The Akron Beacon Journal from Akron, Ohio • Page 15

XX A PageAA, Tuesday, August 23, 1994 The Beacon Journal MADD Group expects to go on as long as booze and cars Continued from Page Al Will crime bill halt street rage? Experts say no. Republicans move against measure I Here is how those in the House from Ohio voted on the crime bill: (A "yes" vote is a vote to pass the bill.) Democrats: Douglas Apple-gate, Steubenville, Sherrod Brown, Cleveland, Eric Finger-hut, Willoughby Hills, Tony Hall, Dayton, Marcy Kaptur, Toledo, David Mann, Cincinnati, Tom Sawyer, Akron, Louis Stokes, Cleveland, Ted Strickland, Portsmouth, James Traficant, Youngstown, Y. Republicans: John A Boeh-ner, Hamilton, Paul Gillmor, Bowling Green, David Hobson, Springfield, Martin Hoke, Cleveland, John Kasich, Columbus, Michael Oxley, Mansfield, Rob Portman, Cincinnati, Deborah Pryce, Columbus, Ralph Regula, Navarre, N. si 1 i 1 ft 1 .1 build a case against O.J. Simpson.

During a hearing yesterday, it was makeup as drops leading from the bodies of his ex-wife and her friend. another reason for that was that MADD may be suffering from its own success: The number of drunk -driving accidents has been steadily declining in recent years. In Ohio, there were 469 traffic deaths related to alcohol in 1992, a study by the national MADD said. The percentage of traffic fatalities related to alcohol was 32.6 percent, a drop from 42.7 percent in 1990 and from 56.5 percent in 1982. "Some of the enthusiasm and passion for the cause has decreased because of the perception that the problem has decreased," Chippas said.

But Chippas said another factor is the difficulty of finding new leadership for some of the older chapters such as Stark, which was established in 1982 as one of the first in Ohio. "I see a lot of burnout," Chippas said. "It's hard trying to find people to replace" the founding members. "You had a lot of very caring, concerned people, but they are getting tired." Davis said that explanation rang true to her. "That makes a lot of sense," she said.

"When the group was formed there was such excitement about how when we were going to change things." The Summit County MADD chapter, which was formed less than four years ago, is not having problems finding volunteers, according to Gloria Buwala, chapter president. "We have plenty of volunteers to run our programs," she said. "We have a very active membership well over 100 volunteers." Davis said the Stark Chapter had more than 600 members and three paid staff members at its peak several years ago, but gradually almost all became inactive. "We had a meeting in May to discuss the future of the group and only 12 people showed up," she said. Mothers Against Drunk Driving of Stark County was formed in 1982 by Ann Bragg of Jackson Township and seven of her relatives after her 26-year-old niece, Dora Ploch of Louisville, was killed by a drunken driver.

Ploch's parents, John and Josie Nelisher, have remained active in the group. Davis also was one of the first members. Her son, James Davis was the victim of a drunk driver in 1980, when he was 17. "He was on a first date with a young woman she was also 17," she said. "She was killed.

My son is quadriplegic and he can't speak." Davis said finances also have been a problem recently. Until about two years ago, the Stark chapter raised much of its own money for programs through a local telemarketing firm. But when the company went out of business, the chapter turned to sharing the national fund-raising effort. Stark's portion was meager. "We were receiving about $100 a month," Davis said.

"We had been so big and successful, it was really difficult to cut back." Chippas said the state MADD organization, which had been basing each chapter's allocation on the amount of money raised from that county, is changing its formula to one based on how many people the chapter serves. Chippas said MADD also is placing more emphasis on "community action teams," which don't have the administrative overhead of full-fledged chapters. She said there now are six action teams in counties without chapters. One recently established in Tuscarawas County will help fill the void left by the closing of the Stark Chapter. But Carroll County "will probably go uncovered," she said.

As for the needs of Stark County, Chippas said, "We're hoping that the Portage County chapter will expand into Stark County." Chippas said she will be in Canton on Friday when the chapter's Market Street office shuts its doors to take inventory of the equipment, which is being transferred to the state organization. "I think our mission still is necessary as long as alcohol and cars are out there," she said. "As long as there is one victim, we'll be out there." cans, giving Clinton a much-needed political victory. Clinton launched a full-court press for another victory by lobbying senators yesterday afternoon, just as he and other top aides did with House members all weekend. But as the political maneuvering continued, some experts questioned an important aspect of the six-year crime bill and a key campaign promise of President Clinton's: spending $8.8 billion to put 100,000 more police officers on the streets.

was example of his loose management style. "The issue was money," said Sarah M. Greene, a board member from Knoxville, Term. "If it was Farrakhan we would have called an emergency meeting a long time ago." Another contributing factor in Chavis' downfall was his failure to understand the culture of the NAACP. Some board members and others close to the organization say he did not pay close enough attention to the needs of local chapters.

He would sometimes show up in their towns, they said, hold a news conference and leave without having told them he was in town. Telephone calls from chapter presidents or leaders of state delegations were often not returned. "You've got 2,200 units out there and there is an obligation to know something about who those people are," said Leon W. Russell a board member from Clearwater, Fla. So when Chavis who styled himself as a grass-roots leader ran into difficulties, he had virtually no support on the board.

The shallowness of Chavis' support within the organization and perhaps among blacks generally was evidenced by the paltry turnout at a rally in Baltimore on Sunday night that he had announced after his dismissal. Only about 200 people showed. Beyond his unwillingness to pay heed to local branches, Chavis offended some board members on Saturday by what they said was his failure to show any remorse. "If he had said I had poor advice or I made an error in judgment that might have made a difference," Mrs. Greene said.

"But to say he hadn't done anything wrong. Even the Lord can't forgive you. 'I Associated Press to address the issue privately. The letter was sent to the judge, the prosecution and the media. "I am concerned about it," he said.

"I learned about the content of the letter that you're referring to in the shower on the radio." In the letter, defense attorney Robert Shapiro wrote that blood samples may have been so "compromised by mislabeling, cutting, switching and other discrepancies" that the results of DNA tests will be inadmissible in court. Yet Dr. Michael Baird, vice president of laboratory operations for Lifecodes a forensics lab in Stamford, said the test results were significant. "These tests are so powerful and so discriminating that even a match without statistics is significant," Baird said. Lawyers for Simpson will likely argue that the population sample used to calculate the frequency of Simpson's blood type could indicate there are other people with the same genetic markers perhaps even another suspect mm A global web of computer networks with more than 20 million users.

Through the Internet, users can send each other messages and call up information from data bases. Users can gain access to the Internet either by using a commercial on-line service like Compuserve, America Online or Prodigy, or by dialing up a local access number often through a local university or By angie Cannon Knight Ridiirr Heunpnptn Washington: For all that Congress and the president are going through to get a crime bill passed, you would almost think it was going to make a big difference in the country's crime problem. But as the Senate wrestles with the bill this week following House approval over the weekend, experts on crime and prevention tend to say there is more politics than problem-solving in what lawmakers are doing. "Hiring more cops to solve the crime problem is like hiring more ambulance drivers to cure cancer," said Robert Kahle, co-director of the Urban Safety Program at Wayne State University in Detroit "It's after the fact." Still, the crime rhetoric continued yesterday as debate began in the Senate, where Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph Biden said the $30 billion crime bill was just "one step away" from President Clinton's desk. Republicans, however, were maneuvering to make that a tough step.

Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, who opposes the assault weapons ban, said he planned to use a Senate procedure that would require the bill's supporters to muster 60 votes. If he succeeds, that would spell the demise of the package that passed the House 235-195 on Sunday with the help of 46 Republi- NAACP Leader found himself with no board support Continued from Page Al made a wrong choice but a disastrous one. Without being specific, board members now say they plan to do things a bit differently this time around in picking the group's leader. The NAACP board named an interim head of the organization yesterday, and he tried to put an optimistic spin on turmoil in the nation's oldest civil rights group.

"Those who believe in the cause of the NAACP will stick with the NAACP," said interim director Earl Shinhoster. But having selected Chavis to succeed Benjamin L. Hooks, in part to revitalize the civil rights organization, the NAACP finds itself facing perhaps the greatest crisis in its 85-year history. "It was a complete institutional collapse," said Michael Meyers of the New York Civil Rights Coalition. While Chavis drew attention because of claims that he may have sexually harassed a former female subordinate and because of his attempt to forge alliances with Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, the issue that seems to have brought about his downfall was his alleged mishandling of the association's money.

Board members said the out-of-court settlement arranged by Chavis to pay a former employee up to $332,400 to head off a suit involving alleged sexual harassment without informing them or the organization's general counsel WSOG Female senior citizen reveals who has best butts Continued from Page Al stalls scoreboards. "It's a cake job." The brothers, bitten by the same bug, have worked the tournament for 12 years. Tobi Battista has been doing it for 20 years. "We're either dedicated or crazy," she said. "My husband knows we don't sit down to a meal at home this week." But Bat-tista's responsibilities do sound a little less like work.

She drives a hospitality cart bedecked with flowers and serves fresh fruit candy and beverages to the professional golfers. "They love Tootsie Rolls," she whispered. "They dig through the candy basket looking for them." One golfer several years ago must have been enjoying his candy a little too much. He landed a golf ball right in Battista 's lap. "It plopped on my skirt and I sat real still while they figured out where it would have landed if my skirt wasn't there." Hospitality volunteers Jan Princehorn and Pinkie Ringley haven't been hit by wayward balls.

Prosecutor Marcia Clark is trying to stated that his blood has the same Blood Prosecutor objects to letter sent to judge, media Continued from Page Al chain reaction, or PCR, with results suggesting that they matched Simpson's samples. Both a sample from Simpson's foyer and Item 52, another blood drop apparently found at the crime scene, were subjected to a preliminary form of a more rigorous DNA test known as RFLP, or restriction fragment-length polymorphisms. The results of this test also indicated a match with Simpson, according to court papers. A spokesman for the district attorney's office declined to specify where Item 52 was found. But Peter Neufeld, a lawyer for Simpson, suggested during his questioning of police department Lawsuit Internet journalist agrees to conditions officials in court yesterday that blood samples found at a crime scene deteriorated after a time and were no longer fit for DNA testing.

Prosecutors must persuade Superior Court Judge Lance Ito to admit the DNA tests despite defense claims the evidence is tainted. And they also need to show what the odds are that the blood is Simpson's and not someone else's. The prosecution papers filed yesterday did not include a breakdown of the statistical odds of such blood matches. Prosecutors have alleged Simpson left blood at the murder scene when he cut his finger during a struggle. Defense attorneys have provided a variety of explanations for the cut.

In other developments, Deputy District Attorney Marcia Clark complained during yesterday's pretrial hearing that the public release of a defense letter to the judge last week was a public relations ploy. Ito cut off Clark's complaints, saying he was disturbed at the way the letter was handled but wanted Benjamin D. Suarez heads a 900-employ-ee, 1 million dollar a year direct marketing company. because it is considered an early pioneer in the area of libel law in electronic journalism. The case and its resolution threatens to throw cold water on what many Internet users consider to be a free-flowing environment of open exchange of ideas and opinions.

In fact, Meeks has said Suarez's suit violates the rules of the road on the talk-and-let-talk information superhighway. "If he had followed the Internet culture get back on line and send a letter back to everyone who received my column the whole thing would have played out on the Internet as it has for years, in an open and frank dialogue," Meeks said. "But they didn't do that." The settlement was filed with Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Richard McMonagle yesterday, and may be signed today or tomorrow, say attorneys. Because the settlement is not yet formal, Meeks and his attorney, David Marburger, were reluctant to comment about it yesterday. But Suarez called the settlement a victory.

"We are very adamant about the free flow of ideas," Suarez said yesterday. "We want to protect the First Amendment. What we don't think is right is for a gossiper to invent a false story about a compa- yet. But they are tempting fate with 57 years of volunteering between them. Both are members of the Massillon Women's Club.

"We're the hostesses with the mostest." Lois Weirath, 68, won't be wielding a golf cart. The spunky senior citizen is a scorer. She'll walk the entire North Course every other day this week behind a duo of pros. "We see their hind ends all day," said Weirath, in her fourth year. Soooo, who provides scorckeepers such as Weirath with the shapeliest scenery? "Fred Couples and Hale Irwin have the best butts." The gentlewomen of the hospitality committee hooted in agreement Chief Marshal Paul Bujak won't have time to study the golfers.

He'll be too busy watching the fans all 150,000 of them as they pass by the 18th hole. "Everyone ends up at my hole," he said. "Marshals do crowd control and find balls when they miss the fairway." Bujak, a Goodyear engineer, has dealt with feverish golfing spectators for 19 years. But it isn't as bad as it sounds. "People in Akron are really good golf fans; they know what to do follow the ropes, be quiet and don't try to talk to the golfers." "Golfers and golfing spectators are among the nicest people in the world," Battista said.

That must be why work becomes fun at the World Series. i Continued from Page Al spend $159 for software and a get-rich book from Suarez's mail marketing company, Suarez Corporation Industries. In his March 8 issue, Meeks mentioned that Suarez tangled with the Washington state attorney general's office over a mail-order package. Suarez also helped to defeat the attorney general in his bid to be governor, Meeks wrote. Under the tentative agreement, Meeks does not have to issue an apology or a retraction.

Under the settlement, Meeks agreed to pay $64 in standard court costs and to clarify some of his material. Suarez says the clarifications constitute an acknowledgment of poor reporting. One clarification made by Meeks says a product he mentioned, the Gutbuster, was marketed by another company, not Suarez Corp. Meeks also clarifies that Suarez's company did not face criminal action, as was implied in the article. Also under the settlement, Meeks must submit written questions to Suarez during normal business hours at least 48 hours in advance of publication.

Suarez will have at least 42 hours to respond, but Meeks would not have to use any of the comments. Failure to meet the conditions of the settlement would cost Meeks a $10,000 fine. The case was closely watched ny and then put it on the Internet, and that's in effect what he did." Suarez's 900-employee company is a $100-million-a-year venture which markets a variety of products including jewelry, exercise equipment and computers. Because the libel case never got to court, it probably will not set a precedent, said Kopp, whose Akron law firm, Roetzel Andre ss, represents the Beacon Journal. But the leftovers may leave Internet- and electronic-based freelance journalists especially those without legal protection provided by an employer afraid to write future stories, Kopp said.

In the settlement, Meeks says he spent more than $25,000 on legal fees. After getting the solicitation for Suarez's book, Meeks said he spent a month researching the company. He acknowledged that his column used strong language but said that using opinion in his "heavily reported" column was his right I Japanese diplomat's aid to Jews is remembered fhmctsro Emminrr San FRANCISCO: The man known as the "Japanese Schindler" was honored over the weekend by 400 people at San Francisco's Japanese Cultural and Community Center. Chiune Sugihara, now deceased, was a Japanese diplomat stationed in Lithuania who risked his career in 1940 to give transit visas to thousands of Jews trying to escape the onslaught of Hitler's army..