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Congress looks for ‘drugged driving’ penalties BY APARNA H. KUMAR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON - Citing esti mates that 11 million people some times drive under the influence of illegal drugs, a growing chorus in Congress wants the government to do something about it. Eight states now have specific laws on “drugged driving," but their statutes are vague. None specifies an equivalent level to the 0.08 percent blood content that Congress established as the legal level for alcohol impairment. That’s partly because there’s no roadside test to detect the presence of drugs in the body — no handy “breathalyzer” as there is for al cohol. And even if blood or urine samples taken at a hospital test positive for drugs, there’s no stan dard for how high is too high to drive. “Zero tolerance” is the level some lawmakers want Congress to establish. A motorist found to have any controlled substance in his or her system would be con sidered unlawfully impaired. “Everyone who drives is affect ed by this," said Rep. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, citing a report last September by the Department of Health and Human Services es timating that during the previous year nearly 11 million people drove at one time or another un der the influence of drugs. The same survey said three times as many people — 33.5 million — drove under the influence of alco hol in 2002. Portman introduced a bill last week that would create a model drug-impaired driving law for states to adopt to address what proponents say is a monumental problem that has gone largely ig nored. Under Portman’s proposal, states that enact similar laws defining impaired as any de tectible amount of drugs in a blood or urine sample would get money for training police and prosecu tors and for driver counseling. They would also get grants to re search field tests to measure mo torists’ drug levels. Rather than offering a carrot, Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., prefers the stick approach. His bill would make states that don’t enact drug impaired driving laws forfeit 1 percent of their annual federal highway funds to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The amount for feited would double each year up to 50 percent. States are wary of both ap proaches, recalling that when in centives were not enough to per suade some of them to adopt the 0.08 blood alcohol limit for drunk en driving, Congress in 2000 di rected that up to 6 percent of their federal highway funds be taken away. Recalcitrant state legisla tures fell quickly into line. “We believe that as a basic prin ciple states need to enact laws that meet their own needs," said Cheye Calvo, a transportation policy spe cialist for the National Conference of State Legislatures. The Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents state highway safety agencies, goes further, advising its members not to adopt drug-impaired driv ing laws at all for the time being. While there are no reliable statistics for how often drugs are involved in fatal traffic accidents — primarily because drivers are often only tested for drunkenness — “we think it’s about 10 to 20 per cent," said Jeff Michael, director of the office of impaired driving at NHTSA. “There’s a good bit of overlap with alcohol." Wendy Hamilton, president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said her group supports efforts to curb drug-impaired driving. But she cautioned it is difficult to set an across-the-board standard for all il legal drugs when they may affect driving differently—or not at all. “There needs to be more re search," Hamilton said. New Haitian prime minister doesn’t retain Aristide party ministers BY IAN JAMES THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI - Haiti’s new prime minister worked to build a unity govern ment Tuesday, and with 11 of 13 ministers reportedly chosen, none was from ousted President Jean Bertrand Aristide’s Lavalas Family party. Aristide spent his second day in neighboring Jamaica, where he returned Monday after two weeks exile in the Central African Republic. Aristide’s return to the Caribbean caused fears in Port-au Prince and Washington that his presence would provoke more un rest in Haiti. Peacekeepers reported no inci dents overnight in Port-au-Prince, in contrast to clashes that killed six Haitians and wounded a U.S. Marine over the past week. Belair is an Aristide stronghold where Marines shot and killed two residents on Friday and where a Marine was shot in the arm late i Sunday, the first U.S. casualty since Aristide fled a popular re- i hellion Feb. 29 and the peacekeep- i ers arrived. Maj. Xavier Pons, a French mil- i itary spokesman, said plans were : inder way to divide the country nto four peacekeeping sectors. Sach of the armed forces on the ground now — American, French, Chilean and Canadian — would latrol a separate area. In accordance with a U.S. )acked plan, Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue met vith political leaders to form his ransitional government that nust be approved by interim ’resident Boniface Alexandre, :hief justice of Haiti’s Supreme 'ourt. An official involved in the pro :ess said all the 11 ministers cho ;en so far had not served in gov emment since 2000 when Aristide was re-elected. The official said the list includ ed Yvon Simeon as foreign minis ter; Bernard Gousse, an anti Aristide lawyer, as justice minis ter; Henri Bazan, president of the Haitian Association of Economists, as finance minister; and former Gen. Herard Abraham as interior minister. Aristide has accused the United States of abducting him and forc ing his March 1 departure from Haiti. Washington denies the claim, but the 15-member Caribbean Community, chaired by the Jamaican president, has called for an investigation into his ouster. Latortue protested Aristide’s presence in Jamaica and sus pended Haiti’s participation in the Caribbean Community, which has said it will decide at a summit lat er this month whether to recog nize Haiti’s interim government. Jamaica says it is allowing Aristide and his wife, Mildred, up to 10 weeks’ respite to reunite with their two daughters, who were sent to New York for their safety, and to decide on a permanent home in exile. Unofficially, Jamaican officials say Aristide wants to go to South Africa. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez offered asylum Tuesday to Aristide, who initially fled to Caracas after the 1991 coup. Aristide appeared to be staying at a Jamaican government resi dence in the rural community of Lydford, reached by gravel road about 80 miles northwest of Kingston. Officials speaking on condition of anonymity would confirm only that he was staying in St. Anne’s parish, which includes Lydford. Residents of the farming commu nity said they heard two heli copters land nearby on Monday af ternoon. U.S., Israel trying to persuade Egypt to get tough on Palestinian areas BY BARRY SCHWEID THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON - As the Bush administration warms to the idea of an Israeli pullback from Gaza, U.S. and Israeli officials are try ing to persuade Egypt to take on ’ a new and major role: keeping a lid on the volatile Palestinian area. But Egypt -is setting tough terms for taking on the assign ment, limiting what it is willing to do, and insisting that the transi tion from Israeli to Palestinian rule leads to a broader Middle East peacemaking effort. “They could be the fall guy if it is all laid on their hands," Edward Walker, a former U.S. ambassador to Cairo who now heads the private Middle East Institute, said Monday in a tele phone interview from Luxor, Egypt. “The most they can do, or would be willing to do, is to help seal the border,” Walker said. “It’s not that easy to seal borders. They Eire being put in a very difficult sit uation." But Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon said Egypt could play a very significant and positive role in securing the Rafah area, which borders Egypt. “And it is certainly in the in terest of both Israel and Egypt to keep Gaza as calm as possible," Ayalon said in a telephone inter view from San Francisco. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in January announced his intention to pull out of most of Gaza as part of a larger plan to uni laterally separate Israel and the Palestinians in the absence of a peace deal. Since then, there has been an upsurge in violence in the coastal strip. Bush administration officials were skeptical at first of Sharon’s proposal. They want Sharon to negotiate the terms of a withdrawal with the Palestinians and go on to a broad er accord, including a much big ger Israeli pullback from the West Bank. On Monday, responding to two suicide bombings in the Israeli port city Ashdod, Sharon sus pended talks with the Palestinians. The State Department said peacemaking would be very diffi cult unless terror operations were brought under control. The bombers in Ashdod are be lieved to have come from a refugee camp in Gaza and may have en tered Israel by sea. The refugee camps in Gaza are considered hotbeds of anti-Israeli <3 sentiment, and Sharon is hardly the first Israeli leader to wish to be rid of Gaza. I Do you know a student, administrator, I staff or faculty member at USC who is helpful, caring, I and knowledgeable in assisting others have a positive I experience at USC? In other words, someone who "lights up" I USC? Is there a person at USC who has been instrumental in your path to success or made a difference in some way? Is there someone who helped you excel in a subject in which you were struggling? Is there a person who always has the right answer? Is there someone who has helped make your life become better organized, more positive or more successful? Is there a coach or maintenance worker, an RA or TA, an advisor or friend, a desk attendant or teacher who has been extremely helpful to you and others? If so, nominate that USC person for a You Light Up USC award via e-mail to: alphald@gwm.sc.edu or print and mail to: Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society, Student Government Office, Box 195, USC, Columbia SC 29225 I Clearly and succinctly state in 300 words or less: I 1. Your name and e-mail address. I 2. The name and title (if applicable) of the person you are nominating, and building of department where he/she works/resides. I 3. Your reasons for nominating this person. I 4. Your relationship to the nominee (i.e. "student," I "resident," "friend") Fifty or more awards will be presented annually in the spring. The deadline to nominate for 2004 is March 31. You Light Up USC awards are sponsored by USC's national award winning honor society, Alpha Lambda Delta. Executive C_ Applications are availabUSiline and in 227 Russell House. If you are interested in any of the following positions apply today! The deadline is Friday, March 19! 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