The Dispatch from Moline, Illinois • 33

June 14, 1992 D5 Commentary THE SUNDAY DISPATCH, Moline, Illinois Bumper crop of interns gives papers a fresh look fy t'VJ j7 lrv' 1 IK A Joel Carlson Craig Juszak Christine Romans 111 I Massa Bayrakdar Sonja West Victoria Forlinl While many newspapers across the nation tackled tight budgets by eliminating or curtailing internship programs this year, happily we went the other way. Our crop of interns this summer is the largest in memory. These young people are adding a fresh look to the coverage in The D'u patch, The Argus and The Leader as they learn about "real newspa-pering." During our intern selection process this year, we heard over and over from applicants that many newspapers weren't hiring interns because business was down. Not faced with such a restriction, we were like kids in a candy store picking from our rather tall stack of applications. We think we came up with some terrific young journalists whose work you'll be seeing on our pages the rest of the summer.

And who knows, perhaps one or more of them will return some day as a full-time staff member. Speaking of the regular staff, we've expanded the copy desk for The Dispatch and The Argus with the addition of Joel Carlson, a name familiar to many of our readers. Joel was a part-time sportswriter here from 1986 to 1990, applying what he was learning at Moline High School where in 1988 he served as editor-in-chief of the Lynn Hays, who has been a part-time staffer on the Data Desk in the Moline newsroom, will spend the summer interning on the city staff in Rock Island She is a graduate of Augustana College with a BA in English, where she was production editor of SAGA Augustana's Literary magazine. She was a tutor and also interned in the Rock Island County State's attorney's office. She was a technical writer for Metro Desktop Publishing, Rock Island, a legal secretary in the state's attorney's office, and an administrative assistant for American Inventory Service, Davenport, before joining the Data Desk.

She lives in Rock Island. Filling in for Lynn as a Data Desk intern this summer is Massa Bayrakdar. Massa is a resident of Bettendorf and was editor of the Bettendorf High School newspaper her senior year. She is currently attending Tufts University, Medford, where she has been a contributing writer for The Tufts Daily. Sonja West also will intern for the city desk.

She is a student at the University of Iowa with a double major in journalism and communication studies. She is a beat reporter for The Daily Iowan and an honors research assistant. The Bettendorf native was editor of The Spartan Shield, the school Brian Bohannon paper at Pleasant Valley High School. Victoria Forlini has joined the Life department working on Hot Topics and other features. She also is a student at the University of Iowa and spent last summer editing a book for the Capital Research Center in Washington, D.C.

The Rock Island native has some proficiency in French and sign language and exposure to Chinese. Brian Bohannon is our photo department intern. He continues a Magic's book may help stem the spread of AIDS, but only if we heed the message A ivay to ensure president is chosen by popular vote NEW YORK It's beginning to sound like a homeowner confronting the spread of toxic waste: "It's going into the House! It's going into the House!" What the spate of news reports are talking about of course, is the prospect of the House of Representatives choosing the next president of the United States. That's what will happen if Bush, Perot and Clinton divide the electoral votes among them so that none of them receives a Russ Scott 3fcrt school newspaper, the Line O'Type. He graduated this spring from Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington with a BA degree in accounting and a minor in Spanish.

At IWU, he was president of Student Senate with responsibility for hiring a nine-member executive board and allocating a $170,000 budget On the copy desk, he augments an experienced group of full-time editors, now 10 in number, who-daily provide the final editing of all news-side copy and design news pages for The Dispatch and The Argus. Long-time readers of The Dispatch know the Carlson name for another reason. Joel's father, Paul, was sports editor of the paper for 25 years until his death at age 51 in 1979. We're delighted the family tradition continues here. In a curious twist, Joel's supervisor is Gordon Nelson, who was hired as a sports writer for The Dispatch by Paul Joan Beck the swinging '70s, there's "a direct rebellion against the prevailing atmosphere." "The sex genie can't be put back in the bottle," he writes.

"There's a resurgence of public sexuality gay and straight." Most people in the United States do know the most important facts about how AIDS is spread, according to repeated surveys by the National Center for Health Statistics. In a 1990 survey, for example, 97 percent of whites said that any person with the AIDS virus could pass it along to someone else through sexual intercourse. And 96 percent said it was "very likely" that a person would get AIDS or the AIDS virus infection from sharing needles Carlson 25 years ago this week and succeeded him as sports editor. Now, let me introduce you to our 1992 interns: Craig Juszak, a native of Crystal Lake, 111., is on the city news staff. He's a senior at the University of Indiana and will graduate after the Fall 1992 semester.

He also attended Iowa State. He has written for the Iowa State Daily, The Indiana Daily Student and The Caduceus, an international publication of Kappa Sigma fraternity. At school he works in the public relations department for a student organization that funds activities for students and faculty. He previously interned with The Northwest Herald, a daily newspaper in Crystal Lake. Christine Romans, who's interning at The Leader in Scott County, is a journalism and French major at Iowa State and a native of LeClaire, Iowa.

She spent last summer at L'Instut Catholique de Lyon in Lyon, France, where she studied French literature and French media. She has been staff writer, city editor, columnist and opinion editor of the Iowa State Daily. She has been ISU Government of Student Body public relations director, student coordinator of the University Media Advisory Council, and a member of Phi Beta Phi sorority. for drug use. Responses from blacks and from Hispanics varied by no more than 2 percentage points.

Some still hold misconceptions about the spread of AIDS. But they are remarkably clear about the major dangers: sex or sharing intravenous needles with an infected person. The larger problem Elsewhere in the world, the problem is much more complicated. In countries where women have almost no rights or power, it is extremely difficult to make safer-sex messages effective or to change the cultural attitudes that would make them acceptable. Women and their children suffer a much larger proportion of AIDS infections than in the United States.

And when health care is primitive, even needles used in medical settings aren't safe. In the United States, meanwhile, there's increasing realization that a cure for AIDS isn't likely soon. Neither is a safe and effective vaccine. And tests of what seemed to be choices. "Never before," commented Richard Winger, publisher of the San Francisco-based Ballot Access News, "has the Supreme Court upheld any law which tells the voter that he may not vote for someone who meets the constitutional requirements for the office." Decision ironic It is particularly ironic that this decision comes down at a moment of history when the voters are expressing their dissatisfaction with the candidates of both parties.

Ross Perot's bid will not be affected, because he has the money and organization to get his name on the ballot in 50 states. But in coming years, many less affluent and well-publicized candidates undoubtedly will be denied the opportunity to wage write-in campaigns. The Hawaii case suggests why fine tradition of summer photo interns from Western Kentucky University. He has been a staff photographer for the student newspaper, College Heights Herald, and last summer worked as a custom printer in a Louisville photo lab. He also worked as a photographer for the Valdez Vanguard in Valdez, Alaska, in the summer of 1989.

He is majoring in photojournalism and minoring in folk studies. He is a native of Louisville. Russ Scott is the Dispatch's managing editor. Jeff Greenfield nale offered by the state meaning its Democratic Party. Write-ins, he agreed, could encourage "divisive sore-loser candidacies," "unrestrained factionalism" and "party-raiding" organized attempts by the opposition to nominate sure losers on the other side.

To anyone with an ounce of savvy, these sound like rationalizations concocted by politicians who are bent on eliminating opposition. In the more polite language of Justice Kennedy's dissent "the state's proffered justifications for the write-in prohibition are not sufficient under any standard to justify the significant impairment of the constitutional rights of voters." The high court's willingness to back the state authorities and ride roughshod over individual rights in this case does not bode well for the big abortion decision to come. (c) 1992. Washington Post Writers Group majority. And it is the stuff of which bad political novels are made.

Twenty-six votes (a majority of states) are needed to choose a president; each state gets one vote, so that Alaska has as much power as California; if a state's delegation splits evenly, that state's vote doesn't get counted. This process is supposed to go on until a president is chosen. Too many questions None of this begins to hint at the twists and turns in this process. Should a representative vote his conscience? His party? The choice of his district? His state? The national popular vote? Suppose the Senate has chosen a new vice president and the House is deadlocked. Should the House simply give up and let the new veep govern? And how much legitimacy will be granted any president chosen in such a manner? It's a nightmare all right; but it doesn't have to happen even if no candidate receives an electoral majority on election night Let each candidate for president publicly pledge that if no one receives an electoral majority, he will instruct his electors to vote for whichever candidate receives the most popular votes.

You remember the electors. They're the totally unknown individuals who gather in the state capitals in mid-December to cast the votes that actually elect the president In almost all states, whichever candidate gets the most votes gets all of the state's electoral votes. As the Founding Fathers imagined it these electors would be distinguished men and women, whose job would be to sift and winnow among the worthiest citizens, and find the best possible president It never worked that way, of course. From the beginning, these electors turned into loyal agents of the parties and the candidates. Today, many states have laws punishing those electors who do not vote for the candidate to whom they're pledged.

In fact, though, these electors are free agents. More important they would almost certainly follow the urgings of their candidate, and vote for the popular vote victor. Clinton's response When I asked Bill Clinton about this idea, he mused about what would happen if the top vote-getter got 34 percent of the vote; would the American people want a president that two-thirds of the country rejected? Fair enough; but that's exactly how we choose most other major offices. With few exceptions, we don't do runoffs; if a Senate candidate gets one more vote than his opponents, he wins, even if his two challengers were much closer ideologically. In recent history, Harry Truman, John Kennedy and.

Richard Nixon each received less than a majority of popular votes. Whatever the complexities of a three-way race, there is one near-certainty: A candidate who enters the White House without having received more votes than anyone else would be a lame duck from Inauguration Day. And the three candidates can, with one simple agreement make sure that does not happen. Jeff Greenfield Is syndicated columnist and a political reporter lor ABC television. "I'm not a hero because I got HIV.

And I didn't get HIV because I was a "bad' person or a 'dirty one or someone who 'deserved' to get HIV. I got HIV because I had unprotected sex. I got HIV because I thought HIV could never happen to someone like me." How many people can Magic Johnson, newly primed with medical information and politically correct attitude, influence with his straight-talk book about AIDS? Not enough, of course. But every infection prevented, every death that can be avoided is important in what is still a losing battle. At least Johnson has the message right this time.

When he first went public with his HIV diagnosis, he talked about "safe sex." His book says bluntly, "Please notice: I said 'safer not 'safe In today's world, there is no such thing as absolutely 'safe sex' when we're talking about intercourse." Last week, Harvard University researchers estimated that the worldwide total of people with AIDS is now 2.6 million and that 13 million people are already infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. They predicted that 24 million people will have developed AIDS by the year 2000. In the United States, AIDS cases reached 218,301 by the end of March, according to the Centers for Disease Control; 141,223 people have died. A global epidemic Calling AIDS a "global epidemic that is heading out of control," the Harvard researchers urged new worldwide strategies to battle the virus. And they warned of the escalating social and economic devastation the disease will produce, particularly as it spreads in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, unless better ways to check it can be developed.

What's discouraging about the continuing spread of AIDS is that it could largely be prevented by individual decisions. HIV is most often transmitted from one person to another by careless sex or intravenous drugs, risks that are still being taken even in the face of death, when the dangers are well-known. For example, in New York magazine last week, writer Michael Gross samples the Manhattan sex club scene and reports that while it isn't Write-in WASHINGTON The big Supreme Court decision of the year the Pennsylvania abortion case is still a couple of weeks away. But last week, when the justices had a chance to decide how far Hawaii could go in regulating a different kind of personal behavior, they blew it big-time. Sue of the nine members ruled that Hawaii can bar citizens from casting a write-in vote in any election.

More than that, the majority opinion written by Justice Byron White virtually invited other states to enact similar laws. In most circumstances, he said, "a prohibition on write-in voting will be presumptively valid." Today, only five states Hawaii, Louisiana, Nevada, Oklahoma and South Dakota bar write-ins entirely, Nebraska, South Carolina and Virginia have prohibitions for the some promising new treatments have been disappointing. So it must be said again and again until the message is not only heard but heeded that the best weapon against AIDS is to reduce the behaviors that allow the virus to spread. And here, Magic Johnson's contribution is surely welcome. "What You Can Do To Avoid AIDS" is small enough to fit in a jeans pocket.

The words are precise, blunt and defined. The sentences are short. The reading level is simple. The type is big. The most important points are set in larger, bold face.

The message is unequivocal and direct: "Take responsibility. It's your life. Remember: The safest sexis no sex, but if you choose to have sex, have safer sex each and every time. HIV happened to me, so I know it could happen to you. I want you to be safe.

Your life is worth it." Magic Johnson may be one of the best messengers around. May his book be as effective as we urgently need it to be. Joan Beck is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune. strong defenders of the two-party system believe the write-in safety-valve is worth protecting. Hawaii is a one-party bastion, where the governor and lieutenant governor, all four members of Congress, and all but nine of the 76 members of the legislature are Democrats.

The Republican Party is so weak it rarely mounts a serious challenge. Voters often find they have no more options than on the old Soviet-style ballot which listed but a single candidate. As Justice Anthony M. Kennedy noted in his dissent, one-third or more of recent Hawaii legislative "races" drew only one contender, the incumbent By banning write-ins, Hawaii makes life even easier for its politicians. For many of them, the primary is the end of the campaign.

If no one has filed against a nominee, he is instantly declared to have been elected. I ruling rides roughshod over voters' rights Like most states, Hawaii has a variety of regulations for getting onto the ballot, which have the effect of limiting competition. Only the Libertarians have gained ballot position. In the last 10 years, eight people (out of 26 who tried) have met the requirements to be nominated for office as independents. Requirements stringent Filings close 60 days before the primary, 102 days before the election.

Should the often-unchallenged candidate lapse into scandal or otherwise offend his constituents, no one can mount a write-in campaign against him. The majority decided this rather tightly controlled set of procedures allowed Hawaii voters and prospective candidates all the freedom they needed, so write-ins were a luxury they did not require. But why bar them? White bought the ralio- David 'vjy Broder presidential election. But with the high court's blessing, the movement could spread. Few write-in candidates win elections.

But instances of success can be found at almost every level of politics including the U.S. Senate. Through more than 200 years of history, the write-in option has existed almost everywhere in this country, whenever one citizen or a multitude had an impulse to rebel and vote for someone other than the prescribed.