Lansing State Journal from Lansing, Michigan • Page 1

Communities Delta workers wait on tickets to ride Page 4B Today Eastern junior aims for top Key Club post Page 10E Hockey Red Wings 3 Blackhawks 2 Detroit pulls out a victory in final seconds. Page 1D -A. Battling: Darren McCarty fights off a check in Detroit's win. Sunny High in the mid-50s. Page 8B Sunday April 5, 1998 $1.50 aoiinig State loyroal 111111 nn MM (I msm i 'J- I mm.

She says infighting has to end before foreign aid can come By Michael Norton Associated Press PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti Secretary of State Madeleine Albright urged Haiti's leaders on Saturday to stop political infighting that has paralyzed the Caribbean nation for nearly a year and cut off desperately needed foreign aid. Without a political breakthrough, there is no possibility of significant outside help and little the United States can do to ease Haiti's deep-rooted impoverishment, Albright said. "Frankly, we have been disappointed that Haitian political leaders have taken so long to resolve their differences," she said. "The Haitian people deserve a democratic form of government, and they deserve the ability to have the fruits that the international community is trying to give them." Albright visited President tional legislative and municipal elections this fall. Though hailed by the United States, last year's elections were marred by disorganization, low voter turnout and the fraud allegations, and runoff elections were never held.

"True democracy requires more than elections, but without elections there can be no democracy at all" Albright said. The U.S.-led multinational force in Haiti was replaced by a U.N. military mission whose mandate expired in November. Rene Preval, former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and political party leaders during her one-day stop before leaving for a meeting with Caribbean foreign ministers in Trinidad. Many Haitians said Saturday's visit was unlikely to break the impasse.

"It's not an official visit," Foreign Minister Fritz Long-champs said earlier in the week, trying to play down its significance. "The resolution of the Haitian crisis depends on many Haitian actors, not on a single person, let alone on the and restored the deposed Aristide to power. But infighting among Aristide's heirs has left Haiti without a prime minister since June and deprived the country of at least $150 million in foreign aid. With a population of 7.2 million, Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. President Clinton proposed doubling U.S.

aid to $140 million this year. Republicans objected, citing Haiti's political instability. Albright said she and Preval had agreed to push for new na Preval Albright United States." In a foreign policy success for the Clinton administration, U.S. troops ousted a bloody Haitian military regime in 1994 jjpnrfrv NGCHOOLSr LANSING Attraction: Country star Allison Krauss is part of Wharton Center's lineup. Wharton lineup has wide range By Mike Hughes Lansing State Journal Two strong forces soprano Kathleen Battle and the Lansing Symphony will combine to launch next season for the Wharton Center.

That's a season that will range from family musicals and the Beast," "Peter to the thoroughly adult "Rent." It will include such varied names as comedian Steven Wright, country star Allison Krauss Segregation creeps back into schools Inside A look at the diverse makeup of city schools. Page 6A Former student says desegregation was difficult, but worth it Page 6A A look at Lansing's road to desegregation. Page 7A Coming Monday Black students and parents talk about why they're giving up on the Lansing classrooms they worked to integrate more than 20 years ago. Si and the Neville Brothers. Still, it Starts This is the first 5 1 With charter school law in place, division among races growing By Mark Mayes Lansing State Journal More than 20 years after a federal court ordered Lansing schools to break down racial barriers in the classroom, many African Americans are finding desegregation isn't the educational answer they were seeking.

They are turning to Michigan's 4-year-old charter school law to give them what Lansing's traditional public schools cannot a virtually one-race learning environment focusing on African-American heritage and customs. "What we offer our children is a different view of the world that they are of worth and of value and of history," said Freya Rivers, the former Lansing schools teacher who founded Sankofa Shule, one of the city's two predominantly African-American charter schools. The self-imposed separation is growing despite a battle in the 1970s by the local NAACP to put blacks and whites in the same classrooms. And it has renewed the classic debate on a new front: Can segregated schools, even voluntarily segregated schools, provide equal and quality education for all? Opinions are no less firm or conflicting than they were 20 years ago when rocks and slurs were thrown at schoolchildren and school board members were recalled for supporting busing. "I don't care what caused (schools) to be segregated," said Stuart Dunnings a Lansing lawyer and former National Association for the Advance-ment of Colored People co-pro- Battle duction by the Wharton (in its 17th year) and the symphony (in its 70th).

"I wanted to do something special, to launch the new shell," said William Wright, the Wharton chief. So Wharton spending $300,000 on the orchestra shell suggested the concert. "For us, it's a wonderful thing," said symphony manager Judith Moore. Battle, 49, grew up in the blue-collar town of Portsmouth, Ohio, then became a world opera star. Her concert launches a season that ranges afar.

It includes dancers from Ireland, Senegal and Mexico, plus lots of musicians from Nashville, New York and New Orleans. For details on the Wharton Center's 1998 lineup, see Page IE. "White people feel African Americans should learn to accept their culture and be part of it." Wilson Caldwell former NAACP president ROD SANFORDLansing State Journal Going to school: Gunnisonville Elementary School students (from left, photo above) Kimberly Brown, Keith Glover, and Brandon Waidlich, 10, ride the bus early from their central Lansing neighborhood. Below, children board the bus for the trip to DeWitt Township. -a president who helped lead the push for desegregation.

"I believe it is inherently unequal. Any schools that are designed to be segregated, I feel they are inherently unequal as much today as when the Supreme Court reached a decision." The Supreme Court laid the groundwork for desegregation long before Lansing's schools started the buses rolling. The court ruled unanimously in 1954 that segregated schools deprive minorities of the same educational opportunities as whites and reinforced beliefs that blacks were inferior to whites. Lansing Superintendent Richard Halik says people have to look no farther than Lansing school hallways today to see the success or busing. Lansing schools and NAACP officials still meet once a year to make sure all 34 elementary schools have a diverse racial mix.

They make sure more than one-third of the students at each school are minorities, and no more than two-thirds are white. Because of that, Halik be lieves that allowing people to split children up again along racial lines is an alarming step backward. "I think it's a severe error in judgment for the NAACP not to challenge these schools," Halik said. "It's totally inconsistent. Those are public schools within the Lansing School District, and they have resegregated the children for practical purposes." Wilson Caldwell, past president of the local NAACP Please see SCHOOLS, 7A Waiting for Home Jfca Schneider MSU ready for Pride Week Poll finds Americans expect gloomy old age Pritlt remember to set your forward forward 1 one nour 1 1 today? IX.

Pride Veek What: A celebration of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people at MSU When: Wednesday through April 19 For information: Call 355-8286 or 353-9795 Gays, lesbians hail progress on campus in event's 20th year By Todd Schulz Lansing State Journal EAST LANSING Michigan State University's gay and lesbian community celebrates its pride and progress this week for the 20th consecutive year. There are more advances to cite this spring, thanks to MSU's decision last fall to grant health and fringe benefits to same-sex partners of its employees. Domestic partner benefits are one of several signs of an improved campus climate for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students and employees, Brent Bilodeau says. "It's certainly a significant step forward," said Bilodeau, MSU's assistant for lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender concerns. "When an institution supports policy inclusive of same-sex relationships, it sends a powerful message." Pride Week starts Wednesday and runs through April 19 at MSU.

Highlights include an April 13 film documentary on author James Baldwin, an April 14 gender workshop and the keynote Inside address by author and activist Tone Osbom on April 16. MSU'S gay and lesbian employees won a huge victory last Please see MSU, 4A Local Sports Business Today "Waiting for Home: The Richard Prangley A book by the State Journal's John Schneider. Schneider's book excerpts begin Lansing State Journal Today in our LocalState section we'll begin a series of excerpts from "Waiting for Home: The Richard Prangley Story." The book, by State Journal columnist John Schneider, chronicles the life of Prangley, who, because of a misdiagnosis, spent 15 years from age 6 to 21 at the Coldwater State Home and Training School. Considered incapable of teaming for most of that time, Prangley transcended the preconceived notions and lack of opportunities to become a productive citizen and an advocate for the develop-mentally disabled. Prangley became a friend of three Michigan governors, the subject of a documentary film and the subject of national media attention.

The excerpts will run through April 11. For the first installment, See Page IB. But those already there say it's not really all that bad By Alice Ann Love Associated Press WASHINGTON Young and middle-aged Americans worry about losing their good health and independence as they grow old, but their elders report that the reality of aging isn't so bad, a new poll finds. The poll, released Saturday by the Americans Discuss Social Security project, found that people under age 50 tend to be pessimistic compared with the actual experiences of elderly people and expect to rely less on Social Security than current retirees. Unretired Americans also overestimate the likelihood of encountering problems as they age.

For example, 29 percent of people ages 18 to 34 expect to become dependent on their children, but only 8 percent of people over 80 said that has actually happened to them. About half of people under age 50 expect a serious illness to go along with aging, but only 32 percent of people over age 80 have encountered that. However, some of the expectations of young and middle-aged people about their retirement lifestyle are unreasonably optimistic, the survey found. Nearly half 48 percent of unretired adults said they expect retirement will be "a chance for a new beginning." Many expect to learn new skills, travel more and develop hobbies. But nearly 60 percent of retirees said their old age has been either a continuation of life before or "a step down." The telephone survey of 2,006 adults paid for by The Pew Charitable Trusts was conducted Oct.

14 to Nov. 17, 1997. The margin of error is plus or minus two percentage points. Retirees answered questions about their actual experiences in old age, while younger people were asked about their expectations. Most Americans said old age starts when people are in their sixties on average, at age 63.

The more affluent people are, the later they think old age begins, and those already over age 60 were more likely to say it doesn't set in until the 70s. But blacks and Hispanics, regardless of income, said the transition to old age begins earlier, in the late fifties. Books 9E Classified Crossword 8E Deaths 2B Lottery 2B Movie ads In terms of damage, El Nino's no demon CopyrightO 1998 Lansing State Journal. Lansing. Michigan.

A Gannatt Newspaper expectations. "Everybody was screaming that El Nino was going to be Armageddon, but our data reveals that's not what it's turned out to be," said Val Bunting of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. As of Wednesday, FEMA had paid more than $289 million for 1997-98 winter disasters. That compares with $294 million in 1996-97. The winter of 1996-97 had severe flooding in the West and the Ohio Valley, blizzards in the Da-kotas and Minnesota, and a tornado in Arkansas.

And the previous winter hosted a 13-state blizzard and flooding in the Middle Atlantic States, Northeast and Pacific Northwest. Getting a handle on FJ Nino's full impact in the United States is complicated. FEMA's tallies cover only a fraction of the losses. Associated Press LOS ANGELES Despite dire predictions, El Nino delivered a winter that was no costlier than either of the previous two in the United States. there's no doubt this winter was bad: floods in California and the South, blizzards on the Plains, an ice storm in New England, tornadoes in Florida.

But It didn't quite live up to "40901 "05 172 Michigan Press Association Newspaper of the Year 1997.