The Californian from Salinas, California • 3

Californlan NATION WEDNESDAY, May Diabetes complications linked to ethnicity Study finds heart attacks sity of Colorado School of Medicine. He warned, however, that minorities develop type-2 diabetes at a higher rate than white patients. A larger number of members of ethnic groups are at risk overall as a result. For different ethnic groups, this confirms "there are certain intrinsic differences," said Dr. Mayer B.

Davidson, diabetes researcher and director of clinical trials unit at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Asians and Latinos, Karter said. Asians were least likely to require amputations. But blacks, Latinos and Asians were far more likely than whites to experience kidney failure. The mortality rate is 50 percent in the first five years of kidney disease, Karter said.

Researchers described the paper as important and say it opens up new questions for study. "We have to look at the disparity and not assume whites are going to do better," said Dr. Richard Hamman, chief of preventative medicine at the Univer- disparity exists, "you can't really tell if that's due to biology or quality of care." The study compared the rates of incidence of major complications among the HMO's patients with type-1 and type-2 diabetes from 1996 to 1999. Type 1 patients are required to control the disease, while those with type 2 often can combat symptoms through diet and exercise. In addition to the finding about heart attacks, researchers found that whites and blacks were at greater risk of developing stroke or congestive heart failure than Karter, an epidemiologist with Kaiser Permanente's division of research in Oakland.

The differences probably have a genetic link, said Karter, the lead author of the study, to be published today in the Journal of the American Medical Associatioa Karter said that most research comparing the incidence of disease among different ethnic groups includes both insured and uninsured patients, sometimes leading to inconclusive results. "You may get a biased look at complications in these national studies," he said, adding that if a Kaiser Permanente researchers studied more than 62,000 diabetes patients in California, and found that whites were more likely than blacks, Asians and Latinos to experience heart attacks but less likely to experience kidney failure. Researchers say the study provides the first definitive data about disparities in how diabetes affects different ethnic groups. "When people do have fairly consistent access to health care, ethnic disparities diminish or are dramatically different' than previously reported, said Andrew biggest risk for whites while kidney failure stalks other races more By Liz F.Kay Los Angeles Times The link between ethnicity and complications from diabetes is more consistent than researchers had previously thought, even when all patients have equal access to health care, a large-scale study has found. 'He has worn this crime on his chest like a badge of honor' The Rev.

Maurice Blackwell is reported in Robert Posey, prosecutor serious but stable condition. Church bomb suspect bragged, prosecutor says Prosecutor: Defendant in '63 Birmingham church bombing wore the crime like 'Klan medal' iryim iff1 Vtlt K-S. iW. M-Vi AS Priest shot by man who said he was abuse victim By Gretchen Parker The Associated Press BALTIMORE A priest was shot and seriously wounded outside his home by a man who accused him of abuse nine years ago, authorities said Tuesday in the latest tragic turn in the sex scandal engulfing the Roman Catholic Church. Dontee Stokes, 26, surrendered Monday night and said he shot the Rev.

Maurice Blackwell after the priest refused to talk to him, police spokeswoman Ragina Averella said. Stokes was charged with attempted murder, gun violations and assault Blackwell, 56, was in serious but stable condition at University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center. His family declined to talk to reporters. In 1993, the church concluded that Stokes' claims of being molested by Blackwell as a teenager were not credible. However, the priest has been on involuntary leave since 1998 because of allegations leveled by another alleged victim.

"This kind of tragedy is something we've feared for some time," said Barbara Blaine of Chicago, founder of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. Cardinal William Keeler said Tuesday he was "appalled that another act of violence has occurred in the city of Baltimore." THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Bobby Frank Cherry, right, watches Tuesday with his attorney Mickey Johnson as a witness prepares to testify in the murder trial of the former Ku Klux Klansman in Birmingham, Ala. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Shattered logs and a twisted tractor trailer frame are seen on the railroad track Tuesday near Coosawhatchie, S.C., after an Amtrak train struck a log truck at a crossing. All 10 cars and the train's engine derailed. Amtrak train hits log truck, derails i By Jay Reeves The Associated Press BIRMINGHAM, Ala.

A trial that could finally close one of the ugliest chapters of the civil rights era the 1963 church bombing that killed four black girls opened Tuesday with a prosecutor saying Bobby Frank Cherry boasted of the crime as if it were "a Klan medal" "He has wom this crime on his chest like a badge of honor," prosecutor Robert Posey told the mostly white jury. "He said his only regret was that more people hadn't died in this bombing." An attorney for the 71- year-old former Ku Klux Klansman countered that everyone who claims to have heard Cherry's boasts including a granddaughter and a former brother-in-law is "inherently unreliable." "He did not say this," defense attorney Mickey Johnson said. Cherry could get life in prison if convicted. The trial represents one of the biggest pieces of unfinished business from the civil rights movement. The bombing galvanized protesters and helped bring about new civil rights laws, but also haunted Binningham for almost four decades.

The girls were in the basement of the 16th Street Baptist Church, getting ready for a Sunday morning service, when the dynamite bomb tore through a wall on Sept. 15, 1963. The city's public schools had been desegregated five days only earlier, and the church had become a rallying point for marchers, including waves of children. Killed were Carole Robertson, Addie Mae Collins and Cynthia Wesley, all 14, and Denise McNair, 1L Cherry and other Klansmen were suspected from the start, but the FBI was reluctant to press the case in the segregationist city. It was more than a decade before the first suspect was tried, and nearly two more decades passed before the investigation the courtroom as testimony began.

Maxine McNair later sat in the witness stand and told the jury about being in the church when the bomb exploded. Bobby Birdwell, a childhood friend of one of Cherry's sons, testified that he was at the Cherry house the week before the bombing. He said he saw four men, including Cherry, sitting at a table talking. "I heard them mention 'bomb' and 'Sixteenth said Bird-well, who was 11 at the time. He said he also saw what looked to be a white Klan robe on a sofa.

Birdwell said he didn't tell anyone, including his parents. was reopened after black ministers complained to the city's chief FBI agent in 1993. A second suspect was convicted last year, but Cherry's trial was delayed when a judge ruled him mentally incompetent because of brain damage. The judge reversed himself after experts said Cherry was faking. Cherry sat impassively at the defense table Tuesday as the mother of one of the victims recalled hearing the powerful explosion while she was at home.

"It was just an awful sound, like something shaking the world all over," said Alpha Robertson, seated in front of jurors in a wheelchair. Denise's parents, Chris and Maxine McNair, sat at the front of Scott Sturvist Properties Your Key to Sunbelt Properties North Main Shell 1198 N. MAIN 449-4566 Call me for all your Real Estale needs. Conveniently located off Hwy 6S in the Toro Park Shopping Center, next to 7-11. Scott Sturvist, Broker Office: K.1 1 -4K4-G621 For a full view of my listing vivit www.comhirviMproperltps.com The train was carrying 103 passengers and 13 crew.

Most of the injuries were neck and back, said Mike Hodges, emergency management director for Jasper County. The uninjured passengers were being taken by bus to Jacksonville, and from there Amtrak said it would get everyone to their destinations. "I just finished a cup of coffee. I took my last sip, and then we heard said Jerry Gagliardo of Hastings, Fla. "It looked like we were tipping over." The accident left logs scattered around the crossing and about a quarter-mile down the tracks where the engine stopped.

The crossing has no active warning devices such as bells or descending gate arms, according to Fed- eral Railroad Administration records. Tuesday's derailment was the second serious accident involving Amtrak in as many months. Four passengers died and more than 150 people were injured when an Amtrak Auto Train derailed on April 18 in Crescent City, Fla. 14 passengers suffer minor injuries By Russ Bynum The Associated Press QOOSAWHATCHIE, S.C. Ah.

'Amtrak train struck a log truck at a crossing Tuesday, derailing all Id cars and causing minor injuries to 14 people on board, emergency officials said. The train, traveling from New York to Miami, was going 79 mph when it hit the rear quarter of the truck, separating the bed from the cab and pushing the mangled wreckage and splintered logs down the The driver, who told police he did not see the train, was not injured though he was still in the cab when the train hit. "It knocked the breath out of me," said Eric J. McKinney of Pembroke, who was charged with failure to yield the right of way. "I didn't see anything until it was too late." Marion Blakey, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said the agency would investigate.

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