July 14,1999
Page A3
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WORLD NEWS
Oprah Winfrey And
Hearst Plan New
Women’s Magazine
NEW YORK (Reuters) - T elevi­
sion talk show hostess and media
mogul Oprah W infrey is venturing
into the publishing world with plans
fora w omen’s monthly magazine she
and her partner, Hearst Magazines,
expect to launch in March 2000. Offi-
cials at Hearst said they had not yet
named the magazine, but stressed that
O prah’s name would be featured in
the title to capitalize on her celebrity.
It will examine various themes, in­
cluding work, health, books, family,
fashion and spirituality.
Killer Rains
: Swamp Las Vegas
Two Dead After Worst Flooding in 1 5 Years
.
B y ANGIE WAGNER_________________
© T he A ssociaied P ress
LAS VEGAS (July 9) - A pow er­
ful summer storm transformed this
simmering desert city into a raging
river that swam ped hundreds o f cars,
smashed mobile homes and killed at
least two people.
“ It’s a wide strip o f devastation,”
Gov. Kenny Guinn said after taking a
helicopter tour o f flooded areas Thurs­
day evening, when the water finally
started to recede.
Las Vegas isn’t used to this kind of
downpour, with 3 inches falling in just a
few hours Thursday. The Las Vegas
area usually receives slightly more than
4 inches in an entire year.
Ron McQueen, a meteorologist with
the National Weather Service, said it
was the city’s worst flooding in 15
years: Water turned parts o f Interstate
15 into a lake, most intersections were
under water m uch o f the day and
firefighters rescued stranded motorists
from their waterlogged cars.
“ It was picking up cars and throw­
ing them around like toothpicks,”
said Robert Anderson, who watched
as his neighbor’s mobile hom e was
swept away. “ It was a huge double­
wide and it ju st went into the water
and it just disintegrated.”
Clark County Fire Department
spokesman Steve La-Sky said hundreds
o f cars were trapped in high water and at
least three mobile homes had been lost.
The rain appeared to have led to
the deaths o f two people, a man whose
body was found in a flood channel
and a w om an who died in a traffic
accident, officials said.
Tourists sought shelter in the casi­
nos along the famed Strip.
‘ ’The Strip is a lake, up over the
curbs, into our fountains,” said Phil
Cooper, spokesman for Caesars Pal­
ace hotel-casino.
Part o f the casino was closed.
Flights at McCarran International
Airport were shut down for 45 minutes,
and two planes were diverted to Los
Angeles, airport spokeswomanCynthia
Markson said.
“ It’s a nightmare. It’s one o f the
worst things I’ve ever seen,” said
Nevada Highway Patrol spokesman
Scott Flabi.
Gilles Bloch, a tourist from France
who watched the flooding from his
Despite Economic Boom, the Middle
Class Is Still Troubled by Bills
/ i q luiiiiirkn Had Trnuhlp M pptinf* Basic
Bi LAURA M EC K LER _______ _______
© T he A ssociated P ress
WASHINGTON - Luanne Shirling
didn’t think o f herself as someone on
the financial edge. She and her hus­
band had good jobs and not much debt
and were starting to fix up their house.
But she d idn’t have health insur­
ance, and she unexpectedly becam e
pregnant. She ended up with com pli­
cations, a C aesarean section and
$20,000 in medical bills. Before long,
she had m issed several m ortgage
paym ents and even had to use food
stamps for a short while.
S he’s not alone. Some 49 m illion
A m ericans - or 20 percent o f the
nation - had trouble meeting basic
needs at least once in 1995. T hat
includes paying rent, mortgages, food
and utility bills.
The poorest, o f course, were m ost
likely to have trouble. But many, like
the Shirlings, are solidly middle class.
And 8.1 million were in families earn­
ing m ore than $45,700 a year, the
Census Bureau said in a report being
released today.
hotel room at the Sahara hotel-casino,
described the city: “ Looking out the
window, it looked like a beautiful
woman who had been crying, and all
the makeup was running down her
face. That’s Las Vegas today.”
Meanwhile, in California, monsoon
rains fkxxied roadways and fields in
southern parts o f the state, sending chil­
dren into the streets ofHemet for impro­
visational surfing on water boards tied
behind pickup trucks.
Jury Awards Family
$4.9B Against GM
Bv M ICHAEL W H ITE________________
© T
he
A ssoc ia t t d P ress
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A 1973
study that coldly calculated the cost to
General Motors o f settling claims for
fetal crashes was key to a jury that
awarded the largest product liability
verdict in U.S. history - $4.9 billion to
six people badly burned in a collision.
“W e figured that if they had no
regard for the lives o f people in then-
cars, they should be held liable for it,”
jury foreman Coleman Thorton said
after Friday’s verdict.
The jury awarded Patricia Anderson,
her four children and family friend Jo
Tigner $107 million in compensatory
damages and $4.8 billion in punitive
damages for injuries they suffered when
their Chevrolet Malibu exploded in
flames when it was rear-ended in 1993.
GM spokesman Teny Rhadigan said
the verdict will be appealed, and legal
experts predicted it will be overturned.
“This crash was not G M ’s fault and
we are disappointed the conduct o f this
trial did not let the jury fairly evaluate
the claims,” Rhadigan said.
The verdict cam e after a 10-w eek
state court trial focusing on internal
GM docum ents about fuel tanks in
its various models.
Although the documents do not spe­
cifically mention the 1979Malibu driven
by the plaintiffs, their lawyers said GM
knew for years its gas tanks were unsafe.
R ather than pay for a recall, they
argued, G M found it cheaper to
settle law suits.
“GM had numerous failures in their
crash tests, but chose to leave the tank
where it was because changing it would
have cost $8.59” per car, said Brian
Panish, lead attorney in the case.
In the 1973 study, part o f a general
analysis o f gas tank safety, GM design
engineer E.C. Ivey - who testified at the
trial - estimated it would cost the com­
pany $200,000 to settle legal claims
from each fire-involved fatality, or about
$2.40 for each GM vehicle on fee road.
‘ ‘Obviously Ivey is not an individual
whom we would ever, in any conceiv­
able situation, want to be identified to
the plaintiffs in (an accident) case,"
said a 1981 Oldsmobile memo intro­
duced as evidence along wife the study.
“The documents he generated are un­
doubtedly some o f the potentially most
harmful and most damaging were they
ever to be produced."
Jurors concluded GM knew it should
have made its gas tanks safer.
“From the beginning I was surprised
that Mr. Ivey was evasive o f fee ques­
tions fee plaintiffs asked. He was quite
cooperative wife fee defense. That got
me to wondering,” Thorton said.
Rhadigan said fee accident’s sever­
ity wasn’t fee fault o f fee Malibu’s fuel
system, but o f a drunken driver who
plowed into fee vehicle at a red light.
Plaintiffs argued the gas tank was
too close to the rear bumper and better
designs would have placed it over the
axle or incorporated a shield.
Thorton said the panel calculated
its aw ard based on the am ount GM
spent advertising cars w ith sim ilar
gasoline tanks.
Tom Harrison, publisher o f Law­
yers Weekly USA, said the enormous
punitive portion o f fee award is unlikely
to stand on appeal.
“They’re sending a message," he
said o f fee jurors. “They're mad.”
Walter Olson, a fellow at fee Man­
hattan Institute, was critical ofjunes that
seek to punish companies wife verdicts
that threaten their financial stability.
“The idea is, ‘H ow shameful for
an A m erican m a n u fa ctu re r w ho
would build a car that could not w ith­
stand being hit from behind at 70
m ph,” ’ he said. "T here is a w ord for
that kind o f car: a tank.”
(Jleo-£illian Social Club
“ We were not really saving when
all o fa sudden-bam ! - this h it,” said
Mrs. Shirling, o f W arrenton, Va.,
whose fam ily incom e was about
$35,000 - putting them near the na­
tional average. “ Ith in k alo to fp eo p le
out there think they’re getting by and
doing fine and don’t realize how
devastating it can b e.”
Nationwide, about 19.5 m illion
o f those who had trouble m eeting
basic needs had household incomes
in the bottom 20 percent o f the na­
tion, m eaning less than $16,800 per
year. A nother 12.2 m illion w ere be­
low $30,400.
But 5.2 m illion people had in­
comes above $45,700, and another
2.9 million were above $68,700 - in
the wealthiest fifth o f the nation.
Experts explain that many families
with healthy incomes are still living
close to the financial edge, without
enough saved for an emergency. It’s
particularly dangerous for families liv­
ing in expensive cities or carrying
large mortgages or personal debt.
That makes them vulnerable to
unexpected financial hits - a lay o ff or
Needs at Least Once in 1995
large m edical bill, for instance. Or
divorce can often push a family into
financial crisis, w ith the people who
used to pay one rent or m ortgage now
forced to pay two.
T he C en su s B ureau also asked
A m ericans w ho w ould help them if
they had trouble. M ore than three
in four said th ey ex p ected to get
help if they need ed it, m ostly from
fam ily and friends.
B ut o nly 17 p ercen t o f those
w ho ran into tro u b le actu ally got
help, m o stly from fam ily b u t also
from governm ent.
Part o f the difference in who needs
help may be fam ily stability, said
C e n s u s d e m o g ra p h e r K u rt J.
Baum an, who w rote the report. He
noted that the elderly, w ho often live
near the poverty line, w ere the age
group least likely to report trouble
meeting basic needs. But the elderly
generally have fixed incomes and
stable expenses.
The most vulnerable group was
children, w ho are also the poorest
Americans. Nearly 30 percentof chil­
dren lived in a family that had trouble
meeting basic needs Blacks and His­
panics were more likely to report
trouble than whites, as were female­
headed families - all groups that are
more likely to be poor, as well.
But the rep o rt’s m ore surprising
findings dealt w ith those w ho are
not poor, but firm ly in the m iddle
class or above.
The problem is that many o f these
families do not save enough money,
said Joanne Kerstetter, president o f
the C onsum er C redit C ounseling
Service, w hich helps consum ers re­
structure their debt.
“ They haven’t been taught how
to handle their finances. W hen any
type o f crisis hits, they d o n ’t have
savings to fall back o n ,” she said.
An estimated 55 percent to 60 per­
cent o f households carry some credit
card debt, said Stephen Brobeck, ex­
ecutive director o f the C onsumer F ed-
eration o f America. Interest payments
and fees quickly add up.
“ Even small differences can de­
term ine w hether a lifestyle is sustain­
able or not,” he said. “ Eventually it
catches up with them .”
Bill
Connecticut OKs W itness Protection
It also creates the “Leroy Brown and
B> DIANE S C A R P O M ______________
© T Ml ASSOCIATED PRESS
HARTFORD(AP)- Connecticut’s
governor has signed into law a witness
protection program named for an 8-vear-
old boy who was shot to death to keep
him from testifying in a murder case.
Lawmakers and law enforcement
officials said the legislation creates the
most comprehensive state-run witness
protection program in the country.
“An attack on a witness is an attack
on our judicial system,” Gov. John G.
Rowland said Thursday. "Our citizens
must have confidence that our systems
work and that they’re protected."
Lawmakers were galvanized tnio
coming up with a better way to protect
witnesses, especially children, after the
shooting deaths last January o f Leroy
“B.J.” Brown and his mother, Karen
Clarke, in their Bridgeport home.
Russell Peeler and his brother,
Adrian, are charged with murdering
mother and son as the boy screamed,
“Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!” The
boy was going to testify against Russell
Peeler in a drive-by killing case.
Bridgeport police said they had pro­
vided special protection for the family,
but Ms. Clarke had asked them to dis­
continue the patrols outside her house
because she found them intrusive.
The new law allows the state to take
custody o f child witnesses if their par­
ents fail to take steps to protect them.
Karen Clarke Witness Protection Pro­
gram.” The new program requires the
chief state’s attorney to offer protection
to witnesses if they want it and inform
them o f their rights.
It also stiffens the penalty for in­
tim idating a witness and sets up a
toll-free hot line that w itnesses can
call if they need help.
Leroy’s uncle said the boy and his
motherwouldnot have been killed ifthe
new system had been in place.
“It’s unfortunate that Karen and B J.
had to be martyrs in order for this to take
place,” said Oswald Clarke, who flew to
Connecticut from his home in Florida
for the bill-signing.
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