Pagc A 2 _____________________________ iFluf Port binò (Ohsmwr______________________SFPr 17’1997
News from around the world
Conservatives sue the city of San Jose
A
conservative legal group said 209.
Wednesday it has sued the
The lawsuit is a key legal test of the
city o f San Jose, accusing it of violat
effect o f Proposition 209 on California
ing a controversial California law bar cities.
ring affirmative action programs based
“This is a new era for individual
on race or sex.
rights in California,” Michele Justin,
The Sacramento-based Pacific Le an attorney with the Pacific Legal
gal Foundation alleged in the lawsuit, Foundation, said. “We are moving
filed Tuesday in Santa Clara County quickly to enforce Proposition 209
Superior Court, that rules adopted by and to restore true equal opportunity
San Jose that direct a share o f city in the state.”
contracts to minority- and women-
Last November, California voters
owned businesses violate the new passed Proposition 209, which pro
state law, also known as Proposition hibits state and local governments
Civil War Memorial
fror granting preferential treatment
on 1 le basis o f race or sex in public
edu ation, employment and contract
ing
t lallenged by civil rights groups,
Pr< osition 209 was put on hold by a
U distnctjudge soon after it passed.
It
k effect last month after a federal
ap als court ruled that it was consti-
tut lal. The civil rights groups are
ap
ling to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Pacific Legal Foundation’s law-
su. udllenged a San Jose resolution,
ad *ed on Nov. 21, that the founda
o v e r p r o p o sitio n 2 0 9
tion said required general contractors
to grant preferential treatment to sub
contractors on the basis o f race and
gender when bidding on city con
tracts over $50,000.
The foundation sued on behalf o f
Power Providers, a Rancho Cordova,
Calif.-based general contracting firm
that the foundation said was denied a
contract to supply a circuit switcher
for the city’s sewage treatment plant.
The city rejected the contractor's
$ 198,760 bid in favor o f a $202,314 bid
by another firm because Power Pro
viders intended to complete the project
entirely with its own in-house work
force, the foundation said.
To comply with the city’s resolu
tion, Power Providers would have had
to subcontract some o f the work to
minority-owned firms, it said.
“Although the city ’s resolution
purports to comply with Proposition
209, it is in fact a veiled attempt to
entrench the same type o f race/gen-
der preference program Proposition
209 is designed to abolish — all at
taxpayer expense,” Justin said.
San Jose C ity A tto rn e y Joan
G allo said the c ity ’s p ro g ra m did
not d isc rim in a te a g a in st any b o d y
or p ro v id e any p re fe re n ce .
“The city ’s position is that
there needs to be inclusion,
that Proposition 209 ... pro
tects m inorities and women
as well as white m ales,” she
said.
“ W e w ill v ig o r o u sly d e
fend th is suit in c o u r t,” she
ad d ed .
H loring African-American servicemen.
argot Webb, a retired pro the right one,” said Webb, 87, a gene
fessor living in North Miami alogist. “If I just had an idea o f what
Beach, has spent the last two company
years
he was in.”
poring over military records, scan
The African-American Civil War
ning census data and looking through Memorial Foundation estimates at
soldier names on a hunch that her least 7 million blacks are descended
great-grandfather served in a black from Civil War servicemen. For some,
troop during the Civil War.
like Webb, tracing roots can prove
She has whittled down her options difficult.
to six “Isaac Smiths” but still doesn’t
But a new memorial and heritage
know which one is her ancestor.
center in the nation’s capital aims to
“I’m having a hard time getting to shed light on h isto ry ’s forgotten
The African-American Civil
lem orial Foundation broke
Thursday on a $2 million
f
to salute black servicemen.
; ’ve come here to start the pro-
ce
>f setting the record straight,”
said m emorial chairman Frank Smith
Jr., a District ofColumbia councilman.
The 9-foot high, 2-ton bronze sculp-
nire, called the Spirit o f Freedom, de
picts a group o f soldiers in service.
Two stone walls around the statue wi 11
M
bear the names of an estimated 209,000
soldiers who served in the United
States Colored Troops.
The project, above a subway stop
in W ashington’sShaw neighborhood,
is scheduled to be dedicated next
spring.
The memorial is a “thank you to
colored soldiers for fighting for free
dom, for fighting even when people
didn’t want them to,” said Mayor
Marion Barry.
The National Park Service, which is
building a database o f Civil War sol
diers from National Archives records,
is providing the names for the memo
rial.
The foundation is also working on
a Family Heritage Center, to be housed
in the Garnet-Patterson Middle School
near the memorial, which will include
computers and searchable databases.
Harold Ashby, a 49-year-old col
lege teacher in Honolulu, said he be
lieves the project will give blacks a
stronger sense o f cultural identity.
“I think it’s important fora younger
generation, especially a younger black
generation, to have some grounding,”
said Ashby, who keeps the discharge
papers o f his great-g ran d fath er,
George Ashby, in his bedroom.
Ashby is still investigating where
George Ashby was born and how he
got to Trenton, N.J., where he enlisted
in 1864.
Judge accussed Of sexually harassing women with his dog
Connecticut judge sexually
arassed w om en and o b
structed their access to courts by al
lowing his dog to go up behind them
and put its snout under their skirts, a
lawyer alleged Thursday.
In an unusual case before the pres
tigious U.S. 2nd Circuit Court o f A p
peals, the lawyer argued that a district
judge erred in throwing out the case
by saying the female plaintiff was
‘ ’barking up the wrong tree. ’ ’
The Second Circuit handles federal
constitutional rights were violated
because the judge was acting in his
official capacity when he allowed the
dog to assault women and interfere
with their access to the courthouse.
A federal judge in Connecticut had
dismissed the suit, finding that Supe
rior Court Judge Howard Moraghan
was not acting “under color o f state
law” but as a private citizen when he
brought the dog into the courthouse.
Nancy Burton, the p laintiffs law
yer who was also attacked by the dog,
appeals from New York, Connecticut
and Vermont.
The class action suit was filed last
year on behalf o f all women who were
allegedly attacked in Connecticut Su
perior Court in Danbury by Kodak, a
golden retriever.
The dog allegedly “aggressively
nuzzled” the lead plaintiff, raised her
skirt and “projected its snout upward
toward the plaintiff scrotch,” accord
ing to the suit.
The suit alleges that the plaintiff s
disagreed and told the appeals court
that Moraghan was able to bring his
pet into the courthouse because he is
a judge and that allowing the animal to
harass women was an "extension of
his judicial persona. ’ ’
“This was not a casual, random act
on the part o f the judge ... it was
ritualized,” Burton told the panel.
She said the judge would bring the
dog into the clerk’s office, unleashed
and unmuzzled, and watch “with a
smirk on his face” as it harassed
the c o u rth o u se o n ly b e c a u se
Moraghan is a judge.
Cooney said that Moraghan was
not performing any judicial function
at the time, and was merely walking to
his office.
“He w asn’t trying to keep anyone
out o f the clerk’s office,” he said.
But Newman responded that the
case is not about a judge keeping a
dog by his side.
“This case is about a dog harassing
women,” he said.
women.
Burton said the suit also alleges
gender discrimination because the dog
only went after women wearing skirts.
Robert Cooney, M oraghan’s law
yer, argued that the district’s judge’s
ruling should be upheld because his
client was not acting in his official
capacity when he brought the dog to
the courthouse.
Circuit Judges Ralph W inter and
Jon Newman questioned Cooney as
to whether the dog was allowed into
ATTACKING CANCER Harvard Medical School researchers find new weapon
gene sim ila r to one
blam ed for m any ty p es
o f c a n c e r co u ld o p en up a new
w ay o f a tta c k in g the k ille r d is
ease, A m erican sc ie n tists said
L ast w eek.
W illiam K a e lin Jr. and r e
se a rc h e rs at the D ana F arb er
C a n c e r In stitu te and H arv ard
M ed ical S ch o o l e x a m in e d the
p ro p e rtie s o f p 7 3 , a g en e w h ich
is a clo se c o u sin to the tu m o r
su p p re sso r g en e p53 lin k e d to
m ore than 50 p e rc e n t o f all c a n
c e r cases.
W hen p53, the m ost im p o rtan t
su p p re sso r gene know n, is m u
ta te d or n o t w orking, tum ors can
d e v e lo p .
In a rep o rt in the scientific jo u r
nal N atu re, K aelin said that p73
can m im ick the w ork o f p53 —
in d u c in g c an cer cells to die.
“ O ur study show s th a t in p rin
c ip le th e re is a c tu a lly an o th e r
gene w hich is very sim ila r to p53
and w hich could perform the fu n c
tions norm ally perform ed by p 5 3 ,”
he said in an interview .
K aelin said th at one o f the re a
sons c a n c e r c e lls d o n ’t die, and
w ith a lot o f gen etic dam age they
should, is because they w ere sm art
e n o u g h to in a c tiv a te p53 w hich
w o u ld o rd in a rily induce the dam
aged c e lls to co m m it suicide.
“ W hat our stu d y show s is that
w hen you a c tiv a te th is unknow n
p53 h o m o lo g u e , p 73, it w ill lik e
w ise induce cancer to undergo cell
d e a th .”
T he d isc o v e ry o f w hat p73 does
c o u ld lead to the d ev elo p m en t o f
new d ru g s th a t w ould a ctiv ate the
ex p re ssio n o f the p73 gene, w hich
Kenya
“ O ur stu d y show s that if
you did in d u ce the ex p res
sion o f p73 in a can cer cell
you could reason ab ly expect
that the cell w ou ld undergo
cell su icid e (a p o p to sis).
A n other im p o rtan t aspect o f the
study is the p o ssib ility th at there
may be additional p53 fam ily m em
bers w hich have not b een id e n ti
fied.
“ I th in k it is a n o th e r fo o t in the
d o o r,” said K aelin , w hen asked if
p73 w as an a d d itio n a l clue to the
m y stery o f how to co m b at cancer.
“ It c e rta in ly o p en s up an av
enue o f attack th at we d id n ’t know
existed.
The problem is m ost drugs w ork
by in a c tiv a tin g so m eth in g , not by
a c tiv a tin g so m eth in g .
H ere we are saying there is an
a d d itio n a l a p p ro a c h , th at there
w as a copy o f p53 there all along
th at w ould be cap ab le o f doing
p 5 3 ’s jo b if we w ere ju s t sm art
eno u g h to figure o u t how to
re in d u c e its e x p re ssio n .”
K aelin said the n e x t step s
w ould be to find out w h at sig
nals norm ally re g u la te the ex
p ressio n o f p73 and to fin d out
w h eth er the gene is m u ta te d in
c e rta in cancers.
“ I think it is very im p o rtan t to
d eterm in e w h eth er th is gene is
m u tated and to find o u t in w hat
tissu es it n o rm ally fu n c tio n s .”
SHOW ME THE SAVINGS
under attack
from raiders
One person was killed and two
were w ounded last Thursday in an
exchange o f fire between police pa
trol units and unidentified raiders in
Ukunda area, south o f the port city o f
Mombasa, police said.
A police spokesman said one po
lice officer was also shot in the arm.
The police gave no further details
on the incident in which the raiders
attacked a popular bar in Ukunda.
Last Friday, up to five people, in
cluding a two-year child, were hacked
to death by unidentified raiders in
M om basa's Likoni suburb.
In last F rid a y ’s incident, the
heavily armed raiders also left some
20 people seriously wounded.
A reas around M om basa have
since August been hit by a wave o f
violence which President Daniel arap
Moi, 73 and in power for 19 years,
blames on the opposition and ethnic
feuds.
Thousands o f people have fled
the port city o f M ombasa and sur
rounding areas after Moi ordered a
police crackdown on the unexplained
violence which has left more than 40
people dead.
Moi accuses the opposition o f
fuelling tribal tensions before a gen
eral election this year. But many
“upcountry” people leaving the coast
say the government wants them out
because they would only vote for the
opposition.
so far does not a p p e a r to be fre
quently m u tated in hum an cancer.
“ Y ou m ay have a copy o f the
p 5 3 -lik e gene th a t is in a so m e
w hat dorm ant state that could then
be a c tiv a te d by a d ru g ,” he said.
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MONTH 1997
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