News Digests*^
Little debate drama apparently favored Bush
LOS ANGELES — Presidential
rivals George Bush and Michael
Dukakis Thursday night gave Ameri
can voters a review of familiar
themes, providing little drama in a
debate that apparently went the Re
publican way.
Drama was not what Bush needed
to protect his lead in the polls; it was
Dukakis who needed a high voltage
peiformance to propel his Demo
cratic candidacy. It never happened.
As in their first debate, the Repub
lican vice president was more ani
mated and smiled more easily than
did his Democratic rival, a fact that
polls suggested tilted vie wers his way
during their Sept. 25 confrontation.
ABC’s instant poll following this
second televised confrontation indi
cated a lopsided preference for Bush,
and an Associated Press panel of
debate experts likewise delivered a
verdict for the Republican. The first
time around the same judges decided
for Dukakis.
In a sense, it was clear the two
candidates had learned from the first
debate that they would be judged on
two levels, not only on what they said
but how they said it, on such intan
gible factors as body language.
Once the debate began, the candi
dates were on familiar terrain.
“Liberal, liberal, liberal,” was
Bush ’ s favorite way of referring to his
Democratic rival.
“If I had a dollar, George, for every
time you used that label, I’d qualify
for one of those tax breaks for the rich
that you want to give away,” said
Dukakis, gelling off one of his best
lines of the evening.
The first question to Dukakis con
cerned his opposition to the death
penalty and he quickly shifted the
subject to drugs and made his familiar
pledge to wage “a real war and not a
phony war against drugs.”
And, of course, the debate no
sooner ended than the partisans of
both candidates swarmed into the
press room to declare their favorite
the winner and to claim the “liability
factor,” about which much was made
after the first debate.
Democratic Sen. Alan Cranston of
California said Dukakis “overcame,
the impression some people have had
that he’s too cold— He’s not a cold
guy, he’s a warm guy.”
Former deputy Treasury secretary
Richard Darman, who played the role
of Dukakis during Bush debate prepa
rations, said that on the question of
likability, he thought Dukakis “didn’t
help himself tonight, probably that he
hurt himself a liule bit.”
President signs major welfare overhaul
WASHINGTON — President
Reagan on Thursday signed the first
major overhaul of the nation’s wel
fare system since it was created in the
Great Depression. He said the new
law is a ‘message of hope” to those
mired in a life of dependency and
destitution.
But that message to welfare recipi
ents, said the president, also contains
a demand from the citizens who pay
the bills: “That you will do your share
in taking responsibility for your life
and for the lives of the children you
bring into this world.”
Reagan said the best part of the
new welfare plan is that it actually
poses “an alternative to life on wel
fare.”
“For too long the federal govern
ment, with the best of intentions, has
usurped the responsibility Lhal appro
priately lies with parents,” said Re
agan at the signing ceremony in the
Rose Garden. “In so doing, it has
reinforced dependency and separated
welfare recipients from the main
stream of society.”
The legislation contains the most
sweeping revision of the nation’s
principal welfare program — Aid to
Families with Dependent Children —
since it was created in 1935.
Under the agreement reached after
two years of legislative struggle, the
government has pledged to provide
training and support systems to desti
tute parents if they take steps to be
come independent.
Each state must operate a Jobs
Opportunities and Basic Skills
(JOBS) program to educate, train and
find employment for the AFDC re
cipients. Over seven years, states will
be entitled to receive $6.8 billion in
federal matching funds to pay for
employment and training activities.
The president touted the
measure’s work and education re
quirements, as well as its provisions
increasing pressure on absentee par
ents to pay child support.
Also present for the signing was
the chief architect of the bill, Sen.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y.
‘‘I’ve been waiting 20 years for this
day,” said the exultant senator fol
lowing the ceremony. He added thai
he hoped its features would take hole
fully by the end of the century. Undei
the complex piece of legislation,
various programs have differing start
ing dates.
Under the bill, states are required
for the First time to offer people on
welfare a broad variety of education,
training and work programs.
Mothers of young children are
required to participate. They retain
medical coverage for a year after they
find a job, and they will be far more
likely to get child support payments.
For the first time, the federal gov
ernment will require all states to pay
cash benefits to two-parent welfare
families. Only 27 do so now.
Starting in 1994, one adult in each
I two-parent welfare household must
' participate in a job search and, if it
fails, work 16 hours a week in a state
organized work activity. A young
parent may work instead toward'a
high school diploma.
All states will be required to pro
vide at least some cash benefits to
families with unemployed fathers
living at home.
Non-custodial fathers will face
new pressure for child support pay
ments, with slates required to identify
more of them and automatically with
hold payments from their wages.
Those most likely to feel the
immediate effects of the welfare bill
are able-bodied women with children
aged 3 and over. They are the prime
targets of the new JOBS programs to
be developed by each state.
Notes show Peary never at North Pole
BALTIMORE — Newly un
covered notes kept by Robert E.
Peary show the explorer claimed
to be the first person to reach the
North Pole even though he knew
he hadn’t come closer than 121
miles, an astronomer and historian
says.
The new evidence indicates
Peary knew exactly how far away
he was and turned back when sup
plies ran low and warming weather
threatened to make the floating ice
too dangerous, Dennis Rawlins
said in an interview today.
Peaty had been under pressure
to publicly declare his 1909 expe
dition a success, said Rawlins,
who uncovered a previously
sealed file in the Johns Hopkins
University library.
“My feeling is his reaction was
he had to make the claim because
he had published a book in 1907
saying he got close and it didn’t
sell at all,’’ Rawlins said.
“He had the task of hoaxing the
world while under the harshest
spotlight, all the while accusing his
archrival (explorer Frederick A.
Cook) of faking the very same at
tainment. The amazing thing is he
had the guts and the intelligence to
pull it off.”
Rawlins’ findings, published
Wednesday in the Washington
Post, arc the latest salvo in an 80
year geographical dispute over
whether Peary was the first to reach
the North Pole, and, if not, whether
he knew how far off the mark he
had been.
The Peary controversy erupted
almost immediately after the ex
plorer lodged his claim because he
did not provide evidence, such as
the records of his sextant readings,
to show he had been at the pole.
A slip of paper with Peary’s
sextant readings and other naviga
tional calculations, apparently
written while he was at his north
ernmost point during the expedi
lion, was suppressed by Peaiy and
then was sealed and placed in the
National Archives along with his
other papers many years after his
death m 1920.
In* 1984, Peary’s descendants
unsealed the papers, containing
mostly numbers that remained
undeciphered until Rawlins ob
tained them.
Peary’s scrawled calculations,
understandable only to someone
familiar with navigation by the
stars, show the explorer came no
closer to the pole than 121 miles,
according to Rawlins.
Despite the cover-up, Rawlins
says Peary still discovered the
northernmost point of land in the
world, Cape Jesup in northern
Greenland, and ranks as the great
orer. In addition,
credited with
completing a difficult 400-mile
crossing over land through an ob
stacle course of drifting ice floes.
Illinois students protest campus sexism
URBANA, 111. — University of
Illinois students, shaken by a series of
rapes, are taking steps to protect
themselves and to fight the sexism
many blame for the attacks, student
leaders and school officials say.
The attacks around the campus
stopped when police identified a sus
pect, but students are labeling sexism
a factor — a message underscored
with a candlelight march and rally
Wednesday night
“The message at the rally was that
sexism is in our society and it is the
cause of a lot of things that go wrong
— rape, discrimination and women
feeling low self-esteem,” Jane
Brouwer, president of the Panhellenic
Council, said Thursday. The council
represents about 3,500 sorority
members on the 35,000-studcnt cam
pus and helped organize the demon
stration.
“A lot of people just don’t think
about sexism,” Ms. Brouwer said.
About, jfJQtStudents demonstrated
i
Wednesday, carrying candles to draw
attention to the role of sexism in the
series of assaults that police attribute
to a serial rapist.
“We have a suspect,” Champaign
Detective Gerald Schwcighart said
Thursday. “He was identified just
before the series of rapes stopped -
around Sept. 10.”
Police are awaiting results of tests
on the suspect’s blood and have made
no arrest, Schwcighart said.
Investigators believe about nine
rapes have been committed by the
same man since spring, said
Schwcighart.
The rally Wednesday united
groups as diverse as the Panhcllenic
Council, the campus chapter of the
NAACP and a political coalition,
United Progressives.
The aim was to jgMfc the role of
sexism in society, fflMrpin-up calen
dars and pornography to references to
women in casual conversation, par
ticipants said
“We need a general respect of men
and women for each other,” Ms.
Brouwer said. “If we are serious, we
can make a change.'
Jenny Keller, a senior at the school
majoring in political science who
identified herself as a victim of rape,
was one of the speakers at the rally.
“We’re not asking for pity... we’re
demanding respect... for the strength
it takes to go through this experi
ence,” said Ms. Keller. “The vast
majority of women are raped by
friends, relatives, people who live in
their dormitories.”
Petitions were circulated urging
pay equity at the university, more
education on the problems of sexism,
and more emphasis on ensuring cam
pus safety.
Partic ipants also condemned cam
pus traditions such as panty raids.
Jeff Jochinis, president of the
Interfratemity Council, acknowl
edged the fraternity system has not
done a lot to fight sexism.
“We need 10 realize the Greek
system has always had a problem with
sexism,” Jochims said at the rally.
“It’s ugly, but it’s a reality.”
Mary Ellen O’Shaughnessey, as
sistant dean of students, said Thurs
day the demonstrators’ concerns are
justified.
Sexism is not just a campus prob
lem, she said, “it is a cultural issue.”
Ms. O’Shaughncsscy said her of
fice has organized seminars on per
sonal safety, and supervised pro
grams providing women with
whistles to use in sounding the alarm
if they feel threatened and van service
to avert the need for women to walk
home alone from class or work at
night. Emergency telephones also
have been placed around campus.
In addition, Jochims said frater
nity members escort women on cam
pus so they do not have to walk alone,
and are preparing a program to patrol
areas where attacks have occurred.
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