Show A2 — The Herald Journal Logan Utah Tuesday April 22 2003 0 Notion I--- ' : In brief Talks on North Korean Bush tax plan still nuclear program planned stalling in Congress WASHINGTON (AP) — Bush administration officials will meet with a North Korean delegation in Beijing starting Wednesday to express their concern about North Korea's nuclear weapons program the State Department announced Monday Spokesman Richard Boucher confirmed the talks after the North Koreans clarified that they had not started reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods Reprocessing could give Pyongyang several nuclear weapons in a matter of months Confusion had risen from a North Korean statement distributed last Friday for overseas consumption that said the reprocessing had begun The statement prompted some administration officials to recommend putting off the tentative-- : Wednesday starting date for talks The confusion stemmed from a North Korean mistranslation Boucher said the United States hopes South Korea and Japan will join the talks later Representing the United States in the first round will be Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly After three days in Beijing Kelly will brief officials in Seoul and Tokyo WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are frying hard to squeeze the tax cuts President Bush wants into a slightly smaller package but the political balance in the Senate is still on the side of chopping Bush’s original wish list in half The White House determined to save die major features of the president’s economic growth (dan floated ideas Monday for how to squeeze his original $726 billion proposal into the $330 billion that House lawmakers budgeted for tax cuts through 2013 Peterson pleads innocent in deaths of pregnant wife unborn son ' MODESTO Calif (AP) — Scott Peterson pleaded innocent Monday to killing his pregnant wife and unborn son as prosecutors filed charges against him that could bring the death penalty Prosecutors filed the murder charges hours before Peterson 30 appeared in the Modesto courtroom In the filing District Attorney James Brazelton said Peterson acted “intentionally deliberately and with premeditation” in killing Laci Peterson and Connor Peterson the couple’s unborn child TTieir bodies washed ashore last week about three miles from where Peterson said he was fishing in San Francisco Bay when his wife — who was eight months pregnant — vanished When he was arrested Peterson’s naturally dark hair was reddish-blond and he had grown a goatee He had $10000 in cadi with him in his car said a law enforcement source who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity In an interview with Time magazine Sunday Peterson’s father Lee said police had “hungled” the investigation before “You have a district attorney calling this a slam-dun- k there’s even an arraignment” Scott Peterson’s mother Jackie told the magazine “I'm feeling likeTm living in Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union” Gays want Sen Santonim to leave post over ‘insensitive’ remarks WASHINGTON (AP) — Gay-righ- ts groups fuming over ' Seii Rick Santorum's comparison of homosexuality to bigamy polygamy incest and adultery urged Republican leaders Monday to consider removing the Pennsylvania lawmaker from the GOP Senate leadership A coalition of groups in Washington and Pennsylvania com- pared Santorum’s remarks to those by those last December by former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott about Strom Thurmond’s 1948 segregationist campaign for the presidency Shortly afterward Lott was forced to resign as Republican Senate leader Santonim is chairman of the GOP conference in the Senate third in his party's leadership behind Majority Leader Bill Frist and Assistant Majority Leader Mitch McConnell “We’re urging the Republican leadership to condemn the remarks They were stunning in their sensitivity and they’re the same types of remarks that sparked outrage toward Sen Lott” said David Smith a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign the nation’s largest gay advocacy organization “We would ask that the leadership reconsider his standing within the conference leadership” In an interview with The Associated Press Santonim criticized homosexuality while discussing a pending Supreme Court ’ case over a Texas sodomy law ' “If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual (gay) sexwithin your home then you have the right to bigamy you have the right to polygamy youhave the right to incest you have the right to adultery You have the right to anything" Santosaid in the interview published Monday nim R-On the Net: Sen Rick Santorum: http:santorijmsenategov Human Rights Campaign: http:wwwhrc Jazz great dies at home “ in France NEW YORK (AP) — Nina Simone : the jazz great whose raspy forceful voice helped define the civil rights movement died Monday at her home in France according to her US booking agent She was 70 Though she remained a top conceit draw in her later years she was quite frail At a 2001 concert at Carnegie Hall she had to be helped to the stage and was later seen sitting backstage in a wheelchair Bom Eunice Kathleen Waymon in NC she was a classically trained pianist whose songs ranged from blues to spirituals to classical fare But she gained fame in 1939 with her recording of “I Loves You Porgy” from the musical “Pprgy & Bess” TYyon Scientists probe possible cancer gene WASHINGTON (AP) — Researchers investigating a gene that they suspect helps spur breast cancer found an unusual racial disparity: The gene appears active more often in the tumors of black women than white women Breast cancer isn’t as common among black women as white women yet black patients are more likely to die of their disease Only part of the problem is socioeconomic Specialists now agree that breast cancer seems more' aggressive in black women although they can’t explain why The new study of the gene called BP1 provides a promising lead said chief researcher Dr Patricia Bog of George Washington University Medical Center whose findings will be pub-lishTuesday by the journal Breast Cancer Research ed I1’ AP photo — I one S TOr yOU aaaay! illS Katherine Dryer center watches Monday as her daughter Maggie Dryer 3 right and Ethan Frietze left take part in the annual Easter Egg Roll at the White House This year only military families were allowed to attend the event Dryer’s husband is stationed on the hospital ship USS Comfort The administration is considering phasing in the tax cuts over time an option that could come up in meetings with lawmakers when Congress reconvenes next week Republicans in the Senate said they will listen to the ideas but cautioned that tinkering with the plan will not change political reality The White House does not have enough votes to pass more than $330 billion in tax cuts through the Senate The Treasury Department will step up political pressure on the Senate Finance Committee this week Treasury Secretary John Snow traveling through South America will call lawmakers Tuesday through Thursday to promote a tax-cpackage embracing die president’s program ut Tito© ‘©ftOn©?’ Families honor veterans who survived war added the rank of their loved ones Others the role they played in their lives — best friend father soulmate Sev-eral included a brief message: We miss you Semper fi We but not effects will never forget “For the families this really represents psychological closure” said Jan Scruggs founder and president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund which sponsored the event “This is a ceremony in which they are with people who experienced the same trauma of losing somebody before their time It gives them a group setting a spiritual atmosphere for them to come to grips with their WASHINGTON (AP) — Doctors first diagnosed David Carr Montgomery with skin cancer A year lata: he got lymphoma leukemia the next year Ultimately Montgomery died of pneumonia a complication of the cancers on Oct 13 1991 decades after serving in Vietnam Montgomery was honored Monday as a Vietnam war casualty during a ceremony that also paid tribute to nearly 400 other Vietnam veterans who died from Agent Orange-relate- d ns illness post-trauma- stress disorder and other ailments related to their service Their names were added to the “In Memory” list kept inside the park rangers’ kiosk near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Because these veterans died years after and thousands of miles away from Vietnam and d not from ' wounds their names cannot appear on the black granite wall honoring the war’s official dead “These people need to be combat-relate- AP photo Margaret Howley Bradford Vt whose husband James Edward Howley served in Vietnam pauses at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Monday during a ceremony where the names of 400 veterans who Hnes6 died from Agent Orange-relate- d stress rfisotder arid other ailments were added to a 1st kept by the memorial listed some place” said Mont- - casta1 Pa “It’s too bad that the government isn’t doing gomery’s widow Carolyn this themselves They should Montgomery who traveled to the ceremony from Rockford be paying for this tribute” 111 The fifth annual “In Memois “I'm just glad somebody ry” ceremony drew more than this a thousand relatives and recognizing formally brother-in-la- w said her friends publicly” and husband’s brother As relatives read aloud the names of the veterans some Floyd Montgomery of Lan- post-trauma- ova-the-cou- for patients who already know they respond better to competitors Allegra or Zyitec says the Bethesda Md allergist The first allergy season since Claritin went ova the counter is in foil swing and many sufferers are finding an additional headache: At roughly $1 a pill nonprescription Claritin costs more for insured patients who were honoring without naming those who served in Vietnam and “lata died as a result of their service” Many on the “In Memory” list died from cancers the government presumes are related to Agent Orange a herbicide used to clear jungle growth that provided cover for the enemy Others were victims of post-trauma- tic stress disorda suicide through drug abutie or alcoholism Claritin brings challenges fora Over-the-count- er ' WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr Gordon Raphael is inundated with calls from sneezing patients desperate frecause their insurance company demands they try Claritin for a few weeks before they’re allowed a prescription for a competing allergy pill — and the itin’s not working “It’s areal hassle” especially tragedy” The American Battle Monuments Commission is finishing plans fa a granite marker to be installed near the memorial wall as early as this year used taa $10 copay month’s supply last yea Plus many insurers are making it harder to get competing prescription antihistamines charging $35 to $50 copays or requiring proof that patients don’t respond to Claritin before allowing a prescription Patients rethinking their choices because of cost could find otha medicines actually control their symptoms better Although Claritin once was the best-selliprescription allergy medicine specialists like Raphael cite research showing there are more effective choices for the severely afflicted In fact study after study finds prescription steroid nasal sprays — sold unda such names as Flonase Nasacort ng Spring is in the air ahd in our noses Season of two common allergens Ttm poSan An alergy is an abnormal reaction to an ordinarily harmless substance such as pollen Allergies affect one out of six Americans and cost millions of dolais in mediations and missed work Allergens make the body produce (Afferent chemicals Including histamine that cause runny nose watery eyes itching sneezing and congestion Ragweed SOURCE: American Acadsmy ot AJtoigy Atoms S Immunology and Nasonex — the overall most effective hay fever Yet by fin most sufferers pop pills treat-me- al “That’s the season a r AT powa of mod- ern advertising” sighs Dr Brian Smart of Illinois’ DuPage Medical Group i- - |