The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 2

2A Monday, Augurt 30 1999 THE TCNNESSEAN CP WORLD IN 5 MINUTES From skiff and wire reports Barak says last-minute talks must reach deal on Wye accord One of Prime Minister Ehud Barak's senior envoys met with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat late yesterday in an urgent attempt to reach agreement on implementing the Wye River accord before Secretary of State Madeleine Albright arrives later this week. Barak warned last night that if Israeli and Palestinian negotiators fail to close a deal "within hours," he could carry out the U.S.-brokered Doctor who asked early questions on Oak Ridge to be on 'Dateline' Dr. William K. Reid was one of the first Oak Ridge doctors to publicly question whether health problems among workers and neighbors of the nuclear weapons site might be related to toxic substances from the site. Tonight, Dateline NBC will chronicle his story in an interactive broadcast that will let viewers vote on what they would have done in his shoes.

On IB. accord unilaterally and as he sees fit Israel television said Barak suspects the Palestinians are dragging out the negotiations until Albright's arrival Thursday to create a pretext for deeper U.S. involvement On 4A. Turkey limps back to normal, but winter shelter crisis looms The 7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck Turkey on Aug. 17 killed nearly 14,000 people, left thousands more missing and up to 600,000 homeless.

But across the devastated region, Approaching Alabama game makes Vandy practice harder They are starting to Tide-y things up around Vanderbilt this week. That's because the Crimson Tide from Alabama will be here Saturday and that changes everything about how the Commodores go about business on the football practice field. On 1C there were small signs that life was beginning to return to normal. State-run TV resumed normal programming yesterday after featuring nonstop quake coverage since the disaster. But with cooler weather Jy' a .1 AP A POSTCARD MOMENT AMID THE PAIN A British Army Land Rover passes a field of sunflowers south of Pristina yesterday.

The vehicle was part of a convoy leaving Kosovo after being one of the first to arrive after the NATO bombing ended in June. Watch out! Your children will clip-and-save this one "Mommy, can I have some candy? Can I have a soda? Can I have some ice cream?" "No," you say, convinced that in denying your child junk food, you're promoting proper eating habits and doing your child good. Well, hold on to your cookies. Recent research indicates otherwise. On ID.

mm 'Almanac1 predicts millennium will end with a giant snowstorm Parts of the country have another Y2K problem to worry about: a powerful storm in the last days of 1999. So says the Farmers' Almanac, which predicts a stormy November and December, capped by a weather system packing more than a foot of snow in the last week of the year for the Midwest and Northeast On 11A. approaching, officials said displaced people must be moved out of soggy makeshift tents and into warm, winterized shelters. On 4A. Voting begins in East Timor to decide independence question After four centuries of neglectful Portuguese colonial rule and 24 years of military repression under Indonesia, East Timorese voters overcame fears of violence and intimidation to cast ballots today on possible independence.

The historic U.N.-supervised referendum began soon after dawn at 200 polling centers across the territory, which takes up half an island in Southeast Asia. On 4A. British unsure how to mark anniversary of Diana's death As the second anniversary of Princess Diana's death nears, Britain seems uncertain about how or whether to mark the date. No official memorials are planned tomorrow, in contrast to last year's anniversary, when the royal family held a prayer service and London's Westminster and St Paul's cathedrals staged special services for the public. On 4A.

Professors struggle to keep up with students' computer sawy As college students research papers on the Internet and manipulate numbers on spreadsheets, their professors are feeling a little less in tune with the newest computer trends. Two out of three professors say they are stressed trying to keep up with the emerging technology, surpassing traditional troubles such as publishing pressure and teaching loads, according to a new national survey. On 9A. A MILESTONE IN HINDSIGHT It was a busy summer in 1969: Men walked on the moon and young people rocked at a farm named Woodstock. Anti-war protests raged as police searched for Charles Manson's gang.

Hardly anybody was paying attention to a lab at the University of California, Los Angeles, where about 20 people watched Sept 2 as two bulky computers were connected by a 15-foot gray cable and bits of meaningless test data silently flowed between them. To many, that day marked the birth of the Internet On 9A. 14 18 25 38 39-7 MDHA hiring outside group to build single-family houses MDHA is farming out its single-family home building to nonprofit Affordable Housing Resources in a deal that will provide more low-income homes and free up money to rehabilitate other houses. The result 10-15 new houses annually, besides the 45-50 that the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency and Affordable Housing Resources now build. On IE.

INVESTMENT CLUB CONFERENCE Tennessean Personal Finance Editor Candy McCampbell uses this week's Money Matters column to discuss a conference on investment clubs to be held Sept 16-18 at the Opryland Hotel. On IE. lTlD 8 16 22 24 30 34 No ticket matched all six numbers in Saturday's $14 million Powerball or $5 million Lotto Kentucky drawings, making Wednesday's jackpots worth an estimated $16 million and $5.3 million, respectively. RESULTS LINE: (502) 583-2000. Superspeedway, highway threaten rare cedar glades Racetrack opponents raise question or impact on water Rv ANNF PAINF By ANNE PAINE derground, another issue.

"We've tried to go above and beyond. We haven't surveyed every square inch yet, but we probably will in tune. Everybody's working to save the species." BARRY BROOKE Lawler-Wood, LLC are Nashville Speedway, to push its project along, is donating 149 acres most of the land needed for the state connector road, and also is paying for the road's environmental, engineering and design work TDOT has budgeted $15 million to $20 million for the 1.7-mile, five-lane stretch to the raceway and the 32-mile, three-lane piece to U.S. Highway 231State Highway 10. It includes an interchange at State Route 840.

TDOT, which views the speedway as an economic boon for tourism, is not looking at the environmental effects of the complex itself. The developer estimates $17 million in new tax revenue will result yearly. "Our jurisdiction ends with the road and the road construction," said Ray Brisson, TDOT director of environmental permitting and planning. "We would hope Dover Downs, working with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, has solved all those problems." He said TDOT has agreed to landscape the roadway with the cedar glades in mind. Reeves, who called his letter and recommendations "a starting point" said talks are going well.

"We are optimistic and hope what what we come to is positive for the long-term protection of the Tennessee coneflower," Reeves said. If the glades are to be protected, agreement with the developer is needed. Neighbors and activists, however, question why the state is helping by planning to spend $15 million to $20 million on a connecting roadway that will bite into glades along with the speedway. "I've been very disturbed ever since I saw it," said retired MTSU professor and conservationist Bertha Chrietzberg, who has walked part of the property. "Whatever they do they will upset the water flow, so you don't know if the glades are really protected.

When they change the water around like that, you can't tell what's going to happen to them." The glades, which have thin to no soil on top of Lebanon limestone, depend on water having it and not having it at times. The openings ringed with cedars, which often appear barren, bake in desert-like heat in summer and occasionally flood in winter. These conditions along with the limestone, radiating in about a 120-mile by 60-mile strip from a Middle Tennessee core, fill the particular needs of plants such as the cone-flower. The world's only other known natural colonies of the Tennessee coneflower occur in a 14-mile area of Wilson, Rutherford and Staff Writer Environmental concerns related to the Nashville Speedway U.S A and a proposed state connector road don't stop with cedar glades. Members of County Residents Against Speedway Havoc, which has filed a lawsuit to try to stop the track, worry about effects of the racing complex on the local water supplies.

Fears are not unfounded. "We are having Gladeville Utility District on increased monitoring in anticipation there may be a problem," said Tom Moss, of the state division of water supply. The district draws its water from wells about a mile northwest of where the complex will be built he said. Blasting in the limestone-rich area is likely to stir up mud in the water underground, which will mean more filtration work, including the need for more chemicals, he said. Herbicides will be watched for after the complex is built Moss said.

If used on the landscaping and extensive turf parking, ihey could end up in the water supply. Sinkholes, natural drainage openings into and through limestone un "They're closing out a lot of sinkholes," Moss said. "Generally, we prefer that not be done, but in this case you dont have a choice if you're going to build something like this." Moss said the design plans dealing with the sinkholes are appropriate. He hadn't received the plans on the sinkholes located in the way of the proposed state route. The state's division of water pollution control also had not as of Friday received a request from Tennessee Department of Transportation for stream crossing permits needed for the road.

Nothing is insurmountable, according to Barry Brooke, who is overseeing the development for Nashville Speedway U.S A "It's a complex project" he said. "If we felt there was a lot of risk and a lot of problems, we would have gone somewhere else." Jim Nay, a neighbor, industrial hy-gienist and CRASH leader, meanwhile, says ground has been broken but uncertainties remaia "There are a whole lot of more questions that should be answered before the project continues." I Davidson counties, officials say. The showy plant, studied for medicinal qualities, has been featured on telephone books, promoted by garden clubs and marveled at by the scientific community as part of a balanced glade ecosystem. The speedway and state route land survey, which the developer arranged for, also turned up other threatened or rare plants, including glade onion and yellow sunnybell. Three groups of coneflowers, one with an estimated 5,000 individuals, were found.

"We've tried to go above and beyond," said Barry Brooke, a Knoxville developer with Lawler-Wood, LLC, which is overseeing the project for Nashville Speedway, a subsidiary of Dover Downs Entertainment Inc. "We haven't surveyed every square inch yet but we probably will in time. Everybody's working to save the species." As talks continue, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also has reviewed the survey report In a letter to Brooke dated Aug. 11, the agency supported points Reeves' letter brought up on the speedway project and state road.

Recommendations included: Setting aside Harding Glade and Laine Glade for protection. Providing $500,000 for the state to acquire and preserve similar remaining glades. Keeping glade disturbances to a minimum whenever possible and using them in the landscaping for. the project and the state route. Avoiding use of invasive exotic plants and grasses in landscaping.

The speedway and road wouldn't just affect this land. It will invite more development into the dwindling cedar glade territory, Reeves noted. Pain-ridden patients fasten hopes on glue for fractured spines Knight Ridder News Service now offer the nrocedure orthodontist who once exercised dai "It's reallv sort of a miracle he al Hospital in Hollywood, Fla. "Once MIAMI A distant relative of Krazy Glue the all-purpose household fix-it is being used by local doctors in a simple, nonsurgical procedure to repair the fractured spines of osteoporosis patients and others. Though the procedure, called vertebroplasty, is new and largely untested in this country, it is gaining acceptance because early results are promising.

It provides an option for those who suffer the excruciating pain of unhealed compression fractures of the spine, a condition for which science offers little help. The technique has been used in France for about 10 years. But its spread has been slow in this country, partially because Medicare wont pay for it But in South Florida, where the elderly population high risk for the condition, at leant five hospitals "The complication rates are low," said Dr. Richard Latchaw, chief of Interventional Neuroradiology at the University of Miami, who has been performing the procedure for about 18 months. "And it sure beats taking a lot of drugs." Vertebroplasty can be performed in an hour or two with just a local anesthetic: Using imaging equipment to guide them, doctors simply push a long needle through the back into the fractured vertebra.

They inject the bone with a quick-hardening cement that flows into the cracks and crevices, then hardens to reinforce the fracture. Patients usually walk out of the hospital, and many report almost immediate relief. There are some risks, and the procedure does rpt help everybody. But for Dr. Michael Cagin, a retired ly and traveled every year, the procedure offers hope for a return to his active lifestyle.

Last year he fell and fractured six vertebrae, losing 3 inches in height when his spine collapsed. The pain was so intense he was confined to a chair and dependent on heavy doses of narcotics. "I became an invalid," said Cagin, 83, with a hint of frustration at his yearlong ordeal in his voice. "The pain was horrible. I suffered a long, long time, and the only thing the doctors could say was, 'You just have to But like those of many osteoporosis patients, Cagin's bones simply didnt heal.

Finally, he hooked up with doctors at North Ridge Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, who performed the vertebroplasty Now he's looking forward to his next trip. the technique. But Jensen is working to persuade Medicare authorities to cover vertebroplasty and is conducting additional studies to better establish its merits. She hopes to persuade Medicare authorities in Florida to cover the procedure even sooner, perhaps by the end of the year. No FDA approval is required be-: cause the bone cement has been approved for many years for use in hip replacements and other surgeries.

That can be problematic, some doctors say, because there are no regulations or requirements for training. The procedure is generally safe but there is a chance that a doctor might inject too much glue, damaging the spine or causing other complications. So doctors warn that the procedure should be with surgical backup in case of a problem. said. "The pain just disappeared." About 700,000 people a year suffer compression fractures, tiny cracks that develop as the spinal bones weaken because of osteoporosis.

Over time the spine collapses and curves, causing the hump that afflicts many older women, who are most at risk for the disease. Most people heal on their own, but a small percentage never do. Doctors have little to offer them, so many end up bedridden or dependent on painkillers. These are the candidates for vertebroplasty, though the technique is also sometimes performed on those who have cancer that has spread to the spine. "These patients are so miserable," said Dr.

Bruce Braffman, who has been performing the procedure With Dr. Neal Joseph at Memorial Region tney're restricted to bed rest and on pain medications, they're at risk for other problems because as human beings we need to be mobile." Doctors caution that potential candidates must be carefully screened if there are too many fractures or the pain is caused by muscle or other problems not directly related to the fractures, the procedure will do little good. Though most patients see their pain reduced and at least some mobility regained by vertebroplasty, about 10 dont seem to benefit according to early studies, said Dr. Mary E. Jensen, a University of Virginia professor who helped pioneer the procedure in this country.

The procedure generally costs about $1,000 for each vertebra that has to be fixed. Few insurers cover.