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Show FT "People who cannot recognize a palpable absurdity are very much in the way of civilization. " I - 6 Sunday, April 27, 1997 The Daily Herald ' ' AE " WASHINGTON More than three an after rocked the quiet earthquake years Los Angeles suburb of Northridge, the U.S. Department of Commerce is still doling out "emergency" assistance to its victims. As you'll recall, the government got rave reviews for its handling of the aftermath of the Northridge quake. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, 'which had come under fire for bungling previous relief efforts, responded in record time. Highways and overpasses were rebuilt months ahead of schedule, and Washington doled out record amounts of aid more than $12 billion in all. When the rebuilding effort was nearly complete, government officials generously congratulated themselves for a job well done. The key, they said, was cutting through the usual red tape to get assistance 'out to those who needed it most. But this success story has hit a sour ote: Nearly 40 months after the earth moved in California, federal relief dollars continue to flow and not always to their 'intended recipients. '"In a highly unusual move, the Com-'merDepartment's Minority Business 'Development Agency sent five of its Employees to the University of Southern 'California to help officials there write a '$1.2 million federal grant proposal on behalf of its recipients, our associate ''Kathryn Wallace has learned. This "emergency assistance" grant was supposed to bfr.used to give advice to minority-ru- n companies on how to file insurance forms UI' even though the statute of limitations 'have probably expired on most claims. ' ' Three of the staffers came from the IvlBDA's Washington headquarters, and J6ne staffer each was dispatched from offices in San Francisco and Chicago. All t five staffers had their travel and expenses paid for by earthquake relief funds money that should have gone to helping victims with their insurance 'claims. u; "Paul Webber, the deputy director of the MBDA, told us in a written statement that government officials should avoid contacts with contract bidders "to preserve 'the integrity of the solicitation process." But this case was an exception, because the recipient qf the funds the Universwas the only ity of Southern California bidder ever considered by the MBDA. - That still doesn't answer the obvious 'question: Why is the Commerce Depart ce m per-die- ment doling out "emergency" assistance three years after the actual emergency? The obvious answer is that federal bureaucrats loathe seeing any money go unspent lack hiava Michael Einstein rJ, J J Washington MS Merry-Go-Rou- J nd even if its usefulness has long since been outlived, and even if there are no obvious takers. Internal MBDA documents shed further light on things: It turns out the $1.2 million was originally given to the MBDA in six months after the earthJune 1994 by the Economic Development quake Administration. But it took 18 more months before the MBDA got around to handing out the money. And even though USC was "uniquely" qualified to carry out the contract, according to MBDA documents, the university's Business Expansion Network still required the help of five agency staffers just to get its application together. Debra Esparza, who directs the relief fund at USC, told us the MBDA officials only showed up for a couple of days of "T crossing and I dotting," and claims, that USC was awarded the contract on a competitive basis. But MBDA officials deny that the contract was ever open to competition, and say that USC was the only bidder that was ever seriously considered. One of the MBDA officials who worked on the proposal, Maggie Faulkner, also says that she spent two weeks in the Los Angeles area helping USC redraft their bid. A follow-u- p memo from Faulkner's boss confirms this, recognizing the "very capable job" she performed at USC k "over a period," adding that through her "direct assistance" the university produced a "substantially complete" proposal. It is sadly ironic to note that USC would not even have been considered for the earthquake contract had the MBDA not bungled an earlier effort. two-wee- Dole loan a strange deal 4,r By DONALD KAUL ,','.',If anyone needed final proof that Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is a hand-toole- gold-leafe- d, d, Moroccan-boun- charlatan, surely the Dole loan d pro- vides it. Stuck with a $300,000 tab for being less than candid with his colleagues, he i found a way to pay it without paying it. He ! accepted a personal loan from (you're not ! going to believe this) Bob Dole. The would have you believe that Mr. !DoIe, a retired person, was moved by ! sense of duty to party and a hitherto-unrevealed friendship for Mr. Gingrich to shell ;out 300 big ones and bail out the Newtster. ; "I wanted to help the Republican Party and help Newt Gingrich get this behind him and behind the party and move ahead jwith the Republican agenda," said Dole. "I've been working for a long, long time and made some money. It will come from 'my savings." Gingrich said, of himself and his wife, I Marianne: ! "We came to the conclusion of our own ! choice and without being forced that I Ihave a moral obligation to pay the I $300,000 out of personal funds, that any '.other step would simply be seen as one J more politician shirking his duty and one J more example of failing to do the right ! thing." J And the wonderful thing about it was J that both of them said it with perfectly straight faces, if you didn't count the little smile playing about Dole's lips. It s a strange loan, in any case, it pays 10 percent interest, but Dole won't see a dime of it until 2005, when Newt will pay off the whole thing. Does it make sense to man who's had canyou that a cer and who's worked for government pay all: his life would lay out 300 grand in the expectation of getting a return in eight years? That's real optimism. 'if I ever get to be 73, I'm going to stop Who knows whether I'll jbuying bearound to finish them I'll make this deal with you: I'll believe J that Dole is lending his own money and J that Gingrich will pay it back with his own Web- j money, but you have to believe that ster Hubbell, President Clinton's chum, was paid that $4(X),000 for legal work, and fel-Mo- -! s. not as hush money on behalf of the president. Fair is fair. Am I being too cynical? How can you be too cynical? They're not even bothering to make it look good anymore. They just take what they want and have the gall to act outraged if you complain. In case you haven't noticed, we are now engaged in an experiment in government of the corporation, by the corporation and for the corporation. Those of us who oppose that make tiny little cries of Goininontary protest, but we are hooted down with shouts of class warfare. Yet we operate in an economic system where, increasingly, almost all of the rewards of a prospering economy are reserved for the people at the very top. The people in the middle struggle to stay where they are and the folks at the bottom lose even more ground. Not content with getting the lion's share of the hunt, the people on top demand (and get) lower taxes and argue for fewer government benefits for the most needy, lest those unfortunates be corrupted by getting something they don't deserve. The truly odd thing about this is that the people in the middle, who are treading water as fast as they can, have bought into this system. They don't feel envy for the people making all of the money. That would be class warfare, after all. No, they think the wretched immigrants, welfare are taking bread mothers, the homeless from their tables. It's weird. I can see why there's this movement on to destroy our public schools by siphoning olT money to private schools through "choice." If you're making that much money out of people being dumb, why would you want to make them smart? My advice to you is this: The next time a politician tells you he's doing something whether from the goodness of his heart it's a $300,000 loan or some kind of reform he's after put your hand on your wallet and hold on. He's coming to gel it. $1,800 of which (WPU) follows them to their individual school. Schools have an incentive to crowd students in because it pays, so talking about class-siz- e reduction may be useless. But when the need becomes too great, this bill could be the answer. Private schooling on average costs less than public schooling, and private and home school students staboth academically tistically do better than public school stuand emotionally dents. We could save money and satisfy the client at the same time. The idea is opposed by those who wish to retain control over our children and the money that goes with their education. However, the WPU for each child sits in the state coffers unless the child is enrolled, so there would be no loss to public schools if their surplus students were to leave. It would simply mean that the taxpayers would not have to fund additional facilities to accommodate the overflow. The bill passed the Senate and almost made it in the House. If you will convince your legislator to vote for it, next year should see it passed into law. Ruth Lehenbauer Logan Cougar Club thanks' Thank you for your involvement in this year's Pigskin Family Picnic. The efforts of so many different individuals, campus departments and local businesses came together to make this year's Spring Game the most successful ever. All of us at the Cougar Club sincerely appreciate everything you did to make this event enjoyable and to help build fan support for the upcoming football season. The Cougar Club Staff Provo Bonding alternative Voters in several Utah school districts are troubled by requests for bonding for new school facilities. But maybe there's a solution. When a surplus creates a demand for more space, we can ease the burden in our public schools by giving overflow students a portion of their individual education allotment and letting them choose private schooling. Last January, a bill to allow school districts to do just that was introduced at the Legislature. It would permit families to school approved by choose a the district, with the district providing their tuition up to the amount of the student's Weighted Pupil Unit. We pay approximately $3,300 in Utah taxes for each child in our public schools, about ,' Letters policy Letters to the editor are welcome. Please address them to: Editor, The Daih Herald, P.O. Box 717, Provo, UT 84603-071- FAX 7. i 9. Letters must be signed and include the writer's full name, address and day- time telephone number for verification. Preference is given to letters that are typed, double spaced and less than 400 words in length. Letters that are too long, unsigned, illegible, obscene or libelous will not be published. Keep people out non-publ- ic TV state should have slowed it down a long time ago. If Utahns had, they probably wouldn't have so many people here now. We should have left it for the farms so that instead of just putting houses on it they could put the land to other use for animals or so that we could work the land; Pretty soon we are going to be as bad as California with violence, killings and ' j guns. That's not good. I want my kids to grow up here, buj if the growth keeps up like this I'm going tp have to move to a place where there isn't j as much growth. Utah is a great place but won't be for long if we as Utahns don't do something about it. j Cody McDade Lehi think Utah should slow down on letting people into the state; there are already enough people and houses here. We as a I j ! ratings system no help to parents for mature audiences. At the very least, a TV-1-4 rating for viewers 14 and older would have been more appropriate than the wishy-wash- y PG designation. That's the problem with the new voluntary rating system the TV industry began By MYRIAM MARQUEZ What's wrong with this picture? The "Silence of Adultery," a made-for-Tmovie that was rerun one recent Saturday afternoon on the Lifetime Network, is rated PG under the television industry's new program ratings. The movie had no nudity or violence, which appears to be why raters decided that the movie merited merely a warning of parental guidance. Never mind that "Silence" depicts a married woman, a teacher who has two daughters and a workaholic husband, romping under the sheets with the father of one of her autistic students. Forget the touching scene of adulterer mom seeking advice from her own mother, who admits that she, too, had an affair but didn't allow that to break up her marriage. There's nothing wrong with this picture, so long as the audience is mature! enough to understand the content. It's the PG rating that's way off the mark. This is a perfectly fine movie for the adult women Lifetime seeks as its audience. But the topic the title, alone should have qualified this flick for an M rating designated V That is not an idle threat to the industry. It's a bipartisan call for Hollywood to listen to parents' concerns. Republican Sen. John McCain, who heads the Senate Commerce Committee, said last week that he supports much of Hollings' proposal and will bring it up for a vote May 1. Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, helped design the TV ratings system. In response to criticism about the ratings system from groups that advocate for children's Valenti said a national survey of parents will be taken this summer before TV executives decide if the ratings will be j beefed up. Unlike the movie-ratin- g system, which is decided by a board that includes parents, there is no parental involvement in determining the ratings assigned to television programs. Those ratings are decided by the TV industry, alone. That would explain ' s of the prime- why more than time programs received a vague PG rating. Myriam Marquez is an editorial page columnist for the Orlando Sentinel. OliGoruations , this year: It's too vague, which makes it of little use to parents concerned about so many programs. Many parents have had plenty to say about the ratings system, and Congress has been listening intently. If the industry isn't more specific and helpful in its ratings, then it may have to contend with a law that would require such specificity. Legislation proposed by Sen. Ernest Hollings, a South Carolina Democrat, would require the TV industry to provide more information about each show's content, the level of sexual innuendo and violence in its ratings. The industry's other option would be to air violent shows during hours when children most likely well-bein- two-third- Doonesbury MNMAFW)N6Wr.. THAT... CHiUf.t BY r' n ViSSiissss's vWMkZZ U si Z U IL " wouldn't be watching. f A V(mxsm HYTAWV&QUinn GARRY TRUDEAU , srS rrsssur 1 I I fX AGAINST m AH Zrmiz H - g, |
