Honolulu Star-Bulletin from Honolulu, Hawaii • 6

A-6 Tuesday, December 12. 1W5 Star-tfulletin THE NATION 1 enate Mocks flasamendme nt BRIEFLY More national news, Associated Press would alter the Bill of Rights. "The guys in the powdered wigs had it about right in 1792," press secretary Mike McCurry said. The House last June approved, 312-120, a broader amendment that gives both Congress and the states the power to determine what is unlawful desecration of the national symbol. Before the final vote, the Senate rejected, 71-28, a substitute version proposed by Sen.

Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the leading Republican critic of a constitutional amendment The substitute would have barred desecration by legislative means rather than changing the Constitution. The Senate also defeated, 93-5, language proposed by Sen. Joseph Biden, that would remove the word 'desecration," which he said was too subjective, and empower Congress to bar the burning, mutilation or trampling of the flag, regardless of intent. Hatch, chief sponsor of the amendment, deleted reference to the states yesterday in a bid to overcome objections that the states would enact conflicting laws. "We have made a major concession" to help pick up the needed votes, he said.

Hatch's new version read: "The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States." If the Senate had adopted that language, the House and Senate would have had to work out a final version in a conference committee. Congress has proposed more than 10,000 amendments since the Constitution went into effect in 1789, but only 27 have been ratified. WASHINGTON In a close vote today, the Senate rejected a constitutional amendment giving Congress the power to prohibit physical desecration of the flag. The Senate voted 636 for the measure, three votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed for an amendment to the Constitution. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, Utah, said President Clinton's opposition to what proponents hoped would be the 28th Amendment to the Constitution was the decisive factor in its defeat.

The White House said today that Clinton would be open to a federal law banning desecration of the flag, but that he opposes a constitutional amendment that i xt Pilot fears turn off Vegas laser lights Welfare-health link endangered ii King of Pop released front hospital NEW YORK Michael Jackson smiled and gave his screaming, crying fans the peace sign as he walked out of a hospital today, nearly a week after collapsing from a virus. "Michael, we love you! We love you!" several women cried as they tried to chase after the white van that whisked the 37-year-old singer away from Beth Israel Hospital-North Division. Jackson heavily made up with foundation and rouge but walking on his own paused briefly as he left the hospital, put his fingers to his lips as if giving the crowd a kiss, made a peace sign, waved and then left. Jackson publicist Lee Solters in Los Angeles and hospital spokeswoman Doreen Foster said they did not know where he will go to recuperate. His doctors said Jackson would require several days of rest in bed and close monitoring as an outpatient in the next few weeks.

Balloons rank high as killer of kids CHICAGO Balloons kill more children than any other toy except bicycles and other riding devices, according to reports published today. "The findings indicate a need for greater public awareness of the dangers balloons pose to children of any age and a search for solutions to the problem," said a study conducted at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. While food is still the major culprit in choking cases, the reports said that balloons lead the list when it comes to man-made objects. The conclusion came from records at the Consumer Product Safety Commission and those of children treated for choking at the Pittsburgh hospital, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study said most balloon deaths involve a scrap of balloon material, which can block air passages if a child accidentally inhales it.

Pastor, wife cleared in child-sex trial WATERVILLE, Wash. It began with the ugliest of accusations a pastor and his wife holding orgies with children in the church. It ended with acquittals, sobs of joy and a federal probe into whether youngsters were coerced into making it all up. "I've said all along we're not guilty and we're not guilty," Connie Roberson said after she and unordained Pentecostal Pastor Robert Roberson were cleared yesterday. Roberson, 50, and his wife, 46, could each have faced up to 20 years in prison if convicted on charges of child rape and molestation.

The Robersons still face charges they fraudulently obtained $27,000 in welfare aid between 1991 and 1995. They are scheduled for trial Dec. 21 in that case. But they said their first priority is to get back their 5-year-old daughter. The child, one of the alleged victims, denied on the stand she had ever been abused.

From Star-Bulletin news services the welfare bill would go farther in some ways. It would sever the link between welfare and Medicaid that has existed since the health insurance program was established in 1965, and it would limit states' ability to expand eligibility for Medicaid. The proposal is part of a campaign by Republicans in Congress to curtail federal guarantees and requirements and to entrust more power to state officials. President Clinton has already threatened to veto the welfare bill. Its elimination of the link between welfare and Medicaid might give him another reason to do so.

The new bill says, "A state is not required to provide medical assistance to any individual under the Medicaid program on the basis that the individual is receiving aid or assistance" in the form of Aid to Families With Dependent Children, foster care payments or adoption assistance. A Senate Republican who worked on the legislation said yesterday that this provision "breaks the direct link between AFDC and Medicaid that currently Associated Press LAS VEGAS Federal regulators, worried that pilots flying over Las Vegas might be temporarily blinded, have pulled the plug on the laser light shows that flash nightly over this glittering resort city. The lights were ordered shut off immediately within a 20-mile radius of McCarran International Airport until the casinos can show that they can keep the beams out of the eyes of pilots. The ban by the Federal Drug Administration comes in response to increased complaints from pilots who say they have been momentarily unable to see after the light beams flashed in their cockpits. The FDA usually regulates lasers as medical devices.

"We must all do our parts to prevent the occurrence of a tragedy that could cost hundreds of lives," FDA compliance official Lillian J. Gill told a half dozen casinos in a letter sent yesterday ordering the shutof Gill said the ban affects only Las Vegas, but said her agency wouldn't hesitate to extend the ban to other areas where outdoor laser light shows might pose a ban to airplane pilots. McCarran has received 51 reports of pilots blinded by the lights. In one case, a copilot was forced to grab the controls after a pilot was blinded. New York Times WASHINGTON A little-noticed addition to the Republican welfare bill, now awaiting final action in Congress, would eliminate the longstanding guarantee of health insurance coverage for many welfare recipients.

The versions of the welfare bill initially passed by the House and the Senate would have retained the guarantee of Medicaid coverage for anyone qualifying for cash assistance under the standards in effect on June 1 of this year. But a confidential draft of the report by a House-Senate conference committee, containing the full text of the compromise bill, shows that Republican negotiators from the two chambers intend to eliminate that guarantee. The conferees are considered likely to adopt the new provision, and Republicans have the votes to pass the compromise measure in both chambers. The budget bill vetoed last week by President Clinton would have given states wide latitude to decide who gets what Medicaid benefits. But the latest version of 1, 3 II II I Associated Press rtAbC OUbw: President and Mrs.

Clinton look as 9-year-old Angela Maxey releases her "peace bomb" at the White House today at a meeting of people involved in projects to aid Bosnia. The papier mache "bomb was filled with photos of Bosnian and Croatian children. FROM PAGE ONE I i Living, working on Aquarius sm SV-J was experience or a hretime A 1 i i UNDERSEA: Isle scientists take a working adventure FROMA-l Brian Popp was co-investigator with San-sone. The two do similar research at the top of the reef in Kaneohe Bay and the Keys project was a chance to explore a deeper part of the reef, they said. While the divers had trouble trying to prevent fungal growth and stay warm in layers of wet suits, the whole thing was "a huge adventure," Sansone said.

The group had special training and medical tests for four days before moving into the habitat, about five miles off Key Largo on the edge of the Gulf Stream. In the undersea team from the UH School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology were Popp; Jane Culp, data technician at the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory; and Terri Rust, research associate. Others were Gordon Tribble, with the U.S. Geological Survey in Hawaii; Jim Fourqurean of Florida International University; and Paul Hunter, habitat technician. Hunter is with the University of North Carolina-Wilmington's National Undersea Research Center, which operates the habitat for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Sansone said the experience was "like a scuba diver's dream. You could stay under the water diving as long as you wanted, with an endless supply of filled scuba tanks waiting for you." Divers from support vessels left tanks at dive sites every day so the scientists could swap if they were running out of air. They also could fill the tanks on the habitat and in a separate gazebo. The National Undersea Research Center supplied four boats, a support barge and about 15 people for around-the-clock support for the Hawaii team. Sansone said he planned the project seven years ago when the Aquarius was at St.

Croix, but Hurricane Hugo wiped out the operation. It resumed in late 1993 in the Florida Keys. The proposal was resubmitted to look at the reef's natural system, which has nutrients produced when organic materials from the ocean are trapped in the reef and decompose, Sansone said. "As it turns out, we stepped into a big political ruckus down there about what happens to sewage. We discovered real quickly after we wrote the proposal we said the magic word, which is Gene Shinn of the U.S.

Geological Survey had put some deep wells in the reef off Key Largo and found a lot of nutrients, which people fear is from sewage, Sansone said. "They know it's leaking into nearshore waters. The question is whether it's traveling under the rock out onto the reef." Because of concerns that algal growth from sewage nutrients might destroy the reef, Sansone said "they latched onto us" to explore the issue. The findings also will be useful here because of algal blooms off some island shorelines, he said. In addition to sampling existing deep wells, the scientists drilled 11 two-inch-wide holes in reef rock with a 90-foot drill and hydraulic line.

They pounded eight others in the sand with a sledgehammer. Smelly samples of reef water were collected and processed by Culp and Rust in the habitat and by Sansone in the barge's lab. The undersea research center provided $15,000 for each of two years for the project. Sansone also has a $200,000 three-year National Science Foundation grant. Sansone said the group plans to return to the Aquarius next year and put in deeper said: "Grab your fins and swim." The Aquarius' comfortable but close quarters can accommodate six people for up to 10 days, with three bunks on each side in a cylinder.

It has a small laboratory, a kitchen, a separate gazebo to escape to and an outdoor "lanai" for the scuba tanks. The entrance is an opening called a moon pool. It leads to an unpressurized "wet porch" in the habitat The divers had to take fresh water showers with surgical scrub soap when leaving the water to prevent skin infections. They could watch deep water fishes from one porthole. UH geologist-geo-physicist Brian Popp said they saw a lot of barracuda around the habitat, a couple sharks and "two very beautiful spotted eagle rays." The other porthole, looking out on the reef, was occupied by an octopus with her eggs, Culp said.

"It was like somebody threw lilikoi on the window," Tribble said. They had a well-stocked refrigerator, a good supply of dried food and one hot meal a day lowered to them and heated in their microwave, they said. The scientists said they were constantly monitored, both in and out of the habitat, and they had superb support from the surface. A great fear is that divers will get lost and run out of air supply, Sansone said. So each diver was equipped with a pinger locater, strobe light, two compasses and two depth gauges.

"The amount of diving gear you have to wear is staggering," Tribble said. By Helen Altonn Star-Bulletin A minute after he stuck his head in the chamber of the Aquarius, it felt as if he'd had two quick beers, said the University of Hawaii oceanographer. The habitat was 50 feet below the water's surface with pressure two to three times heavier than normal, said Frank Sansone. "People get a little giddy," he said, "and sounds echo a lot. You can hear yourself speaking.

It's very disorienting." But Hawaii scientists who recently six days in the Aquarius off Key Largo, are ready to go again. "It was the experience of a lifetime," said Jane Culp, with the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory "Being in a wet suit from 8 to 5 was not much fun," said Gordon Tribble, with the U.S. Geological Survey in Hawaii. But, it was a rare opportunity to work at depths for long periods without having to do deep-compression diving, he said. The scientists were checked for claustrophobia and given much safety instruction during training.

They said the Aquarius has a good safety record, but several other missions were canceled because of an electrical fire. "We had the first fire drill in the history of the habitat. That was entertaining," Tribble said. The drill was, he BY CRAIG T. KOJIMA, SUr-BuUetin Prom left, Gordon Tribble, Terri Rust, Brian Popp, Jane Culp and Frank Sansone, holding a picture of the underwater tank Aquarius, their home 50 feet below the water off Key Largo in November.

wells with monitors to calculate how much nutrient-rich water from the reef is going into the sea water. People who work on coral reef chemistry may assume the rotten smell is caused by pollution, but a lot is natural from breakdown of organic material, Tribble said. "Until you know what the natural environment is," he added, "it's hard to talk about what is the human overprint." MISSING: HGEA and the state share resources in cyber search "1 plete with a wide array of linking sites and an identifying logo created by HGEA employee Ginger English. Clarkin supplied photos with accompanying information and the cyber search for missing children was launched. Clarkin said law enforcement officials are "very happy to see this because they get pictures of abductors and the child" virtually instantaneously.

And, particularly when a child is kidnapped by a stranger, speed is essential. In such cases, chances of finding a child alive after 48 hours decrease significantly, Clarkin said. "This is something we can do," said Miller. "The cause kind of touches you If we can contribute to the recovery of a child, that million and 40 million people worldwide routinely surf the 'Net. And the number grows every day.

The page was born after HGEA information systems supervisor Michael Miller saw a television report on the Wal-Mart company's efforts to find missing children by posting their pictures on bulletin boards in their stores. Since HGEA had recently become an Internet provider for its members, Miller decided he'd take the Wal-Mart scheme a step beyond. "I practically leaped through the telephone line when he told me," Clarkin said. That was less than two weeks ago. In that time, Miller mobilized his high-tech troops and they came up with a full-service web page com FROMA-1 Kempton and hundreds of other children snatched from custodial parents and taken away from all they'd ever known.

Photos of the children, biographical information and data about their alleged abductors can now be found on a web page provided by HGEANet, an Internet service operated by the union that represents more than 23,000 government workers in Hawaii. Since many children abducted in Hawaii end up on the mainland or on foreign soil, their inclusion on the Internet dramatically increases the odds of finding them, said Ed Yagi, HGEA's "web master" who helped make the concept a reality. He estimated between 35 will make it all worthwhile." Since Donna Kempton would be 46 years old now, the age-progression photo prepared by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and displayed on the Clearinghouse web page could be the key to unraveling her mystery. At the least, Clarkin's convinced that the Internet gives searchers another valuable tool. Since its inception last year, the Clearinghouse has reunited 52 children with their parents or legal guardians, Clarkin said.

Funded by the state last year, the Clearinghouse is looking more and more to private donors to raise funds. The Internet address of the Clearinghouse page is: http: www.hgea.orgHSC By Kathryn Bender, sur-BuUetm HGEA computer expert Ed Yogi and Anne Clarkin of the State Clearinghouse on Missing Children look at a photo of Katsuyo Ong, who has been missing since May 25..