom Peterson, 202-383-6088, tpeterson(AT)krtinfo.com KRT Photo...

AirTouch launches wireless Net access.
July 30, 1999... AirTouch Cellular has launched a service that allows customers to connect to the Internet from anywhere in the Seattle area and, eventually, anywhere the company offers digital phone service. The service, called Net Access, started...

Interview with celebrated underground rock band Flaming Lips.
July 30, 1999... It's not your typical album. Or, for that matter, an unusual album with a fairly typical history. Or a typical band with an atypical history making a strangely typical album, as typical goes. Wait, maybe that is it. Typically, when a...

Caricatures available on KRT's Faces in the News.
July 30, 1999... Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service (EDITORS: Details about Faces in the News appear at the bottom of the list of caricatures.) Following is a list of all caricatures available from Faces in the News. The most recent caricatures are...

Jim Brickman; the Puff Daddy of adult contemporary.
July 30, 1999... Jim Brickman is the Puff Daddy of the adult contemporary set. The Beachwood native can boast of a string of love song hits, a bevy of singers whose careers he has helped launch and a bunch of new business ventures that would make Master...

BIG AIRLINES ARE SQUEEZING OUT SMALLER ONES AT MAJOR HUBS, STUDY FINDS.
July 30, 1999... Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service Add to News Budget for Friday, July 30, 1999 KRT News Desk: 202-383-6080, news(AT)krtinfo.com News desk supervisor: Managing Editor Fred Povey, 202-383-6089, fpovey(AT)krtinfo.com KRT Photo...

Little beetle creating big problems for Carolina trees.
July 30, 1999... CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ The Southern pine beetle is no bigger than half a grain of rice. But it's killing thousands of trees in the Carolinas. The six-legged pests have infected so many pines, an epidemic has been declared in Mecklenburg,...

SENATE APPROVES $792 BILLION TAX CUT DESPITE CLINTON VETO THREAT.
July 30, 1999... Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service News Budget for Friday, July 30, 1999 KRT News Desk: 202-383-6080, news(AT)krtinfo.com News desk supervisor: Nation & World Editor Sharon Buck, 202-383-6087, sbuck(AT)krtinfo.com KRT Photo...

NASA prepares to crash satellite on the moon.
July 29, 1999... In a novel burst of space-age improvisation, NASA will blast a lunar satellite out of orbit Saturday and intentionally crash it into the moon. The goal: to scan the dust plume for evidence of water on the moon _ possibly enough to support...

During heat wave, animals require cool water, shade, shelter.
July 29, 1999... There is no doubt, the heat is on for many areas of the country. This means discomfort and even danger to both humans and pets. However, with a little common sense, you and your pet can bear and survive the summer heat. For outdoor pets,...

Are drug companies' profits more important than human life?
July 29, 1999... Holocaust and Gulag are names we assign to two great tragedies of our century. ``Never again!'' we solemnly proclaim. Then the world's powers set about enforcing such a proclamation in suspiciously selective fashion. Zero tolerance for...

ACLU charges Calif. with insufficient AP classes for students in poverty.
July 29, 1999... SANTA ANA, Calif. _ The ACLU has sued the state of California, claiming it fails to provide enough Advanced Placement classes to students in poor districts _ the very classes needed to get into the state's best colleges. Advanced...

Colorado cave yielding ice-age fossils.
July 29, 1999... COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. _ A remote Park County cave is proving to be one of the most significant Ice Age fossil sites in North America. For more than 10 years, scientists from the Denver Museum of Natural History have been quietly...

The PBS swapping scandal.
July 29, 1999... The following editorial appeared in the Providence Journal on Wednesday, 7-28: X X X For those of us who have supported public broadcasting, the revelation that some PBS television stations have been sharing their donor lists with...

Reconstructing Kosovo: getting it right.
July 29, 1999... NEW YORK _ There are many reasons to be skeptical about the outcome of the session this week in Brussels where representatives from wealthy countries and international organizations met to mobilize support for the reconstruction of Kosovo....

Scientist speculates on pollution as cause of haze clouding Kennedy plan crash.
July 28, 1999... MIAMI _ Air pollution may have caused the plane crash that killed John F. Kennedy Jr. and his two passengers on July 16, a University of Miami scientist said Tuesday. Pollutants that drifted from smokestacks and exhaust pipes from as far...

More than a wife: Bessette Kennedy had potential for breaking the mold.
July 28, 1999... We knew we didn't know Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. It can be like that sometimes, say with the friend of a friend. She's someone who has been part of your conversation, someone you recognize on sight, and yet, not someone you'd approach on the...

Camp gives teens a taste of what missionaries do.
July 28, 1999... WAXHAW, N.C. _ The first three days were hard enough for the 10 teen-agers staying in the woods outside Waxhaw: sleepless nights on the floors of primitive huts in 90-degree heat, ice-cold showers, no electricity. But that was nothing...

Morocco's king was deeply flawed.
July 28, 1999... The media's coverage of the death of King Hassan II of Morocco has extolled the late monarch as a leading Arab moderate. Presidents Clinton and Bush attended his funeral due to his close ties with the United States. Indeed, it has been...

Theological walls starting to tumble.
July 28, 1999... Did you happen to hear that strange noise? It was the sound of theological walls starting to tumble to the ground. If you missed it, don't despair. You probably weren't the only person oblivious to this earthshaking news. Here's a recap:...

Five Virginia teachers determine the future of an SOL test.
July 28, 1999... RICHMOND, Va. _ Seated in purple-and-blue-striped recliners, armed with rulers, test booklets and reams of statistics, five Virginia teachers are determining the future of an SOL test in a hotel meeting room. They go through dozens of...

Antarctica still humbles High-Tech Man.
July 28, 1999... Whoever said ``some places never change,'' must have been talking about Antarctica. We have much opportunity these days to ponder the perennial brutality of Antarctica in July. Foremost is the running drama of a U.S. scientist stranded at the...

Morning sickness is a common side effect of pregnancy, caused by hormones. Chances are you'll get it, and this is what to expect.
July 28, 1999... FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. _ Morning sickness. Those who've experienced it fall into two categories. Either they never want to revisit its tortures, or they love regaling everyone with its horrors. One of the most pervasive old wives'...

Space less colorful without Apollo 12's Pete Conrad.
July 28, 1999... July marks the 30th anniversary of man's first landing on the moon. In July 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin fulfilled the challenge issued by President John Kennedy in 1961 to put an American on the moon within the...

Fund raising under way for memorial to WWII Japanese-American vets.
July 28, 1999... WASHINGTON _ The pie wedge piece of land across the street from Union Station Plaza is easily overlooked by passersby whose eyes are drawn to the familiar dome of the Capitol just 600 yards away. But Harry Fukuhara sees something in that...

Guest-worker rules change; Foreign laborers likely to suffer.
July 27, 1999... CHARLOTTE, N. C. _ North Carolina growers who rely heavily on a controversial foreign farmworker program will have more recruiting freedom when new federal rules take effect this week. But lawyers and other advocates for farmworkers say...

State NAACP president seeks change.
July 27, 1999... BILOXI, Miss. _ Black Mississippians will play a bigger role this year in deciding who will govern the state and nation, said Eugene Bryant, president of the state conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People....

South Florida pushes geographic angle in Pan-Am bid.
July 27, 1999... WINNIPEG _ South Florida's multi-cultural population and direct-flight proximity to most Latin American countries make it the ideal metropolis to play host to the 2007 Pan American Games, bid chairman Rafael Garcia-Toledo said Monday. ...

Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg: not your typical Kennedy.
July 23, 1999... She may look like a Kennedy, but she doesn't act like one. Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, the only surviving member of President Kennedy's family, has chosen to emulate the qualities of her mother, not her father. The Bouvier...

NAACP action brings unpleasant truths home.
July 23, 1999... The following editorial appeared in The State (Columbia, S.C.) on Friday, July 23. X X X It was not pleasant news for anyone in South Carolina to hear that the NAACP has called for a national boycott of our state on account of the...

Emanuel Steward predicts Felix will beat Oscar in September.
July 22, 1999... DETROIT _ Emanuel Steward has this remarkable ability to insert himself into a situation. Seems that a few weeks ago, the superstar Detroit-based trainer was in a sports bar in Big Bear Lakes, Calif., watching the Roy Jones-Reggie...

Divers retrieve victims from the sea.
July 22, 1999... HYANNIS PORT, Mass. _ The body of John F. Kennedy Jr. rested at peace Thursday on shore, retrieved from the sea by divers. The remains of his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, also were found and recovered. ...

Kennedy's remains to be buried at sea.
July 22, 1999... VINEYARD HAVEN, Mass. _ After a painstaking five-day search that held the nation spellbound, the bodies of John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, were recovered Wednesday off the coast of...

Hemingway aura cloaks cruelty to animals.
July 22, 1999... This month brought the twin events of the Pamplona running of the bulls and the 100th anniversary of Ernest Hemingway's birth. Hemingway's 1926 novel, ``The Sun Also Rises,'' glamorized the running and the bullfight, and spurred an annual...

Students taught to solve conflicts through peer mediation.
July 22, 1999... MACON, Ga. _ Students who don't get along don't necessarily have to go to the principal's office to work out their disputes anymore. Sometimes, help might even be sitting in the next desk. Peer mediation, a form of conflict...

Thurow analysis of switch to knowledge-based economy incomplete, but better than nothing.
July 22, 1999... If economic data on the '90s have told us anything, it is that America is back on top. No one is making the transition into the third industrial revolution _ the knowledge-based economy _ better than the United States, the esteemed MIT...

The 100 really bad moments in 20th century entertainment.
July 22, 1999... Has it seemed to you that Hollywood has taken a little too much of ``Forrest Gump'' to heart? Do you leave movies, record stores and an evening's TV viewing muttering that magic five-word review from the Tom Hanks movie _ ``Stupid is as...

Celebrity deaths reveal our worst.
July 22, 1999... As I write this, a chunk of aircraft is about to be raised off the ocean floor near Martha's Vineyard. The body of the pilot, a famous young man, is being retrieved by divers. Two daunting tasks confront the salvors. The first challenge...

Mercury News reporter disciplined, will lose column.
July 22, 1999... SAN JOSE, Calif. _ San Jose Mercury News editors said Wednesday that business writer Chris Nolan will lose her column because she accepted a local executive's offer of a profitable investment opportunity not generally available to the public....

AARP survey finds mobile home buyers need consumer protections.
July 22, 1999... WASHINGTON _ More than three-fourths of the nation's mobile-home owners have had significant problems with their newly purchased houses _ and two-thirds of those couldn't get the problems fixed under warranties, according to a study released...

Former legislator wants state funds to teach abstinence.
July 22, 1999... TALLAHASSEE, Fla. _ A former Orlando legislator who is now the state's chief physician wants to double state spending to teach teen-agers to abstain from having sex until they are married. Bob Brooks, secretary of the Department of...

Others who died young.
July 22, 1999... You've probably read and heard enough about John F. Kennedy Jr., so I come to you today only to say that he was someone who died young before he reached some unknown potential. He certainly had potential, being charismatic and a Kennedy and...

Trio fights against sin of racism.
July 21, 1999... PHILADELPHIA _ Between gales of friendly laughter, the three women talked of sin. A heavy, burning sin, the sin of racism in Christianity. Ruth Floyd Rush, Debra Ortiz-Vasquez, and Del Deets Wesley have battled the beast from inside and...

Questions demand, uh, er, honesty.
July 21, 1999... We love him and his wife and they're great guests, warm and funny, delighted by whatever a day holds. He is, however, an engineer. He is chronically curious about how the world works around him. The curiosity of children is...

To disparage black film themes is UN-American.
July 21, 1999... I will try my best not to yell. But I couldn't live with myself if I didn't share with you an e-mail I received the other day. The unsigned letter was from a reader responding to my recent column lamenting the fact that some people...

2 indicted on additional child molestation charges.
July 21, 1999... WILLIAMSBURG, Va. _ A mailman and a former prison guard already charged with molesting children in separate incidents were indicted Wednesday on charges of assaulting more children. After news stories appeared in May and June about the...

Some pointers for passing on good money-management skills.
July 20, 1999... These pointers can help parents pass on good money-management skills to their children: _Model good money skills. _Explain that needs come before wants. _Help kids evaluate marketing messages. _Take kids along on shopping...

Learning that your spouse prefers partners of his own sex is a devastating experience, say women who have survived it.
July 20, 1999... Barbara Hallberg is angry. So angry she can't control her voice. So angry she gasps between words. So angry a sob jumps out of her like a surprise hiccup. ``Why did he have to do that?'' Hallberg asks, bewildered. ``Why did he...

Some risks aren't worth taking.
July 20, 1999... Like everyone else, I hoped that JFK Jr. and his wife and sister-in-law would be found alive, but I knew the chances were next to impossible. When ESPN picked up ABC's British Open coverage at mid-morning on Saturday, I put the latest Kennedy...

Primer on the best by and about Ernest Hemingway.
July 20, 1999... Forget the literary seminars and the PBS specials. There is a better way to honor the 100th anniversary of Ernest Hemingway's birth. Buy furniture. That's the theory behind Thomasville Furniture's new ``Hemingway collection.'' And you...

`Finality' takes hold on the Vineyard.
July 20, 1999... MARTHA'S VINEYARD _ Disbelief and denial gave way to sadness here Tuesday, a day of heavy, gray weather that at last broke out into a gentle evening rainshower. All over the island _ at a gas station, market, restaurant and boutique, at...

Young Kennedy's image indelible.
July 19, 1999... In the scrapbook of modern memory, one of the saddest pictures is the portrait of young John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. in short pants saluting his slain father's passing caisson. Ever since one tempestuous decade that broke the nation's...

Jackie Robinson's legacy a cut above rest.
July 19, 1999... Thousands of world-class athletes have filled the ballroom. Stars. S (KRT) uperstars. Electric personalities. Proud champions. Sugar Ray Robinson is there. So is Jim Brown. Over there, that's Ted Williams talking to Mark Spitz. Pele is...

Veteran fliers speculate on 'spatial disorientation' as crash cause.
July 19, 1999... MIAMI _ If John Kennedy Jr., had tried to make a night flight from Miami over the Atlantic to the Bahamas, the Federal Aviation Administration would have told him ``no.'' The Bahamas and many other countries do not allow night flights over...

Shuttle to carry Chandra observatory into orbit.
July 19, 1999... CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. _ An extraordinary scientific instrument destined for an orbit that stretches one-third of the way to the moon, the $2.8 billion Chandra X-ray Observatory is poised for launch shortly after midnight tonight aboard shuttle...

Who was Crazy Horse?
July 19, 1999... ``Born in Rapid Valley, 40 miles E, about 1840, he early dreamed of immunity from his enemies and trouble from his friends and that was his life's pattern. ``Without political ambition he was content to be a leader in the eternal warfare...

The curse haunting Kennedys is reckless risk-taking.
July 19, 1999... (PHOTO of Sandy Grady available from KRT Direct) (CARICATURE of JFK Jr. available) (PHOTOS, GRAPHICS, ONEPAGE) By Sandy Grady Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT) WASHINGTON _ It's always this way. A pleasant morning. Or the...

Perhaps civilization depended on death penalty for parasites.
July 19, 1999... As animal species go, humans are pretty good about getting along with one another. But not always. For some reason, humankind's ability to cooperate in creating civilization and culture is accompanied by a lot of seemingly senseless...

What's your contribution in relationships?
July 19, 1999... As the story goes, there was once a farmer and his family. They lived in and farmed a huge and gorgeous valley next to an equally huge, gorgeous mountain range. Each year as the seasons turned into late summer and early fall, the farmer...

People seeking to reduce stress, body aches find relief in Chinese martial art of tai chi.
July 16, 1999... CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ Eleven months ago, Tony Iannone was all stressed out from his job teaching fourth- and fifth-graders. And his wife, Stephanie, an accountant, was swallowing pain pills and muscle relaxers to cope with rheumatoid arthritis....

In search of Man O' War.
July 16, 1999... PHILADELPHIA _ In 1999, the only hint that one of the greatest sports heroes of this just-about-finished century roamed the Delaware County hillsides is the name on a street sign, just off Route 452: Man O' War Drive. Selected...

America has misplaced its sense of mission.
July 16, 1999... Four quotes. The first is from John F. Kennedy: ``We choose to go to the moon.'' On Tuesday, it'll be 30 years since the nation fulfilled the prophecy its young president made. A generation since the Eagle landed and humanity touched...

Despite public stance, U.S. quietly improving links to Cuba.
July 15, 1999... WASHINGTON _ Despite continued animosity between the United States and the Cuban government, the Clinton administration is moving ahead with small steps they hope will draw Americans closer to the Cuban people. New rules are making it...

Protestant leaders reject proposed compromise on Northern Ireland pact.
July 15, 1999... LONDON _ The Northern Ireland peace process stumbled Wednesday night as the Protestant Ulster Unionist Party rejected a power-sharing plan that would have brought its archenemy Sinn Fein into government. The rejection means that peace...

Marlins eyeing another 100-loss season.
July 15, 1999... FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ Careful consideration of all that has transpired with the Marlins since spring training, all the losses and the rain delays and trades and such, leaves an observer with at least two overriding questions: 1. Could...

Leader of Peru's Shining Path rebels captured after nearly 20 years.
July 15, 1999... SAO PAULO, Brazil _ Cornered in a remote jungle gorge at the base of the Andes Mountains, the commander of Peru's infamous Shining Path guerrillas was captured early Wednesday, ending a two-decade manhunt. Oscar Ramirez Durand, better...

Ford earnings set record.
July 15, 1999... Ford Motor Co. continued to burn up the financial track Wednesday, announcing record second-quarter operating earnings of $2.48 billion, or $2 per share, fueled by car and truck sales in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The...

House lets NEA budget remain at current level.
July 15, 1999... WASHINGTON _ In a surprising break in the cultural wars, the House refused Wednesday to cut further the budget for the National Endowment for the Arts, and even came close to increasing funding for the arts agency. The controversial...

Carnival Cruise says it's still safe despite reported alleged sexual assaults.
July 15, 1999... MIAMI _ Carnival Cruise Lines said Wednesday that the 62 alleged sexual assaults committed by its crew members do not make the company's ships unsafe and are comparable to the number of incidents that occur on other cruise lines and to...

GAO Report: Most of the largest U.S. cities are not ready for Y2K.
July 15, 1999... WASHINGTON _ Among America's 21 biggest cities, only Boston and Dallas are ready now for the year 2000 computer challenge, a special U.S. Senate committee will hear Thursday. Most of the largest cities have not finished year 2000 (known...

Florida decision shows only cable firms will keep fighting ISPs.
July 15, 1999... South Florida is emerging as a key battleground in determining how American homes will receive and use the Internet. In a decision likely to have national significance, Broward County commissioners on Tuesday passed a law requiring cable...

WASHINGTON.
July 15, 1999... Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service Add to News Budget for Wednesday, July 14, 1999 KRT News Desk: 202-383-6080, news(AT)krtinfo.com News desk supervisor: Nation & World Editor Sharon Buck, 202-383-6087, sbuck(AT)krtinfo.com ...

Mexico trade mission a success, Florida organizers say.
July 15, 1999... MEXICO CITY _ Apparel maker Lori Davis fields questions at the Florida Trade Expo, while her husband Juan talks trade with another visitor. Then, a man leans around the booth, points to one of the Davises' bright beach shirts and says: ``That...

Expert: Third parties could cause `major hemorrhaging' of Democrats, GOP.
July 15, 1999... If George W. Bush is having nightmares about his presidential race, they could be about the mischief of potential third-party candidates. His father, former President George Bush, after all, blames independent candidate Ross Perot for his...

Officer uses sign language to talk man down from building.
July 15, 1999... ORLANDO, Fla. _ Using sign language, a police officer persuaded a deaf man not to jump off a two-story building Wednesday in downtown Orlando. The tense situation forced police to close Orange Avenue from Central Boulevard to Church...

Private enterprise a tool for uplift in Cuba, U.S. official says.
July 15, 1999... Thomas J. Donohue, the president and chief executive of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce who is on a three-day fact-finding mission to Havana, said Wednesday that Cuba can lift itself out of its ``economic misery'' by embracing private...

U.S. faces multiple hurdles to fighting terrorism, report warns.
July 15, 1999... WASHINGTON _ Turf fights, overlapping jurisdictions, inadequate intelligence, bureaucratic confusion and a lack of central leadership are preventing the U.S. government from coping with the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction and...