News Digest
Wednesday, September 29,1999_ Page 2
African virus may be spreading I
■ A strain of encephalitis,
transmitted by mosquitoes, kills four
and infects 37 New Yorkers.
NEW YORK (AP) - A rare African strain of
encephalitis that has already killed four people
around New York City could spread to other parts of
the country as infected birds fly south for the win
ter, health officials said Tuesday.
The virus is transmitted to humans by mosqui
toes that have bitten infected birds. New York City,
New Jersey and Connecticut have been spraying
pesticides to kill mosquitoes, and scientists in
southern states are testing dead birds there for the
virus.
The African strain has never before been seen in
the Western Hemisphere.
So far, there is no evidence that the virus has
spread outside the New York City area, and the fed
eral Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has
not made any recommendation as to what other
states should do.
But “it’s possible that it could be seen in other
parts of the country,” said Dr. Ned Hayes, a CDC
epidemiologist.
Thirty-seven people, including the four who
died, have tested positive for the West Nile-like
virus in the New York metropolitan area since
August. The cause of their ailments was reclassi
fied Tuesday by the CDC, which originally blamed
the similar St. Louis strain.
Encephalitis is an inflammation of the brain.
The symptoms of West Nile encephalitis - fever
and a headache - are similar to those of St. Louis
encephalitis but are generally milder. In rare cases,
the virus can cause neurological disorders and
death. The elderly, the young and those with weak
ened immune systems are most vulnerable.
The disease is not transmitted from person to
person or from birds to people.
As of Tuesday, the virus had not appeared in any
dead birds - mostly crows - being tested in areas
from Maryland to Florida, said Roger Nasci, a CDC
entomologist. He said the number of dead birds in
those Southern regions is within the norm.
New York State Health Commissioner Dr.
Antonia Novello said 520 dead birds - most of them
crows - have turned up from Connecticut to Suffolk
County on Long Island. In Suffolk, officials also
are investigating the deaths of nine horses.
Scores of dead birds in New Jersey have also
been sent for testing.
Dead birds that tested positive for the West Nile
virus include one in Westport, Conn., and another
in Scarsdale in Westchester County, north of New
York City.
The West Nile strain probably entered the
United States in infected birds, officials said. But
exactly how isn’t clear.
High court to rule
on victims’ rights
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to
judge the constitutionality of a federal
law that lets rape victims sue their
attackers, a test of how far Congress
can go in fighting sex discrimination.
The justices, who have curtailed
Congress’ power in recent years, will
decide whether former Virginia Tech
student, Christy Brzonkala, can sue
two football players under a provision
of the 1994 Violence Against Women
Act. She says they raped her.
A federal appeals court threw out
the lawsuit, saying Congress’ power to
regulate interstate commerce and
assure equal protection to all citizens
did not authorize it to allow rape vic
tims to sue their attackers for financial
damages.
The Clinton administration,
which filed its own appeal to the top
court, told the justices the appeals
court ruling “places unwarranted lim
its on Congress’ authority to address a
national problem of the first magni
tude.” Gender-based violence harms
victims’ ability to work and costs the
economy billions of dollars a year,
government lawyers said.
Brzonkala’s lawyer, Martha Davis
of the NOW Legal Defense and
Education Fund, said she hopes the
Supreme Court “will draw a line
around the decisions they’ve been
reaching recently to rein in Congress’
power and recognize Congress’ his
r
toric responsibility when dealing with
gender discrimination.”
But Michael E. Rosman, a lawyer
for Antonio J. Morrison, one of the
athletes, said, “We feel confident” the
justices will invalidate the provision
allowing lawsuits over gender-based
violence.
The justices will hear arguments
this winter, and a decision is expected
by late June.
Brzonkala, who has allowed her
name to be disclosed, became the first
person to utilize the federal law when,
in late 1995, she sued Morrison and
James Crawford, alleging they raped
her in a dormitory room. She did not
report the alleged rape for several
months. No criminal charges were
filed against the two men.
Morrison and Crawford chal
lenged the constitutionality of the pro
vision letting rape victims sue their
attackers, and a federal judge in
Virginia ruled for them.
A three-judge panel of the 4th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstat
ed Brzonkala’s lawsuit. However, the
full 4th Circuit Court ruled 7-4 last
March the provision was unconstitu
tional.
Calling the law’s purpose
“unquestionably laudable,” the
appeals court nevertheless ruled that
Congress “sought to reach conduct
quintessentially within the exclusive
purview of the states.”
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•THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
Thousands fleeing
Russian airstrikes
MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP)
- Regions around the restive Russian
republic of Chechnya faced a human
itarian crisis Tuesday as tens of thou
sands of frightened Chechens fled a
sixth day of Russian airstrikes.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
said Russia was not planning another
ground war, after the one that devas
tated Chechnya in 1994-96. But he
cautioned that “other possible steps
would be considered” if the airstrikes
failed to wipe out rebel operations.
Chechnya-based Islamic rebels
have twice invaded neighboring
Dagestan in recent weeks, and are
blamed for a series of apartment
explosions in Russia that killed some
300 people this month. Russia says
its air campaign is aimed at the
rebels, not at Chechnya’s government
or people.
But Chechen officials said eight
people were killed when a school
house was bombed on Tuesday in the
village of Staraya Sunzha on die out
skirts of Grozny, the Chechen capital,
the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
The military said Tuesday’s raids also
hit a television station, oil derricks
and industrial facilities.
The raids have terrified ordinary
Chechens. About 60,000 have fled to
the neighboring republic of
Ingushetia, according to Ingush
President Ruslan Aushev. Between
8,000 to 12,000 more have headed for
the neighboring regions of Dagestan,
North Ossetia and Stavropol, the
Federal Migration Service reported,
according to the ITAR-Tass news
agency.
The exodus threatens to over
whelm the already-meager facilities
in the impoverished Caucasus region.
“We urgently need humanitarian
aid - temporary housing, warm
clothes and blankets - because we are
on the doorstep of winter,” Aushev
said.
Russian Emergency Situations
Minister Sergei Shoigu flew to
Ingushetia on Tuesday and ordered
that refugee camps be set up within
24 hours.
Shoigu also ordered that the
Defense Ministry be informed of the
camps’ locations to keep them “safe
against Russian anti-guerrilla air
raids,” Interfax reported. It was not
clear if this meant Russia was consid
ering expanding the airstrikes to
regions outside Chechnya.
The minister called the situation
serious, but said talk of a refugee dis
aster was premature.
“The government will not allow a
catastrophe,” Shoigu said, according
to Interfax. He added that 40 tons of
aid, including tents, food and blan
kets, would be flown to Ingushetia
soon.
There is only one refugee camp
set up, accommodating 850 people,
Interfax reported. Thousands of peo
ple who fled in cars were backed up
several miles on Tuesday at the
Ingushetia border.
■Los Angeles
Beatty may address
possible campaign
LOS ANGELES (AP) - More
than seven weeks after he hinted at a
White House run, Warren Beatty is
still teasing the political and enter
tainment worlds about his intentions.
That is unlikely to change with his
anticipated speech Wednesday,
friends and associates say.
Beatty is to be honored in
Beverly Hills by a group that shares
his liberal philosophy, die Southern
California Americans for
Democratic Action.
“I’ve just heard he wants to lay
out a specific set of policies and
issues, and does not plan to lay out
his intentions of whether he plans to
seek the Democratic nomination or
any nomination for president,” said
Art Torres, chairman of the state
Democratic Party.
■Washington
Congress OKs keeping
agencies open for 3 weeks
WASHINGTON (AP) - With
fiscal 2000 dawning Friday,
Congress approved a resolution
Tuesday to keep federal agencies
open for three weeks as the GOP and
White House grapple over schools,
public housing and other issues that
have delayed spending bills.
White House officials have said
President Clinton would sign the bill.
That would avert for now the possi
bility of a federal shutdown, which
neither party - especially the
Republicans - wants at this point.
The three-week grace period
would give Republicans time to
smooth internal disputes and pass as
many of the remaining spending bills
as they can.
■London
Pinochet’s lawyers say
Spain has no case
LONDON (AP) - Torture
charges filed against Gen. Augusto
Pinochet cannot be tied to him, and
some of them amount to little more
than “low-level” police brutality, the
former Chilean dictator’s lawyers
argued Tuesday.
During the second day of a hear
ing to determine whether Spanish
prosecutors can extradite him,
Pinochet’s lawyers contended Spain
has no authority to try the former dic
tator because neither he nor his
alleged victims are Spanish.
Bradley proposes health care plan
LOS ANGELES (AP) -
Presidential candidate Bill Bradley
unveiled a $65 billion plan Tuesday to
dramatically expand the federal health
care system, and accused A1 Gore of
shying away from the challenge to
insure all Americans.
Bradley, who called health care cov
erage an unalienable right - as much as
the guarantees of “life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness” - would allow
Americans to enroll in the same health
care coverage provided for members of
Congress and federal employees,
potentially exploding the size of the
Federal Employees Health Benefits
Program.
The poor would get subsidies, par
ents would be told to seek insurance for
their newborns, the Medicaid system
would largely be scrapped and tax
breaks would go to all Americans who
pay insurance premiums.
Gore’s campaign called Bradley’s
plan to provide universal coverage
“wildly unrealistic” and “wildly expen
sive,” defending the vice president’s
more limited approach that would
expand federal efforts to insure all chil
dren and incrementally extend coverage
to uninsured adults.
Bradley, for his part, made clear
what he thought of the Gore plan. “I
think that what he has proposed is defi
nitely timid compared to what we have
proposed,” he said at a news conference
following die speech.
The sweeping, expensive nature of
the program fits with Bradley’s promise
to be the candidate of “big ideas.” But
his proposal also opens the former New
Jersey senator to criticism that he is
pushing liberal, big-govemment solu
tions to a complicated problem.
Mindful of die failure of President
Clinton’s 1993 health care plan,
Bradley said he would not create “a
massive bureaucracy.”
Bradley is mounting a stiff chal
lenge to Gore in early primary states,
largely because of his support among
independents and moderate Democrats.
Yet, on health care and other issues,
Bradley is generally more liberal-lean
ing than the vice president as he seeks to
carve into Gore’s political base.
Under his plan, people and families
at or near the poverty line would get
subsidies, either for private insurance 4r
to opt into the expanded federal system.
Americans of all incomes and ages
would be able to exclude from their tax
able income whatever they pay in healfh
care premiums, a benefit Bradlqy
designed for middle-class Americans
who don’t qualify for subsidies.
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