Tuesday, September 24, 1985
Page 2
Daily Nebraskan
Rv The Associated Press
N
Stuidly calls for dhaMges
in daily vitsiiniiii intake
WASHINGTON - A National Academy
of Sciences committee is completing a
study that calls for changing the daily
recommended dietary allowances of
certain vitamins and minerals, a move
that critics say could have important
effects on the nutritional habits of the
nation.
The draft report, which has not been
concluded or released, also will make a
subtle change in the definition of
recommended dietary allowances, or
RDAs, that the authors say is more
realistic.
Dr. Henry Kamin of Duke University,
chairman of the academy's committee
on dietary allowances, said Monday
that the proposed new RDAs are not
designed to establish minimum stan
dards, but to assure what is healthy for
all Americans.
"We make dietary nutrient recom
mendations within the context of the
American diet as it is, not as it should
be or not as interpreted by food
fadists,'' Kamin said in a telephone
interview.
Gail Porter, a spokesperson for the
academy, a private, congressionally
chartered organization that does stu
dies for the government, said the report
still is in the review process and may
not be ready for release until the end of
the year.
However, The New York Times said a
draft of the report it obtained called for
decreasing recommended allowances
of vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin B-6 and
iron, while increasing the suggested
intake of calcium for women.
Michael R. Lemov, executive direc
tor of the Food Research and Action
Center, a non-profit, public interest
group, said his group learned of the
proposals and opposes them.
"We fear that decreased RDAs will
be used to 'prove that fewer people are
hungry in the United States," Lemov
said in a statement. "It would be very
convenient at this time to be able to
wipe out hunger with a simple change
in the numbers."
RDAs are used in planning the food
intake of people of all ages in food
programs at hospitals, schools and
other institutions. They also are used
in developing dietary supplements, new
food products, diets and for nutritional
labeling on packages.
Since 1943, a committee of the
academy's Food and Nutrition Board
has revised the RDAs every five years to
keep pace with the nation's changing
needs.
The latest official nutrient report,
issued in 1980, defined RDAs as the
intake of essential nutrients consi
dered "adequate to meet the known
nutritional needs of practically all
healthy persons."
The new definition, Kamin confirmed,
would define RDAs as the levels of
essential nutrients needed "to protect
practically all healthy persons against
nutritional deficiencies."
Kamin said the subtle difference re
flects the fact that the committee does
not know what the "nutritional needs
of practically all (healthy) persons"
are because of the diversity of dietary
patterns in the country.
SAT scores make record gains
NEW YORK - Led by a strong
upsurge by Mexican-American and
Puerto Rican students, average Scholas
tic Aptitude Test scores posted their
biggest gains in 22 years, the College
Board announced Monday.
Average combined math and verbal
SAT scores in 1985 rose nine points to
906 the largest year-to-year climb
since 1963 when scores rose nine points
before beginning a 22-year slide.
College Board president George H.
Hanford made the official announce
ment at a news conference that scores
for the Class of 1 985 rose five points on
the verbal SAT to 431 and four points in
math to 475.
SAT averages had leveled and turned
up slightly in the past several years,
but the gain in 1985 was the first that
could be considered a decisive upturn.
"All minority groups showed improve
ments on the SAT in 1985, and nearly
all states had increases in their aver
age scores. There was also a continued
rise in the percentge of 'high scorers'
those students who score over 600
on either part of the SAT. Nearly 77,000
students did so on the verbal half of the
SAT and 167,000 on the math section,"
Hanford said.
Puerto Rican youngsters showed the
biggest year-to-year gains, up 10 points,
in verbal to a 368 average, and up six
points to 428 on the math. Mexican
Amerian gained six points on both
math and verbal scores, averaging 426
and 382 respectively.
Black students gained four points to
346 on the verbal, and rose three points
to 376 on the math, while white young
sters rose four points on both math
(491) and verbal (449). Both groups
thus trailed the average nationwide
SAT gain.
Hanford said the public should be
encouraged by the turn-around in SAT
scores and other signs that American
high schools are getting tougher. "But
it is also clear that we have no grounds
for being complacent about the state of
education in this country. Despite the
gains of the past few years, we are yet a
combined total of 74 points behind the
scores of 1963, the last high points in
this SAT saga. We still have a long way
to go."
National Security Conineil:
White House Agency 's involvement increases
By W. Dale Nelson
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON The National
Security Council's behind-the-scenes
maneuvering in the release of an Amer
ican clergyman held hostage in Lebanon
illustrates the operational side of the
White House policy-making bedy.
Organized nearly four decades ago
primarily to process paperwork for the
president, the staff of the little-known
White House agency at times under
takes tasks that could be assigned to
the State and Defense departments or
the Central Intelligence Agency.
The NSC staff is far less accountable
to Congress and operates outside of the
public eye. But its influence inside-the
government appears to be growing.
The council staff was especially
active in the Middle East hostage crisis
arising from the hijacking of a TWA
jetliner and in the kidnapping of Amer
icans in Lebanon.
Asked about the efforts to free the
Rev. Benjamin Weir who was released
Sept. 14 and six other Americans who
still are being held hostage in Lebanon,
a usually well-informed State Depart
ment official pleaded ignorance. "It's
an NSC operation. No one here knows
about it," said the official, who spoke
on condition he not be identified.
, Some academic experts and aides
from former administrations believe
the NSC staff has become too embroiled
in day-to-day management in recent
years and should be attending more
strictly to policy making, leaving the
operational details to the State and
Defense departments.
Others say the council staff is just
doing what it has been doing more or
less steadily at least since the Kennedy
administration and its role is no cause
for concern.
But observers in both camps agree
that the staff of the council, which was
established in 1947, is doing much
more than it did in its early days under
President Truman and Eisenhower.
The NSC's members are President
Reagan, Vice President George Bush,
Secretary of State George Shultz and
Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger,
CIA Director William Casey and Adm. ,
William Drowe Jr., chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, are advisers. The
council is supposed to help the presi
dent formulate foreign and military
policy.
Robert McFarlane, the president's
national security adviser, heads the
NSC staff, but is not a member of the
council. The staff includes about 35
foreign policy experts and about 100
other employees who provide adminis
trative assistance and run the White
House Situation Room.
Several scholars said NSC staff mem
bers had traditionally been active in
preparation for summit meetings and
accompanied high-ranking government
officials on missions abroad.
Morton Halperin, now director Qf the
Washington office of the American
Civil Liberties Union and an NSC staffer
under Henry Kissinger, said the coun
cil, rather than confining itself to pol
icy making, "has been an operating
agency for a very long time; it's just
gotten bigger and more bureaucratic."
A roundup of the day's happenings
Police are investigating a panty raid on the
Nebraska Wesley an University Delta Zeta sorority house
where about 25 men allegedly used force against six
women and stole almost $500 of undergarments. The 25
could face strong arm robbery charges.
A Moscow street has been renamed for the late
Soviet leader Konstantin U. Chernenko, who would have
been 74 today. A red granite marker also was set up.
The Et&te Department says the death toU in the
two Mexican earthquakes has reached 3,461, including
five Americans. About 6,700 people have been treated for
injuries.
H&gerstown, Md., officials are investigating a
power surge that blew fuses and damaged household
appliances in a two-block section of the community.
Municipal Electric Light Plant workers apparently hooked
up the wrong line to a transformer, sending 240 volts of
electricity along lines that normally carry 110 volts.
Gov. Bob Kerrey told members of organized labor at
an AFL-CIO state convention they should continue to fight
against conditions that are wrong or unjust, and move to
correct them.
n ED tie I?
Commonwealth bill advances 30-5
LINCOLN The Legislature gave overwhelming second-round appro
val Monday to a bill that would pay an $8.5 million claim on behalf of
Commonwealth Savings Uo. depositors.
With the expected seven-aay specie 5w nuuung on scneaule,
lawmakers voted ou-o 10 move w wuwww v u wis away
Kjmft and transfer to Gov. Bob Kerrey's desk.
Kerrey convened the racial scc;m r t u.':.:,. y v...ca Attorney
3cr."::I Hcicrt Spire concluded LVt, s:n ?ri' - I-' parsed this
,-ear 1 iJ defects preveniirg the iS.5 r.ii'.lcn t:.t r :r,cnt.
G
. . . i j ....1 t ... , - - .... j nn f
:I::e giving secona-rcur.j zs.v, ,.k. oj-o, an
ar:r, : . -.t c:red ty Na!i;i Sen. JcLi DtCar? V i r l;:c:cd a settle
ir.cr.t Utwcea the stats Ranking Department cr.i tit Lrrtcartcr County
j.-i,j.f,j Cert
T1.3 amendment, which net no rcsictsr.ee frcra Li - ;:h creators shep
Kerrey's LB1 through the Legislature, would release the state
from lei liability in Commonwealth's collapse, -
Tlis amendment still gives depositors one avenua to sack more money
Iron t!;e state a miscellaneous claim based on cn ar-ar.eat that the
stats b morally liable in Commonwealth's Nov. 1, 1033 coiizpse.
Fall gas prices expected to drop
LIXCCLII Gasc!:r.9 prices apparently v.ill (!:;? t;,!3 LIl and winter
for the second straight year, prcvidir.3 v.xlccr.s relief Lr ractcrists after a
surair :r cf L-crcascs at the pun:?. .
C:3 prices in Lir.ec.'n aireaiy have dropped an ever:; -3 cf one or two
ccr.ts in tl:3 last month.
A recent $3-a-barrcl drcp i:i the price cf ends ell is aa ir. i-cation that
mere price drops are on the way, saii H. L Clark cf the Ccrr.husker AAA
Jury picked in 14-year-old's trial
ECLOfT, Wis. A 1 4-year-old bey went cn trial cn delinquency charges
Monday in the slayira rf a 9-year-old v, ho refused to share his bicycle, and
jurors' 'were asked vi.-ther they doubted that a person so young could
commit murder. v
None responded whn District Attorney James Daley asked the ques
tion during j';ry selection for the trial cf the oldest of the three youngsters
accused cf beating end stabbing Anthony Darnell Wilson.
Circuit Judge Patrick Rude emphasized to prospective jurors that the
defendant was being tried on a juvenile delinquency petition and was not
charged under laws that apply to adults. " .
A 12-year-old boy also has been charged with delinquency and his trial
is scheduled Oct. 14. He is being held at the Eock county Youth Home.
The third defendant is an 11-year-old girl, but under Wisconsin law a
youthful defendant must be at least 12 to be charged with delinquency.
She is to stand trial Oct. 21 to determine if she is "a child in need of
protection and services" for her alleged role in the incident. She has been
released to the custody of relatives. '
All three children have pleaded innocent.
Accused Rulo men waive hearings
FALLS CITY Two men accused of murder on a survivalist farm near
Rulo waived their rights to preliminary hearings Monday in Richardson
County Court. v
Michael Ryan, 37, and Timothy Haverkamp, 23, waived their hearings in
brief separate appearances before Richardson County Judge Thomas Gist.
He scheduled the arraignment of both men for Oct. 10 in district court.
Ryan, who was the reputed leader of a religious survivalist group that
lives on the Rulo farm, is charged with two countsf first-degree murder in
the deaths of Luke Stice, 5, and James Thimmr 25. The bodies of Stice and
Thimm were found in unmarked graves during a search cf the farm on Aug.
18.
Haverkamp is charged with first-degree murder in Thimm's death.
- Attorneys for Ryan and Haverkamp said one of the reasons they waived
the preliminary hearings was a concern over pre-trial publicity. Last week,
Gist denied the attorney's motion to close the hearings.
FarmAid proceeds way below goal
CHAMPAIGN, 111. At $9 million so far, proceed from the all-star
FarmAid benefit concert appeared to be running short of the goal Monday
but organizers said they would be happy if the event triggered new
interest in farmers' problems.
By the time the 14 hour concert ended and 50 stars cf country, rock and
blues had left the stage early Monday, FarmAid had raised more than $9
million. That was way below singer Willie Nelson's prediction of raising
S30 million. ,
Nelson, who organized Sunday's show, said FarraAii received about $4
million from corporate donations and ticket sale;, a.:, J rc;:-.!jr $5 million
in pledges from television viewers and radio Kstc;:irs.
But tabulation of the pledges was inccmp kte.
; The FarmAid money will be used for cr,h grants t ) r.c : y f -nners, legal
aid, counseling and job training, a nation-Aids k:r.aiicri hotline and a
campaign to increase awareness cf farm prc-l; : :
Reagan outlines new trade policy
WASHINGTON President Reagan, trying to stave oil legislation to
protect battered American industries frcra ilz, ) I, rcrts, outlined a
practices abroad and epen ftrei r.a to U.S. f . 'j.
I v.ul not stand ty a.d vetch A "ic"i L" r s t 'I because of
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