The Springfield News-Leader from Springfield, Missouri • Page 3

The News-Leader Monday, March 28, 1994 3A FROM PAGE ONE NATION ALABAMA ReformHeart of bill still mostly intact XK Kids' performance shattered by twister Continued from 1A 4J i ip' Ml I ing and the service continued, said 16-year-old Christa Rhinehart. The blue and violet stained-glass windows blew to shards and the roof pulled apart. Pieces of it rained down on the congregation, then a wall near the children collapsed. Carol Scroggins, who was at the altar leading the Easter program, said, "Things started hitting the side of the church, and something came through one of the windows. I just started to scream, 'Everybody get The nursery, where the children too young to take part in the play were staying, was undamaged.

The National Weather Service had issued a tornado watch for the area earlier in the morning. The weather service issued a warning saying a twister had been spotted on the ground about the time the roof collapsed. New York Times News Service PIEDMONT, Ala. The children of the congregation were in the middle of a Palm Sunday play Sunday morning when a tornado ripped into their small church in northeastern Alabama, wrenching the roof apart and toppling a wall onto the children. At least 19 worshipers, including six children, were killed.

"It is the most horrible thing I've ever seen," said Leon Smith, one of more than 100 rescue workers who responded to the calls for help after the tornado hit the Goshen United Methodist Church. At the moment the tornado hit, the children were gathered in a corner of the church for their play, "Watch the Lamb" and singing a song called "Jehova Jireh" on the church stage. The lights had been flickering on and off because of winds, but the children kept sing WHITEWATER Leach plays down call by Clinton aides The Associated Press WASHINGTON The leading Whitewater critic in Congress said Sun-' day he didn't want to draw premature! conclusions about two top White House; aides' complaints to a Treasury official; over the hiring of a former GOP prosecu-; tor in the case. "It's natural that they would be upset" with a decision by the Resolution Trust Corp. to retain former U.S.

Attorney Jay B. Stephens to investigate the failed Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan, Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa, said of senior White House aides Harold Ickes and George Stephanopoulos. However, "it was probably a mistake to convey this in a way that may or may not have implied trying to release him (Stephens) from this job," Leach said of the Feb. 25 call from the aides to Deputy-Treasury Secretary Roger Altaian.

Stephens, a White House legal aide in-the Reagan administration, was fired as' U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia' two months after Clinton took office. In other developments The White House challenged pub-' lished speculation that Hillary Rodham-Clinton did not risk her own money to realize roughly $100,000 in cattle futures' trading profits in 1978 and 1979. Newsweek magazine reported that' Professor Marvin A. Chirelstein of the.

Columbia University Law School told it; Hillary Clinton did not invest any money-of her own, an assertion Chirelstein de- nied in a telephone interview Sunday. ABC reported Sunday evening that' the Clintons will turn over to former Whitewater partner James McDougal; documents on the land venture so he can-file his tax returns. lull ilillliiilliilTii 'Mi iilfli ilBMHSiiW i The Associated Press ReSCUO workers help the injured in Piedmont, after a tornado hit the Goshen United Methodist Church. Weather Service fights spring storm myths ketplace to negotiate good deals with insurance companies and health-care providers. Despite the changes, the insurance market reforms that are the heart of the bill are essentially intact.

Under the measure, most people would pay the same rates for health insurance and they could not lose their insurance because they got sick or changed jobs. There would be three standardized insurance packages so consumers could easily comparison shop. And insurance companies would have to accept anyone who applied during an annual 30-day open enrollment. Ready to do battle against those changes is a cadre of insurance company lobbyists. One of them, Julia Nien-aber of Golden Rule Insurance the nation's largest insurer of individuals, said she'll focus on an educational campaign aimed at legislators.

"We want to make sure representatives understand what can happen to their constituents under (the reforms)," she said, adding that community rating and open enrollment will cause insurance premiums to skyrocket for young people, especially men. Proponents of the market reforms say they will force insurance companies to compete on price and quality, rather than on their ability to exclude bad risks. While rates may go up for young men, proponents say they are likely to go down for women and older people. Also, individuals and small businesses will no longer face huge premium increases when they get sick. Another provision in the bill is a plan to cover uninsured Missourians at up to 250 percent of the federal poverty level about $30,000 for a family of four.

If the federal government has not developed a plan for universal coverage by 1997, the state will assign the uninsured to health maintenance organizations and other providers, and will allow them to buy insurance based on their ability to pay. To finance that coverage, the bill requires health maintenance organizations, preferred provider organizations, insurance companies and other entities that market the three standardized insurance plans, to devote 2.5 percent of their gross receipts to premium subsidies for low-income people. Those organizations also are required to spend 1 percent of their gross receipts on improving community health. Critics say that's a tax. But backers of the bill say it's a way of formalizing the cost shift that's already taking place when care providers treat the uninsured and pass on the cost to people who do have insurance.

The anticipated $300 million to $400 million that will be spent on the subsidies and on improving community health won't come into the state treasury. It will be spent by the providers at the local level. Gordon Smith of the Ozarks Area Business Group on Health said he doesn't think the changes have done much to improve the bill. His group likes, some of the reforms but said the measure also sets up new bureaucracies, does little to contain costs and removes the ability for businesses to negotiate directly with insurance companies and providers for better rates. "Obviously universal access is important," he said.

"But let's use innovation to do it, not regulation." children to get in the car or house when they see lightning approaching. It takes about 30 seconds for a tornado to level a house. Don't dally if a warning is issued; get to the basement immediately. Many severe storms occur while you sleep. Spend $40 on a tone-alert weather radio and keep it in your bedroom.

If the National Weather Service issues a storm watch or warning, the radio will go off like a police siren, waking you up and giving you the safety information you need. City's first Severe Storm Safety Seminar on Saturday, organized by Bill Bunting of the National Weather Service. It was held at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Media forecasters were there to answer questions and give advice on avoiding danger in such weather. Their advice: All it takes is 2 feet of water on the road to sweep your car away, so never try to drive across a flooded street if you're not sure how deep the water is.

Lightning kills more often than a tornado, so make sure you teach your The Associated Press KANSAS CITY A lot of people, especially those in the twister-plagued Midwest, have some common misconceptions: Tornadoes won't hit a city's downtown. Rivers stop tornadoes. You can outrun a tornado in a car. According to experts gathered for a weekend public seminar on severe weather, those are wrong, wrong wrong. About 370 people attended Kansas Cigarette ban not the answer, Elders says at the congressional level will be to have nicotine-free cigarette or if it has any nicotine in there, a warning label about the addictive qualities of nicotine," he said.

The tobacco industry maintains that nicotine' is not addictive, said Brennan Dawson, a vice president of the Tobacco Institute. She appeared with the others on CBS. She also denied allegations that tobacco companies add nicotine to cigarettes to keep smokers hooked, as some have charged. but I certainly think they would have to say cigarettes are addictive; we'd have to tell people that they kill," she said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "We just can't immediately ban cigarettes without making sure we treat our American people" Elders said. Rep.

Henry Waxman, chairman of a House health subcommittee, said classifying cigarettes as a drug isn't the answer either. "The regulations we're going to have to adopt The Associated Press WASHINGTON Cigarettes should be regulated by federal health officials, but banning them "would not solve the problem" since millions of Americans already are addicted to nicotine, Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders said. Elders said Sunday she supports Food and Drug Administration chief David Kessler's efforts toward regulating cigarettes as delivery systems for nicotine. "I'm not sure they would have to ban them, Elders Plan to attend the 22nd Annual Sigma Chi Derby Days! JOIN US FOR OUR GRAND OPENING I fcS'" jrt ft I Opening Thursday, March 31, at Battlefield Square in Springfield. At Talbots, you 7 discover the best in women classic clothing and accessories in misses and petite sizes.

A complete collection for career, weekends and every special occasion. mttttut vAwwva vsiamj Join Alpha Delti Pi, Tri Sigma, Delta Zetas, Alpha Chi Omega, Alpha Sigma Alpha, Sigma Kappa and a team of non-sorority members on the campus of Southwest Missouri State University as they sponsor the 22nd Annual Derby Days. Derby Days April 4 9, 1994 Southwest Missouri State University All proceeds support the Children's Miracle Network. This Public Service message is brought to you by the Springfield News-Leader. TALBOTS GO THE CLASSICS OPENING THURSDAY, MARCH 31 at Battlefield Square, Battlefield Road and Glenitone Avenue, Springfield.

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