The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, January 24, 2000, Page A4, Image 4
Candidates Dreoare for Iowa vote
by Ron Fournier
Associated Press
i
Des Moines, Iowa — On the eve of Iowa’s cau
cuses, Republican and Democratic presidential can
didates canvassed churches and national talk
shows Sunday, scouring this snow-cmsted state for
last-minute support even as they began looking ahead
to contests in New Hampshire and beyond.
“This is the first step in several steps of the jour
ney,” Bill Bradley, the former New Jersey senator
who trails Vice President A1 Gore in Democratic
polls, said on CBS.
Entering the first election contest of Campaign
2000, Republican Geoige W. Bush and Gore held
wide leads in polls of voters who planned to visit
schools, civic clubs, fire stations and other sites to
day to support one of eight major contestants.
The underdog candidates, all resigned to losing,
were shooting for face-saving finishes and Iowa’s
■ ■
true reward: momentum for New Hampshire’s Feb.
1 primary.
“This is a marathon, not a sprint,” said Repubr
lican Steve Forbes on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
The footrace in Iowa, a test of political organi
zation, favors the national front-runners. A Des
Moines Sunday Register poll of 1,200 likely caucus
goers showed Gore leading Bradley among De
mocrats 56 percent to 28 percent. Bush led Forbes
43 percent to 20 percent in the Jan. 16-21 survey,
which had an error margin of plus or minus 4 per
centage points.
Bradley is in danger of finishing worse than ex
pected in a contest that traditionally punishes can
didates who fail to meet expectations.
His latest poll rating was beneath the intention
ally low threshold his advisers set as a measure of
accomplishment: The 31 percent showing by Sen.
Edward Kennedy, D-Mass„ in a second-place finish
behind then-President Jimmy Carter in the 1981
caucuses.
With the rest of the GOP field in single digits
Forbes has long said he is the conservative altema
tive to Bush. The argument would carry greate
weight if, after pouring millions of dollars into low;
since his failed 1996 bid, Forbes fares better than th<
new poll suggests — 23 points behind Bush.
The polls show that about one in 10 voters ar<
undecided, giving the candidates incentive to cam
paign hard Sunday.
“The only thing I know to do is to encourag;
our folks to get out and vote. We need as big a vot<
as possible,” Bush told reporters between campaigr
stops.
In a lengthy interview with ABC, Bush strug
gled with his explanation for supporting a sales tar
increase in Texas after making a no-tax pledge
The second-term governor said he had qualified th<
) promise by also pledging to reform education fund
ing in the state, an effort that presumably led to
, the tax proposal.
Dismissing the issue. Bush said “There’s pledges
• all the time” and reviewed a record as governor that
l included two major tax cuts.
i He also continued to flesh out his views abor
tion, a critical issue to many GOP caucus-goers.
! Asked about the topic for the fourth day, he pre
dicted that Texas would outlaw first-trimester abor
tions if the Supreme Court reversed itself and let
states impose strict anti-abortion laws—a position
Bush says the court should take.
Maintaining a caucus tradition, several campaigns
had supporters papering churches and their parking
lots with leaflets. Religious conservatives represent
a third of likely caucus-goers and are more likely
than most voters to attend the sessions.
lowT SEE PAGE A5
Public relations team
met within hours of
Seton Hall dorm fire
Associated Press
Newark, N J. — Within hours of last
week’s dormitory fire that killed three
students and injured 62, Seton Hall’s pub
lic relations team was holding strategy
meetings to discuss preserving the uni
versity’s reputation, according to a pub
lished report.
At least one public relations firm was
contacted within 24 hours of the fire to
prepare a plan to deflect charges that the
university had been negligent in its fire
safety training, the Siar-Ledger of Newark
reported Sunday.
Seton Hall officials said in a news re
r
lease that they hired a marketing com
munications firm one day after the fire
to poll colleges and universities about
dorm sprinkler systems. The poll, which
surveyed 3? colleges in seven states at
random, showed 45 percent of campus
dormitories were not equipped with sprin
klers.
Despite the public relations firm’s
hiring, Seton Hall spokeswoman Lisa E.
Grider told the newspaper it’s too soon
to worry about the school’s image
when five students remain hospitalized.
“It’s too early for us to be thinking
about that,” Grider said.
The dorm where Wednesday’s fire
started was built before laws required
sprinklers in new campus dorms. Con
gresswoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y.,
said Sunday she plans to introduce leg
islation to require sprinklers be installed
in all campus dorms.
“You have to protect them where
they are. We can’t count on them evac
uating,” said Dan Jones, fire chief in
Chapel Hill, N.C., who has led a na
tional campaign to install sprinklers in
campus housing since a 1996 fraternity
fire killed five people at the University
Fire SEE PAGE A5
Doctor carved initials
into woman's abdomen
BY VERENA DOBNIK
Associated Press
Hew York — A doctor delivered a
baby by Caesarean section, then used
his scalpel for the unkindest cut of
all: He carved his initials into the moth
er’s abdomen.
Dr. Allan Zarkin — later dubbed
“Dr. Zorro”by hospital staff members
—- “felt very close to this woman,
but something clicked on and off in his
brain,” his lawyer, Kenneth Platzer,
... ■ *
said Friday.
Liana Gedz is now suing the 61
year-old obstetrician for $5 million,
saying the 3-by-l 1/2-inch “A” aid “Z”
“ makes me feel like a branded animal. ”
According to the Daily News, wit
nesses in the operating room said that
after delivering Gedz’s daughter on
Sept. 7, Zarkin announced: “I did such
a beautify job, I’ll initial it."
Zarkin’s lawyer said the doctor suf
fers front a “frontal lobe disorder"
called Pick’s disease — a progressive,
form of Alzheimer s-Iike dementia char
acterized by personality changes and
inappropriate behavior.
Platzer said his client is being treat
ed by a psychiatrist and a neurologist.
Gedz, a 31-year-old dentist, said
the initials “were carved in such a man
ner as to be permanent,” according to
her lawsuit.
“I felt like I was raped," she told
the Daily News. .And now, with the scar
that las turned into a welt, “I’m so em
barrassed to get undressed in front of
my husband because I have another
man’s initials on my stomach.”
News Briefs
■ Violence continues
on Spice Islands
Jakarta, Indonesia (AP)—Violence
across Indonesia claimed at least 40 lives
over the past few days, authorities and
news reports said Sunday, as bloodshed
continues to plague this sprawling South
east Asian nation.
Clashes between Muslims and Chris
tians broke out in eastern Indonesia, leav
ing dozens dead and destroying hundreds
of homes. Associated Press Television
News footage from the island of Haruku,
1,600 miles east of Jakarta, showed at
least 24 bodies lying on the ground.
Several ships could be seen arriving
bringing in Christian fighters. No soldiers
or police were present, and hundreds of
houses and several churches in Haruku
and Sameth, the island’s two main towns,
were on fire. It was impossible to get a
precise number of how many people died
in the violence.
Local military chief Brig. Gen. Max
Tamaela said the fighting started after a
Muslim mob attacked and burned a church
on Sunday morning.
■ Study confirms link
between baldness,
heart disease
Chicago (AP) — Men who are losing
the hair on the crowns of their heads have
up to a 36 percent greater risk of expe
riencing heart problems, including heart
attacks, a study found.
Men with receding hairlines are not
at increased risk, but those going bald at
the crown should pay special attention |
to their blood pressure and cholesterol
levels and lead a healthy lifestyle, re
searchers said.
“It’s similar to having a family his
tory for a disease. You can’t alter your
family history or your baldness, but there
are many ways to modify your risk fac
tors,” Dr. JoAnn Manson said, one of the
study’s authors and chief of preventative
medicine at Harvard’s Brigham and
Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Manson’s study, published in the Jan.
17 edition of the Archives of Internal
Medicine, found that the greater the hair
loss on the top of a man’s head, the greater
the risk.
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