The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, December 06, 2000, Page 4, Image 4
Court to hear Gore’s appeal
by Jackie Hallifax
Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—The Flori
da Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear
A1 Gore’s appeal of a ruling that up
held Geoige W. Bush’s statewide vic
tory in the contested presidential race.
Court spokesman Craig Waters
said the justices wanted written papers
submitted by noon Wfednesday, and would
hear arguments Thursday morning in the
case that could ultimately settle the race
for the White House.
The unusually condensed schedule
reflected the national uigency of the case.
Gore is appealing a ruling by Circuit
Judge N. Sanders Sauls that rejected
Gore’s request for a manual recount in
two counties and to overturn Bush’s cer
tified victory in the state that stands to
pick the next president.
Whters said the justices had allotted
an hour for oral arguments, 30 minutes
for each side. On a technical point of
what issues would be argued, he said the
lawyers would be “dealing with whether
the court should hear the case and the
issues of the case as well.”
Joseph Lieberman, Gore’s vice pres
idential candidate, stood Tuesday in Wash
ington with supportive Democratic law
makers as he said the Florida Supreme
Court would be “the final arbiter” of the
election dispute.
Gore’s appeal was one of two elec
tion-related cases at Florida’s highest
court. The other, returned on Monday
from the U.S. Supreme Court, request
ed clarification of the reasoning behind
a state Supreme Court ruling last month
that approved partial manual recounts
beyond a deadline fixed in state law for
the end of vote counting in the presi
dential election.
The Bush and Gore legal teams al
ready were operating under a 3 p.m. Tues
day deadline for submitting written ar
guments in that case. No timetable for
oral arguments has yet been set in that
case.
Waters told reporters he had no in
formation on whether the two cases
would be combined.
The developments came the day af
ter Circuit Judge N. Sanders Sauls re
jected Gore’s request to reverse Bush’s
certified 537-vote victory and also re
fused his request to order a partial
manual recount.
Gore lawyer Ron Klajn said Tuesday
the proceeding before the Florida
Supreme Court is “the most important
step in this process”—and probably the
last one.
Another Gore attorney, W. Dexter
Douglass, said the vice president was pre
pared to appeal Sauls’ decision on virtu
ally every point, including his ruling that
recounts cannot be conducted in select
ed counties. To win an appeal, Gore need
ed to show a reasonable probability that
recounts would tip the election to him
and that county boards abused their
discretion.
“It was a totally appealable order on
every point,” Douglass said.
The Gore team would be ready to
file its legal aiguments within hours of
the Florida Supreme Court setting a
schedule for the submission of aiguments
in the case, he added.
Congress’ two Democratic leaders,
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle
and House Minority Leader Dick
Gephardt, released a statement saying
they believe the appeal was in keeping
with Florida law and American democ
racy.
In the Florida Legislature, Senate
President John McKay and House Speak
er Tom Feeney, both Republicans, said
in a joint statement that they had filed
a motion to participate in the appeal be
fore the Supreme Court.
They said they wanted to tell the jus
tices that the Legislature’s authority to
pick electors stems from the U.S. Con
stitution and cannot be overridden by
the state Supreme Court.
Handing Bush a key legal victory,
Sauls said he concluded Gore had not
shown there was a “reasonable proba
bility” that the results of the election
would have been changed.
Reading aloud to a packed courtroom
and nationwide television audience, Sauls
came down on Bush’s side of the case
on point after point. He refused to sweep
aside Bush’s 537-vote certified victory
and begin courthouse counts of what
Gore said were missed votes that had
been rejected by machines in heavily De
mocratic counties.
“The evidence does not establish
any illegality, dishonesty, gross negli
gence, improper influence, coercion or
fraud in the balloting and counting
processes” in the Florida counties where
Gore sought hand recounts, Sauls said.
Furthermore, county canvassing
boards in Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and
Nassau counties all had acted within their
discretion in tabulating votes, Sauls said,
and there was “no authority under Flori
da law” for certifying an incomplete man
ual recount or for submitting returns af
ter a deadline fixed by the state Supreme
Court. That was a vindication of the
actions of Secretary of State Katherine
Harris, a GOP partisan who certified Bush
the winner.
And Sauls said that while the record
shows “voter error and/or less than to
tal accuracy in regard” to the results in
Palm Beach and Miami counties, these
problems “cannot support or affect
any recounting.”
Gore asked for a ruling overturning
Bush’s slim lead and a manual recount
of about 14,000 ballots in Palm Beach
and Miami-Dade counties. The vice pres
ident also sought to change the official
vote certification in Nassau County, al
though only 51 votes were involved there.
The Bush team aigued there was no
reason for the recount and said the Texas
governor had been certified properly on
the basis of tallies submitted by the can
vassing boards in all 67 Florida counties.
On other legal fronts:
— Florida Gov. Jeb Bush filed court
papers Monday to move to Tallahassee
federal court a voters’ challenge to 1,500
overseas military ballots that were count
ed. Government lawyers took action af
ter Leon County Circuit Judge L. Ralph
Smith on Monday ordered local officials
in 10 counties to provide absentee bal
lot records and told state officials to
answer questions about the ballot
deadlines.
—A federal judge in Pensacola will
hear arguments in a GOP effort to in
crease Bush’s vote margin by counting
overseas ballots that were rejected for
lack of a postmark and other problems,
mostly those from military voters.
— The federal appeals court in At
lanta heard oral arguments Tuesday in a
pair of related cases from Bush supporters
who want the court to throw out any
election results that included hand re
counts.
Greenspan indicates
interest rates might
have to be lowered
by Martin Crutsinger
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve
Chairman Alan Greenspan, expressing
concerns about potential threats to the
slowing U.S. economy, sent a strong sig
nal Tuesday that the central bank stands
ready to cut interest rates if necessary to
ward off a recession.
Greenspan’s comments triggered a
huge rally on Whll Street as investors took
comfort that the central bank was grow
ing concerned about the threats to the
overall economy from a sharp sell-off in
stock prices.
The Dow Jones industrial average,
which had been up about 180 points
before Greenspan started speaking, shot
higher and was up more than 300
points at midday.
Greenspan’s concerns about the slow
ing economy followed remarks in recent
days by Geoige W. Bush and his running
mate, Dick Cheney, that recent signs of
economic weakness pointed up the need
for the Republicans’ $ 1.3 trillion tax cut.
In his speech on economic dangers,
Greenspan specifically mentioned the
sharp plunge in stock prices and the pos
sibility that this could cause a cutback in
consumer and business spending. He al
so said rising tensions in the Middle East
could cause oil prices to surge unex
pectedly.
Greenspan’s remarks, delivered to
a banking conference in New York, were
the firmest signal yet that the central bank
is switching its chief concern from fight
ing inflation by raising interest rates to
worrying that its credit tightening has
gone too far and could prompt an out
right recession.
“In periods of transition from un
sustainable to more modest rates of
growth, an economy is obviously at in
creased risk of untoward events that would
be readily absorbed in a period of boom,”
Greenspan said.
The Fed has raised interest rates six
times, beginning in June 1999, in an ef
fort to slow the booming economy to a
more sustainable pace in order to keep
inflation in check.
Responding to those rate increases,
economic growth slowed abruptly to
an annual rate of just 2.4 percent in the
summer, less than half the sizzling 5.6
percent pace of the spring.
That slowdown dampened corporate
Greenspan seepages
American students
still lagging behind
Asians, Europeans
by Anjetta McQueen
Associated Press
WASHINGTON —America’s eighth
graders still are largely outperformed
by children in industrialized Asian and
European nations, scoring only at av
erage levels on the latest round of in
ternational math and science tests.
Despite more than four years of ef
forts to improve American student per
‘ formance in science and math, a report
released Tuesday shows little im
provement for the middle-schoolers
from the first set of uniform tests in
1995.
U.S. educators generally blamed a
lack of follow-through on improvement
plans developed after the 1995 tests,
which also included fourth- and 12th
graders. The earlier tests showed not
only that U.S. students made average
scores but seemed to do worse as they
grew older. The latest tests, conducted
in 1999, covered only eighth-graders.
“It’s not surprising that in four years
we haven’t seen real changes,” said
V
Christopher Cross of the Council on
Basic Education, a nonprofit advocacy
group in Washington. “We’ve gotten
the message. We just haven’t taken it
to the classroom level.
“What would be really upsetting is
that in another four years we would see
tilings looking exactly the same,” Cross
said.
The 1999 test of eighth-graders did
show U.S. students scored a few points
above the average score of all nations.
Education Secretary Richard Riley
credited U.S. educators with efforts
to boost learning. “There is a new mood
about education in America ... every
thing I’ve seen tells me the American
people are rising to the challenge.”
The testing, oiganized by the In
ternational Association for the Evalu
ation of Education Achievement and
conducted by individual education au
thorities, showed that in 1999 math and
science testing, a dozen nations out of
38 participating in the study outper
Students seepages
World economy booms,
but poor countries suffer
«'
by Harry Dunphy
Associated Press
WASHINGTON-Globaleco
nomic activity is accelerating at record
levels, but many of the world’s poor
est countries are hurt by trade barri
ers the United States and other wealthy
nations impose on their exports, the
World Bank said Tuesday.
While the outlook for contin
ued economic growth is good, the re
port said, sharp changes in oil prices
remain a major uncertainty as does
whether the U.S. economy continues
to expand or crashes to a hard land
ing. Fragility of financial systems in
East Asia also is a concern, the bank
said.
Global Economic Prospects and
the Developing Countries 2001, the
bank’s annual update on these nations,
said their economic growth is expected
to register 5.3 percent in 2000,5 per
cent in 2001 and ease to 4.8 percent
in 2002.
The report warns that many of
the world’s poorest nations, especial
ly those tom by conflict in Africa, are
not keeping pace.
“What this report emphasizes
convincingly is that prospects for
growth are better than drey have been
in around 30 years,” said Nick
Stem, the World Bank's chief econ
‘We all have to work to try to create
the environment where poor people par
ticipate more fully in economic growth.’
Nick Stemll
omist.
He said many developing coun
tries have improved their economic
policies over the past 10 years, tamed
inflation, opened up to trade, em
phasized internal reforms and im
proved education of their workers.
“We all have to work to try to
create the environment where poor
people participate more folly in eco
nomic growth,” Stem said.
Tire 158-page report said that
“world economic activity during 2000
is proceeding at the fastest pace in
over a decade with developing coun
try output expected to exceed 5 per
cent.
“World trade volumes are ex
pected to rise by a record 12.5 per
cent this year,” the report said, the
highest rate of gro wth since before
the 1970s oil shocks.
“We think this is a cyclical high
and expect a moderate slowdown over
.
the next two years to single digit lev
els,” said Hans Timer, one of the re
port’s authors.
He said some tensions were build
ing up that posed a risk to the favor
able economic outlook, among them
whether the price of oil would go
up or down, the potential for future
volatility in financial markets and the
huge U.S trade deficit
Both Stem and Timer said high
trade barriers the industrialized coun
tries imposed on farm and food prod
ucts, along with the agricultural sub
sidies, contribute to the poor
performance of developing countries’
exports of these commodities.
“There is a certain hypocrisy about
lectures from advanced countries to
developing countries on the impor
tance of (trade) liberalization and join
ting the global economy while at the
same time they erect barriers
against their goods,” Stem said.
Panel tells Congress biotech corn
is likely to cause allergic reactions
by Philip Brasher
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - A panel of sci
entists told the government Tuesday
that there is a “medium likelihood” an
unapproved variety of biotech corn
will cause alleigic reactions in people
and urged further study of the crop.
The panel advising the Environ
mental Protection Agency said so lit
tle of the com is in the food supply that
there is a “low probability” that con
sumers could have developed allergies
to it.
The com, known as StarLink, was
withdrawn from the market after it was
disclosed this fall that it had been used
in making taco shells and possibly oth
er products. EFA had approved the com
only for animal feed and industrial
uses because of unresolved questions
about whether it can cause allergic re
actions.
The corn’s developer, Aventis
CropScience, has asked the EPA to tem
porarily approve the com for food use
to avoid further disruptions in food pro
cessing and grain handling.
“Both the panel’s recommenda
tions and the public comments that
were submitted will be used to guide
the EPA during the scientific evalua
tion of StarLink,” said Stephen John
son, EPA’s deputy assistant adminis
trator.
The panel urged the government
to investigate complaints of people who
have reported illnesses they think are
related to the com. About three dozen
such complaints have been received
by the government. Seven to 14 mer
it further study because they appear to
involve alleigic reactions of some kind
and “represent a real opportunity” to
determine whether StarLink is an al
lergen, the panel said.
An Aventis spokeswoman had no
immediate comment on the report.
EPA regulates use of the biotech
com because it was genetically modi
fied to produce its own pesticide.
A pesticidal protein, known as
Cry9C, in the com breaks down rela
tively slowly in the human digestive
system, raising concerns that it could
cause allergic reactions in people who
have been sensitized to it.
Critics of the biotech industry have
urged the EPA to deny the food-use ap
proval, saying it would unfairly relieve
Aventis of financial and legal respon
sibility for the com.
“It looks like science is going to
win out over expediency,” said Re
becca Goldburg, a scientist with Envi
ronmental Defense, an advocacy group.
“It would be inappropriate to leap
to retroactively approve StarLink com
for the convenience of Aventis. Clear
ly, a much better course is to develop
the proper methodology and informa
tion in order to make a real determi
nation about the safety of StarLink.”
News Briefs
■ Clinton creates
nature preserve
to protect coral reefs
WASHINGTON (AP) — President
Clinton created the largest U.S. na
ture preserve Monday — 84 million
acres underwater around the north
western Hawaiian Islands — to help
save the coral reefs and wildlife that in
habit the area.
The Pacific Ocean reserve, at 99,500
square nautical miles as large as Florida
and Georgia combined, contains nearly
70 percent of the United States’ coral
reefs, as well as pristine remote islands,
atolls and submerged lagoons. It was de
scribed by Clinton as “a special place
where the sea is a living rainbow. ”
■ Netanyahu returns
to Israel as possible
challenger to Barak
JERUSALEM (AP) — Former Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned
to Israeli politics with typical timing and
flair, saying he will decide soon about
challenging the nation’s current leader,
Ehud Barak, who trounced him in elec
tions only a year and a half ago.
In that period, the fortunes of the two
rivals have reversed, with polls showing
that if elections were held today, Ne
tanyahu would be the big winner.
Barak has reluctantly agreed to ear
ly elections under pressure from his re
bellious parliament. No date has been
set, but party leaders are aiming for
May.
■ Endeavour crew
unfurls solar wing
on space station
SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP)
— NASA officials breathed a collective
sigh of relief after feverishly working
to create a plan that successfully unfurled
the second of the international space sta
tion’s giant solar wings.
Eneigies were then turned to Tues
day’s planned spacewalk, during which
astronauts Joe Tanner and Carlos Norie
ga were to continue installing space
station Alpha’s electricity-producing so
lar panels.
Tanner and Noriega will make elec
trical connections so that power from
the newly installed solar wings can be
distributed to the rest of the station.
■ Peace gestures
emerge in Kashmir
amid violence
SRINAGAR, India (AP) — The
first week of India’s unilateral cease-fire
started and ended with lethal bombings
and left a total of 25 people dead.
In blood-laced Kashmir, that’s called
a lull in violence. Add in a series of peace
gestures, and some see a faint chance of
ending an 11-year-old‘insurgency in J
the Himalayan valley.
“The situation is easing up. I see a
ray of hope,” Abdul Gani Bhat, the chair
man of Kashmir’s main separatist al
liance, the All Parties Hurriyat Confer
ence, told The Associated Press. “I think
this process is becoming a comprehen
sive one.”
■ Russian nuclear
power plant reports
radiation leak
MOSCOW (AP) — Workers at a Russ
ian nuclear power plant detected higher
than normal radiation levels Tuesday in
soil on the plant’s territory, a spokesman
for Russia’s state nuclear power compa
ny said.
The radiation appeared to have come
from a leaking water pipe attached to the
cooling system of two reactors at the
Novovoronezh plant, about 300 miles
south of Moscow. The reactors have been
out of service for a decade.
Rosenergoatom spokesman Kon
stantin Romburger couldn’t say how high
the radiation level was, but he said it did
n’t pose a danger to surrounding areas.
Still, authorities sealed off the
area with barbed wire and posted signs
about the radiation risk while a com
mission studied the cause of the leak,
he said.