Show rewrewr v y “‘r-aifrf-t‘- v-r iy'Mg t—— r— iy xxvir'‘‘‘w“J1s --- — J conclusion art toE oathend out of mutttodapf - v -- - tonouo than throuqh any klndvf authorttattvtelcxlon 2 lyMtiamMi) Our vlovr ordinance a good fit for faulty world W Tit Fit-premi- ses flEmtNnrrBri9$ ptshtorgeWsotoom breach of contract e shouldn’t have to have laws like the premises” ordinance passed by the Logan Municipal Council on Wednesday night In a perfect world landlords would keep their rental units fit for and tenants would landlords their property respect If you’ve been reading The Herald Journal the past few weeks you know this is not a perfect world Many readers — not to mention HJ staffers — were shocked at the habitation picture on the front page last Sunday A devastated landlord sat in a trashed apartment its floors and walls covered with debris and filth The demolition job was courtesy of some renters who were getting behind on their rent They have since left the state leaving their landlord with a cleanup bill that will certainly be in the thousands A follow-u- p story featured a case of tenants left holding the bag The Utah State University students say they were evicted by the city In other cases we’ve heard of tenants have been forced to live for weeks without miming water heat electricity or working plumbing just because the landlord hadn’t gotten around to fixing iL Such instances leave us shaking our heads What happened to common decency? And can you legislate it? The city of Logan is trying The fit premises ordinance will give tenants the power to fix serious problems and bill their landlords if the landlords won’t fix them them- selves Admittedly the ordinance doesn’t require enforcement by the city (tenants will have to take cases to district court) but just having it on the books may discourage some landlords from renting places not even an animal should five in As for tenants who act like ani- mals and trash their apartments themselves there’s not much recourse for their landlords These people (and we use the term loose- Nauru trades health for wealth G health is more valuable than I because their house was not in an ly) usually skip town before the almost any amount of money landlord can file a complaint area zoned for multiple-famil- y That sentiment has never been truer As we said it’s not a perfect than on an island occupancy and they found themin the Pacific that the selves sued by their landlady for world Hurricane forecast should invigorate research funding By Stephen P Leatherman Scripps Howard News Service A new La Nina weather cycle is predicted to begin oon and the tropical Atlantic waters are heating up The probability of a hurricane hitting the US coast is much higher the year after El Nino If the forecast sounds familiar it is The same conditions existed in the summer of 1992 Then in August Hurricane Andrew struck South Florida causing record-settin- g destruction Hurricanes Opal and Fran followed in succeeding years inflicting loss of life and devastation on a massive scale throughout the South The recurring weather conditions are cause for tremendous concern Many in the meteorology community however are even more alarmed by the prospect that the Atlantic and Gulf shores could be seeing just the beginning of a cycle of increased hurricane activity An analysis of meteorological data between the late 1920s and mid-196reveals a weather cycle similar to the one we are currently experiencing Hurricanes and tropical storms pounded the East and Gulf coasts with a degree of regularity throughout this period That pattern broke in the mid-196leading to more than two decades of relatively 30-ye- 0s 0s tranquil summer weather along the Atlantic Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and Hurricane Andrew in 1992 ended the calm The 1993 and 1996 seasons witnessed an unprecedented 20 hurricanes — clearly signaling the return of the Great Atlantic Hurricanes Hurricanes have been responsible for more than 13000 deaths and more than $100 billion in damage in the continental United States alone in the 20th century By comparison earthquakes have caused 1500 deaths and more than $48 billion in damage Yet only $30 million in public funding is currently dedicated to hurricane research mitigation (casualty and property-- prevention) and tracking operations This compares with $330 damage million for earthquake research and mitigation Given current projections of seri- - it lies midwag between Hawaii - Coastal conditions can be radically altered by hurricanes and tropical storms Residents of the panhandle area of Florida home to some of America's most beautiful beaches are well aware of those hazards In 1993 they suffered through Hurricane Opal a violent deluge that flattened sand dunes and caused massive erosion Today the area is still recovering thanks in large measure to massive investments of federal state and local funds Disaster relief funds remain a necessary ingredient for recovery but the dire predictions for the future also should spur new investment in research mitigation and detection technologies Breakterrain throughs in airborne-lase- r mapping and computer technologies can provide important new tools for hurri- cane researchers including highly detailed impact assessments Yet current public funds are insufficient to take foil and swift advantage of these major advances Leaden of the coastal scientific and meteorological fields have been pleading with government leaden for increased support for many years Many have come away with foe distinct impression that their ideas for improved public safety may only be heard after another devastating disaster occurs square Nauru is smaller than most airports — and is the smallest republic in the world Until recent years Nairn wss one of v the richest countries inthewpfU with a r per capita income of mort than $3OD00 That’s bedh cut id' half fo''fc£eht gears' because Nauru’s sole export fossilized bird droppings has been decreasing A century ago a New Zealand chemist discovered the oval-shapatoll had a phoshuge reserve of the highest-grad- e phate ever found When combined with sulfur it becomes superphosphate just the ticket to make Australian and New Zealand phosphate-deficie- nt farms flourish The population consists of 7000 Nauruan natives — who are a blend of Polynesian Micronesian and Melanesian — and another 3000 guest workers from neighboring Pacific inland So from the 1970s to the 1990s with hundreds of millions of dollars to share among only a few thousand people the ed Nauruans went on a spending spree importing whatever they felt they needed from anywhere around the world They did this as it turned out at the risk of their own lives as our associate Dale Van Atta found on a visit to the remote island He discovered the memo processed food Meat or locally grown products from guest workers who are hustling to supplement their salaries The change in Nauruan diet what social scientists call the of Hjpir lifestyle is dung them ifc’Tbey have all the diseases of affluent including one of the highest rates of hypieriensioo and bout disease in' foe" “Coca-Colo-ruzatiq- q” The poor diet — and perhaps the kicking in of a “thrifty gene” that allowed Pacific peoples in foe past to build up fot for lean times — has led to obesity in nine out of 10 Nauruans It's not unusual for a young man to push the scale past 300 pounds sedentary and very Westernized society and diabetes now hits two of three in a alcohol which the government tub- 'dizes' as 'well Beer and whiskey At cheaper in Nauru than Australia from where most of it comes So much Aus-Indian Foster's beer is consumed that its blue cans are the most visible rubbish ! around the island in fact some have J suggested Nauru be renamed “Blue Gan Island” or “Foster's Island” In the routinely upbeat local news sheet we read the profile of an elderly Nauruan woman who concluded her thoughts with a classic understatement: “Miriam Cain still remembers those -- As a result they have become the ample but! of jokes throughout the Pacific region Foreigners deride them for taking up two seats on Air Nauru or say that “Nauruans consume twice as much as Canadian lumberjacks in midwinter ” The jokes aren't nmny because in this case the truth doesn’t lust hurt it suffer from the highest rate of diabetes on earth — 42 percent of those over age 20 and a whopping 60 percent of all older adults It is the leading cause of nonaccidental death in Nauru “No wild animal ever gets diabetes” one British expert Dr Denis Burkitt observed “Hunter-gathere- r populations don’t get diabetes This disease is one of Freed of internecine rivalry the new By Scripoa Howard News Sendee T ds depends on where you sit A combined NEA and AFT would have 33 million members making it by far the country’s largest union and the single largest voting bloc within both the AFL-CI- O and the Democratic Party union would be a political powerhouse with members who are bright motivated well-pai- d and everywhere Their numerous critics say the two unions now are the biggest obstacle to reform of public education and that if merged they would be an insurmountable obstacle The unions' solution to foe problems of education they say is always the same: more mooey Recently NEA leaders have reexamined their stances on a number if touchy issues The two unions do fear that public education is under assault particularly from school vouchers The NEA delegates’ reasons for reject- ing the mercer seem more emotional than practical Although foe NEA is by bygone days as foe ’good old days’ when alcohol problems did not exist and fsmi- lies spent time on the reefs making gar- - lands and doing the various chores Miriam also remembers life in Nauru 30 yean ago as healthy and lively Today she sadly shakes her head as she worries that some of the evident changes in people are not for the best” Miriam and the older generation are thinking these days that they traded their health for a mess of phosphate fertilizer: most definitions a union many of its members like to think of it as a professional association The AFT has an upfront history of union militancy and grew largely by raiding the stodgier NEA With time the differences between the two organizations have aO but disappeared and foe NEA and AFT cooperate rather than compete Although foe gesture is only symbolic foe AFT plans to vote on the merger anyway this The NEA leadership says it will still pursue a merger wi However whether this merger ever comes off may depend less on the anions' leaders than me success of public education's critics in getting such measures enacted as vouchers and public aid to private schools fAallard Fillmoro Herald Journal YeoeaXP Wvrto a bnatte cater Vi Mo&iigl Tha Opinion papa la Mintiad to aequaM modus will o vanity of vtoupolnti on imbwo ol pubic Importation and provtclamambarB of AfclS1 tssL Editorials undsr tie hearing Mur sad Atom UmbLI baaaaMreC I aaiuuaiO Vro VH nOTHQ dOllnW vVRI Ul fwIVIPl aSSA idMre rial bored Members of toe adSorial boar BRUCE SMITHfoubSsher CHARLES McCOUJUMfoianafltofl edUor MIKE WENNERQRENfoby adSor csoMsnwfli J tucomnMiiyvihafcmjmlDrtfyaidawa Rational columnar cartoons and lanata from laadaraiaflact tin opMonaol fialr wrilm and ptx ONOY YURTHrisalureaadBor “t : Dr Jay Skyler president of the Ameri- can Diabetes Association agrees j “Nauru is a telescope in time of the Westernization process from a relatively ’ ’ poor remote agricultural and fishing ‘ the that’s close one world's to to country highest per capita income In the space of just 70 years they've become a mote : Education association flunks merger test two-thu- maintain web aita at wwwIHClluadu and wwwtopbaachaaoom frit and what have you drinks French Now over 40 percent of the entire population of Nauru over the age of 20 are Other views he merger looked great on Hurricane warning flags are up and paper and the leadership loved foe idea will probably remain in place for at least The rank and file did not Approval by two more decades Now is the time to die National Education Association of a heed the warning: invest in hurricane merger with the rival American Federaresearch mitigation and detection Fur- tion of Teachers needed approval of of the convention ddegal ther delay could translate into unnecessary loss of life property and barely 42 percent Whether the merger is a good idea environmental quality Or Stephan P Ltatlwrman la director of the Mamational Hurricane Canlar m Florida Mema-Non- al University In Miami Ha racanHy published hi 12th book America's Bear Batches Ha n cola began importing hamburgers ve and Australia At a little over eight ous hurricane activity continuing well into the coming millennium federal and state authorities must give serious consideration to increased funding for new hurricane mitigation and preparedness ' — programs Beyond the serious threats to lives and property in the years ahead there are long-ter- m environmental considerations 2JssL It's called Nauru and miles shipped-i- begin the clever Western diet Nauruans gave up eating the island food they had traditionally adopted And instead they brought from Australia more than 2000 miles away is cheaper in Nauru than in an Australian supermarket Nauruans even import fish Some do fish for sport but many lost the ooce-nadskill They prefer to buy local fish has fascinated us for years the first diseases that comes after you rable sign of Nauruan wealth is not the but of its individual size of the "“ members They’ve become a fat people because their native diet has been replaced by a preference for canned and frozen foods There are no import duties or sales taxes and the government further subsidizes Jack Anderson and Jan Motor United Feature Syndicate Inc By The Herald Journal welcomes Mare to Vie edbor RotonVaVy toatous or eUanalw Mare wB not be pubSahsd however and Vie tdttor reserve tie right toads a! Mvs to conform to toe ImgSi and style requirements at Cm i Lsaore should be: m Typewritten and doubtoepacad - ? No more tian 450 words In tsngfi’ Addressed and tndudadsyVme phone number tor purposes of vartfloaSon w Signed by fie author todMduato are Imled to one puMshed tot-twSNn any SMey period Addreaa Mars to hpiriterShinewsxom Quest com-mantartss are also welcome and are run at Vie eOtoTO dtooreaon - ‘ -- POOR ‘ -- ! 4 |