The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 3

the Cincinnati enquirer METI Section In Business: Bumped around Wah Mee Chinese Restaurant is in its third downtown location in 22 years and not exactly by choice. Story, B16 A.M. Report 2 Hero 3 Obituaries 8 Editor: David A Wells, 768-8600; fax, 768-8340 Saturday May 30, 1998 we Well work recess JO Supreme Court ordered the changes, taking special note of the abysmal condition of some school buildings. Most Republicans maintain that the court order has been met. Most Democrats insist it has not.

Mike Dawson, a spokesman for Mr. Voinovich, noted that Republicans have dramatically increased state funding for (Please see DEMOCRATS, Page B9) ate President Richard Finan, R-Evendale, said. "That's all this is about." Lawmakers recessed for the summer Thursday, after completing work on a bill that makes largely technical changes to the school-funding formula. The measure would provide an additional $300 million for school buildings, but rejects Mr. Voinovich's call to set aside $160 million for school buildings from a year-end budget surplus.

A recent state study estimated that Ohio's schools need $16 billion worth of construction and repairs. The promise of future money, coupled with the technical changes, are the latest in a series of legislative efforts designed to meet last year's court order to overhaul the way money is raised, spent and borrowed for public schools. By a 4-3 vote, the Ohio Espy, D-Columbus, said Friday. "They can sit home all they want, but we're going to continue to work on this until we get it right." Republicans, who hold majorities in the House and Senate, said they have no plans to return until the fall. They dismissed the Democrats' request as the type of political theater common, in election years.

"He's up to politics," Sen Assembly back to work, insisting that lawmakers have failed to properly fund the state's public schools. Both the governor and GOP legislative leaders rejected the idea, but Democrats vowed to return from their day-old summer recess, with or without their Republican colleagues. "You may see us sitting in the Senate chambers by ourselves working on something," Senate Minority Leader Ben Schools not fixed yet, they say BY SANDY THEIS Enquirer Columbus Bureau COLUMBUS The Senate's top Democrat called on Republican Gov. George Voi-novich to order the General Lung tissue donor: Td do it again in a second Doctors see some good in big takeover 7 7- ft mi run inn Minim ir-ir-ir1- The Cincinnati EnquirsrSteven M. Herppich Patrick Winters, (left), 38, and his brother William, 39, donated portions of their lungs to their sister, Julie Winters (picture), 33, who had cystic fibrosis.

Ms. Winters died on Memorial Day. CF victim inspired hope mains too early to tell how the acquisition will change benefits or provider networks. Meanwhile, doctors have been critical of United's efforts to promote an emerging form of physician compensation called capitation. The basic idea is to pay doctors a flat monthly fee in advance for each member they serve.

But there is no pay, or vastly reduced pay, for treating patients once they get sick. If the monthly payments exceed the costs of care, doctors keep the profits. Proponents say this gives doctors an incentive to be as efficient as possible. Critics say capitation gives doctors an incentive to deny care to sick people. Specialists like United's open-access policies, but some have criticized United's capitation contracts.

In Dayton, Ohio, dissatisfaction with United and other managed-care issues prompted some specialists, mostly orthopedists, to start a union. "We've had good and bad experiences with United," said Dr. Greg Gerber, a gastroen-terologist and chief of the medical staff at Middletown Regional Hospital. "I would warn Cincinnati doctors to be very cautious about capitation." While suddenly huge in Cincinnati, United HealthCare is not new to Ohio. The company entered Ohio in 1992 by acquiring PHP Benefit Systems, a large Columbus-based health plan.

Then in 1993, it entered the Dayton market by acquiring the Western Ohio Health Care Corp. Both health plans were similar to Cincinnati's ChoiceCare HMO. Initially unable to acquire ChoiceCare, United launched its own HMO in Cincinnati in April 1995, which rapidly grew to 70,000 members. Reaction wary to United deal BY TIM BONFIELD The Cincinnati Enquirer The sudden emergence of United HealthCare Corp. as Greater Cincinnati's biggest managed-care health insurer drew mixed reactions Friday from doctors who have dealt with the company.

"They're not any worse than anybody else," said Dr. Albert Malcolm, a Middletown oncologist. "If anything, they're a little bit easier to deal with than some other plans." A giant player nationally, United had been a small but fast-growing health plan in Greater Cincinnati until Thursday. That's when United announced a proposed $5.5 billion acquisition of Humana Inc. The deal will catapult United to the top of Cincinnati's market because last year Humana acquired ChoiceCare, the city's biggest HMO.

Assuming the deal passes regulatory review, United's local enrollment will jump from 70,000 to about 380,000 members. Among the positive reviews: Families will like United's policies about seeing specialists without requiring referrals from a primary care physician. Employers may like United's high customer satisfaction rates and its efforts to track quality measures. Doctors report encountering fewer hassles with United than many other health plans. Among the concerns: Employers fear the Humana acquisition will reduce competition, making it harder to shop around for health benefit deals.

For patients, it re KRISTA RAMSEY Everyday kids silent victims of our lifestyle It is a tragic but well-known fact that we often only learn things the hard way. A spring full of school shootings is proof of it. Suddenly we have "discovered" the turmoil and pain of American adolescents. Finally we are jarred into wondering what goes on inside them, these children who, at any other time, we would have happily left The extreme cases, the violent ones, have caught our attention. But behind them stands the body of American children and young people who are not violent, not cruel or irresponsible.

But hurting nonetheless. I have seen the pain in American children for a long time now, as a teacher and education writer. Some are angry. Some lonely. Many feel powerless to deal with the complexities of their home life and world.

They are silent victims of the American lifestyle, one that tears up relationships, idolizes achievement, deifies objects, broadcasts violence and hurries children into adulthood. American children understand competition all too well, but have little idea of community. They know they are supposed to get ahead, but rare are the discussions that teach them what selfless things true success and accomplishment are. They know what affairs are from the nightly news but "family" is an increasingly vague term. They have been told that hard work is the key to everything worthwhile in life, but "play" unscheduled, self-made entertainment is almost non-existent in their world.

These are painful things for adults to consider, because they indict us all. A need to be known One of the great ironies is that, through research, we know more quantifiable information about children than ever before. But we know far less about individual children. Kids today grow up anonymously. The eternal truth for a child, however, is that he needs nothing so much as to be known.

So suck it up. We have little time to know anyone any more, least of all our kids and besides we've forgotten how. Moves are frequent, extended families distant, and our priorities become whatever makes it on the family scheduling board. As adults, we have cavalier attitudes about affiliations with religious bodies and neighborhoods. What we fail to recognize is, as we become disconnected from everything, our children do as well.

True of others but not of us? Then consider how well we know our own nieces and nephews as well as our own aunts and uncles knew us? And let us ask ourselves when is the last time we had anything resembling a "family night," or cooked dinner together, or took a long walk and listened to our kids? Our children's teachers, pediatricians, soccer coaches and psychologists would love to let us in on a secret: Our kids miss us. Terribly. Teens and stress A few years back I wrote an article on teen-agers and stress. I smugly thought I knew the causes. Not drugs and sex, as some knee-jerk observers would predict, but college entrance, and job-and-school demands, and the pressure to perform.

Not so at all. What flowed immediately out of the teen-agers' mouths and produced lumps in their throats and tears in their eyes was their troubled or non-existent family lives. One boy could barely talk about the fact that his father never made it to his baseball games. A girl was furious her parents' social and professional commitments meant they never sat down for dinner as a family. Another wondered what had happened to the parents who hung on her every word as a child but now could barely find 15 minutes for her.

They were disappointed. Disappointed in us. Not because we could not buy them high-priced sneakers or Ivy League educations. Not because we hadn't made it to the top of our own professions. But because, just when life got tougher, we had emotionally walked out the door.

They knew us. Painfully well. Now, after a spring of difficult realizations, they must wonder if we are ready to know them as well. Road, says sister-in-law Chris Winters. Money raised will be used to defray expenses not covered by insurance, and what is left will be given to benefit cystic fibrosis patients, Chris Winters said.

Meanwhile, the visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Sunday at the Paul R. Young Funeral Home, 7345 Hamilton Mount Healthy. Funeral Mass will be at 10 a.m. Monday at Church of the Assumption, Joseph Street, Mount Healthy.

She will be buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Montgomery. Ms. Winters, who was a Cincinnati police dispatcher for 10 years, is survived by her parents, Harry and Joan Winters, and nieces and nephews. She is also survived by five brothers, William, Patrick, Thomas, Paul and Michael Winters. more ill, Ms.

Winters continued to communicate over the Internet with other cystic fibrosis patients. "She lived her life to the utmost," Patrick Winters said. "She never dwelt on it. No matter how sick she was, she was always worried about (other people's) problems, no matter how small. She gave a lot." The day-long operation was intended to add quality years to Ms.

Winters' life. Patrick and William, both of Fairfield, are taking things slowly, and expect recovery to take from four to six weeks. They are heroes, says Thomas Winters, of his brothers. "She just asked for a chance, and that's what she got a chance," he said. The family plans to go ahead with the benefit dance June 5 at Kolping Society Banquet Hall, 10235 Mill "She was dying.

Without the operation, she had no hope at all. So by doing this all the way up until the very last minute she had a chance. She had hope. "For that reason alone, it was worth it. You see what I mean? She gave us all a lot of hope." Ms.

Winters, 33, who underwent surgery May 13 at University of North Carolina Hospitals in Chapel Hill, died of complications from the disease Monday at the hospital. Her family was with her when she died. The surgery replaced Ms. Winters' lungs with portions of the lungs of two of her brothers. She weakened over the weekend and died on Memorial Day.

Patrick Winters said his sister's legacy will be one of selflessness and an enduring sense of compassion. Even as she became progressively Donor brothers have no regrets of giving organs BY LEW MOORES The Cincinnati Enquirer Julie Winters' brothers, who gave her another chance for life, will be there Monday when the family buries her to remember her compassion and selflessness. Patrick and William Winters are recovering physically and emotionally. The brothers are home from the North Carolina hospital, where they each gave a section of their healthy lungs to replace hers, which had been crippled by cystic fibrosis. Even though his sister died 12 days later, Patrick Winters has no regrets about what he did.

"I'd do it again in a second," he said. Local schools plagued with violence threats Deoole thev wanted to hurt. Wednesday. day after he allegedly threatened to bring a gun today to an eighth-grade dance. In Oxford, about half of Talawanda High School's 1,200 students stayed home Friday, following a week of threats that a bomb would be placed in a locker Friday.

Graffiti alluding to a bomb was found last week in a boys A 14-year-old Felicity boy went to Clermont County Juvenile Court on Friday on charges of aggravated menacing and inducing panic for allegedly threatening people with a BB gun. The boy's actions spread into a rumor that a gun would be brought to Felicity-Franklin schools, causing parents to pull more than 500 students out of classes arrested at Madison Elementary School in Hamilton on Friday after he allegedly was found with an unloaded semiautomatic handgun on school premises. A Glen Este High School sophomore was arrested Friday after a pellet pistol was brought to school. An Edgewood Middle School boy was arrested Fri Police, educators and experts blame much of the increase, seen here and in schools around the country, on a copy-cat reaction to five fatal school shootings nationally. The reaction is twofold: School officials attaching serious penalties to students' (Please see THREATS, Page B9) BY CHRISTINE WOLFF The Cincinnati Enquirer Marking the winding down of a violent school year nationally, local schools are experiencing an onslaught of arrests, expulsions and suspensions for students accused of bringing guns, threatening people or making bomb threats.

This week alone: A 12-year-old boy was A sixth-grader at Fairfield Intermediate School was suspended Thursday for allegedly designing an elaborate scheme to put seven bombs in lockers and offices and explode them June 10. Three boys from Madeira JuniorSenior High School were suspended Thursday for allegedly making a hit list of Harassment' threatened a i i "atK. jf 1 1 Ci i ing to reach the goal voluntarily-Flanked by members of the Baptist Ministers Conference's Social Action Committee, the Rev. William Land, the committee's co-chairman, said the county has a moral obligation to reach 15 percent minority participation in the $400.3 million project, despite legal hurdles. "Until such a time as the county can bring this reality about, no construction building work will go on in this city without harassment on a daily basis," the Rev.

Mr. Land said. "We're not worrying about the legal decision. We're worrying about the moral decision." He called on African Americans to join with the social action committee to take part in the protests. County officials insist they continue to work toward the 15 percent goal.

County leaders periodically meet with representatives of the Baptists Ministers Conference and the Cincinnati chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to discuss progress and strategies, Ms. Hill said. Most recently, they discussed establishing training programs for minority workers, something the protesters argue should have been started long before now. The Rev. James Jones, social action committee co-chairman, said he doesn't believe commissioners are sincere about the 15 percent goal pledged in a 1996 agreement with Cincinnati City Council.

Group demands minority jobs BY LUCY MAY The Cincinnati Enquirer If Hamilton County does not quickly honor its pledge of 15 percent minority participation in its football stadium project, a group vowed Friday to begin daily "harassment" of public and private construction projects throughout Cincinnati. The county's most up-do-date figures show minority participation at about 11 percent, spokeswoman Brooke Hill said. Unlike the city of Cincinnati, the county can't legally have specific minority set-asides. County officials are try Ufa Associated PressAI Behrman The Rev. William Land, center foreground, said Friday that Hamilton County is not honoring its pledge to provide 15 percent of stadium project jobs to minorities.

Krista Ramsey's column appears on Saturdays. Write her at 312 Elm Street, Cincinnati 45202..