Major drug countries ... Springer for Senate? ... more

www.knoxstudio.com Scripps Howard News Service January 31, 2003

WASHINGTON - The "majors list" - which identifies the most problematic illicit drug-producing and transit countries - has been released by the White House. It contains many of the usual suspects: Afghanistan, the Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, Burma, China, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Thailand, Venezuela and Vietnam.

President Bush's report also noted the alarming increase in the quantity of ecstasy entering the United States; a significant amount of it is manufactured clandestinely in the Netherlands. Bush also noted his concern that Canada, although not on the majors list, is a primary source of pseudoephedrine, which is exported to the United States and used in illegal drug laboratories to make methamphetamine. The report noted Canada increasingly has become a source of high-potency marijuana exported to the United States.

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You probably don't need another study to be convinced that too many commuters are distracted by talking on cell phones.

But here goes anyhow.

According to the National Safety Council, drivers are often distracted whether they are holding a cell phone during a conversation or using a hands-free cell phone. The conclusion? Local laws requiring hands-free use only will not help much.

Cell phone stats: About 134 million are in use in this country, and about 75 percent of drivers have used their phone while driving. Federal officials estimate that 20 percent to 30 percent of all crashes are caused by some form of driver distraction, with cell phones being just one of several culprits.

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Jer-ry! Jer-ry! Jer-ry! ... As if enough hot air hasn't settled over the Senate, Jerry Springer, the former Cincinnati mayor who hosts one of the more, uh, flamboyant TV talk shows, is contemplating a campaign. The Democrat would face off against Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio.

Meanwhile, some folks are hinting that Oprah Winfrey, who soon is expected to end her longtime Chicago-based talk show, would be the perfect Democratic candidate to oppose Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, R-Ill.

As if there isn't enough talk in Washington.

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Who favors war with Iraq? Support is highest among Republicans, conservatives, younger Americans and those with a high school education or less, says the Gallup organization, which analyzed data from six polls taken in December and January. A majority of Democrats, liberals and those with a postgraduate education oppose an invasion. Men are slightly more likely than women to favor U.S. action against Iraq.

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California Gov. Gray Davis is having a slight problem delivering on his Super Bowl bet with Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. The Sunshine State is one of 37 states that restrict direct shipping of wine. So the dozen bottles of 1999 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon that Davis put on the line, which run at $150 a bottle, will remain in the Napa Valley.

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Irony doesn't get much better than this.

Guess which country is slated to take over the rotating chairmanship of the U.N. Conference on Disarmament in May? Yep, Iraq. In alphabetical order, U.N. member countries get the chairmanship for a month or so at a time. The conference is the globe's top disarmament forum.

"The irony is overwhelming," said a spokesman for John Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

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Maybe President Bush should have let Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson occupy the front-row seats at his State of the Union address instead of the Joint Chiefs.

"American Idol," the lead-in to the president's Tuesday speech on the Fox network, drew an estimated 23 million viewers, according to the Nielsen ratings. But about 13 million fans of the tone-deaf singers getting bashed by a smarmy Brit found something better to do when president took the podium.

Even so, the 10 million who stuck around, along with those viewing on other networks, helped make the state of the union Bush's most watched televised address ever - 62 million overall.

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You've heard of the teacher shortage? The National Commission on Teaching and America's Future says it's actually more of a retention problem. A new report by the panel finds almost a third of all new teachers leave the classroom after three years, and that close to 50 percent leave after five years.

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Regular beach swimmers might take offense, but environmental groups are suing a federal agency to reduce the number of sharks that the fishing industry can catch and kill.

Ever since the release of the movie "Jaws" back in 1975, swimmers have kept a close watch for signs of sharks near their beaches. But Earthjustice, The Ocean Conservancy and the National Audubon Society claim that federal officials need to shrink quotas for hunting certain species of sharks to avoid dangerous population declines. One study estimated that the sandbar shark family has declined by up to 80 percent since the late '70s. In the past two decades, hammerhead numbers are down as much as 89 percent, great whites by 79 percent, and tiger sharks by 65 percent.

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Drug lobbyists are trying to deep-six Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., former high-profile chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, famous for skewering Bill Clinton. Thanks to GOP rules, Burton had to forfeit his chairmanship in this Congress, and drug-industry lobbyists are urging GOP leaders to ensure he doesn't get another because of Burton's opposition to vaccinations. Burton, who has an autistic grandson, has been investigating whether children's vaccines can cause autism.

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Alarmed by childhood obesity rates, some Democrats want to use the upcoming reauthorization of child nutrition programs to bar public schools from leasing space to vendors selling sugar snacks and sodas. But the new chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., says such decisions should be left up to local schools. His father was a school superintendent.

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It must be tough being so out of the loop as America faces its biggest diplomatic challenges in a long time. But ex-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright seems to have found a pressing cause to champion - dog parks throughout Washington, where canines can cavort off their leashes. Albright's sister, Kathy Silva, is one of the key organizers of the D.C. Dog Owners Group, which is lobbying the city council for at least one such park in each of the city's seven wards.

"I don't understand why non-dog owners wouldn't want to have a designated area for dogs where it will be cleaned up," Albright argued at the rally, according to a local weekly newspaper.

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How secure are the smart bombs and positioning systems they use? The Air Force is confident enough of GPS satellites being able to evade any jamming efforts that a proposed upgrade for the new generation of spacecraft has been pushed back two years, until 2006.

And Air Force brass say they're sure signals can be kept strong and pure enough to guide munitions wherever they are sent in Iraq, no matter what countermeasures are put into play.

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While federal officials ponder stamping some scientific studies "sensitive" because of their potential for aiding terrorists, the scientific community is struggling to come up with common definitions of what might be harmful to researchers and publishers. Scientists hope self-imposed controls on distribution will head off any bid at government censorship of information exchange. But the diverse community of researchers has yet to come close to common ground on the issue, despite several gaggles in recent weeks.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com)