The Spokesman-Review from Spokane, Washington • 13

0 Baby Ryans family files lawsuit against Sacred lleartB3 Region SECTION Porno bill House approves bill to shield minors from obscene Saturday, April 15, 1S95 The Spokesman-Review Spokane, Wash Coeur d'Alene, Idaho To contact the City Desk, dial (509) 459-5400, Fax. (509) 459-5482 OpinionB4 for influx of cash for homeless But budget cuts may leave programs with less money than before likely cancel out each others votes, with. Murray in opposition and Gorton in) support. 7 One threatened program is the less office run by the Spokane Neighbor- hood Action Program. About half the $180,000 that the program uses to help! homeless families stick together comes from the federal treasury.

Its leaders hope for a boost from the) new grant to expand the work. They also; fear major cuts. Its (already) become more difficult; over the last year and a half to sustain our! activities, said Ray Riecker, an assistant; director of SNAP. The Clinton administration is trying to avoid major agency cutbacks, so it is offering big-dollar grants to help prove programs are in high demand. The Republican-controlled Congress is busy showing it can cut federal spending.

he 1 louse passed a plan to cut $17.5 billion from social programs already earmarked for this year. If the cuts survive the Senate and become law, then the Spokane homeless grant, as well as some current local money for housing assistance programs, will vanish. Spokane housing leaders have lobbied in Washington, D.C., trying to persuade the states delegation to spare the pro Band-Aid treatment, of just sheltering people, to giving them skills to get out of their situations, said June Shapiro, city director of Human Services. Shapiro also said the city, and the region's housing and homeless organizations, requested another $5 million in federal cash last week to help buy a new shelter and provide other homeless services. But the money may never arrive.

Instead, the city may actually have less money to help people cope with the housing squeeze and the homeless problem. The uncertainty is rooted in a political dance in the nation's capital. grams. Mary Jo Harvey, executive director of the Spokane Housing Authority, wrote the states lawmakers earlier this year, asking them to grasp the impact of the cuts on Eastern Washington constituents. She emphasized that many of the recipients of HUD assistance arent usually people with a lifetime of dependence on government cash.

Most, in fact, receive assistance for relatively short periods when experiencing a major crisis in their lives. Rep. George Nethercutt, voted for the assistance cuts. Washington Sens. Slade Gorton and Patty Murray will By Jim Lynch Stuff writer Unless the Republican Congress cancels a half-million dollar check, Spokanes growing homeless population may soon get a lot more attention.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced recently it intends to give the city a $594,000 grant to better counsel and track its homeless residents. Homeless advocates indicate the money would double the citys services for an estimated 6,000 homeless people in Spokane. Were trying to move from an area of Upwardly mobile West Side Stories it I Complaint; 11 are confusing By Eric Sorensen Stuff writer I PULLMAN For years, Washington State Univerj sity has had a smorgasbord of otlices to hear the complaints of the aggrieved. Theres an ombudsman, a Womens Center and a Human Rights Center, supervisors, department heads and deans.

But a complaint filed by six women alleging discrimination and retaliation suggests the universitys local brain trust is stumped when trying to settle differ-cnccs between employees. WemltlO One problem, raised by the women and supported by sev- hdVi bUlCC eral other college officials, has rattled around the university U'XTC people for years: Someone with a 1 complaint seems to have every- uOtl mVC 0 where to go; in reality they have nowhere to go. With no lOJlVC plflCCS sd outlet or office, t() find out who feels victimized wJina Ulil centralized someone i also feels adrift in the burcauc- ndjCKH they Vff racy. We want to have a place supposed tO where people dont have to go to five places to find out where theyre Supposed to go, said Dean Guenther, chairman of the Staff Senate Employee Relations Committee. The ombudsmans office is somewhat centralized, but a 7 lot of people dont know any- thing about it, Guenther said.

Human Resource Services, the main personnel agency and home of the Human Rights Center, can start them on a long process of referrals to other offices. You kind of get the feeling theres not anything" well set up to handle complaints, Guenther said. One of the women involved in the federal complairir spent three years talking to I luman Resource tne ombudsman, the Women's Center, the Affirmative; Action Office, the Washington State Employment' Advisory Service, a supervisor and her dean alt without satisfaction. She recently was transferred to secretarial job in the Puyallup extension office. Continued: ComplalntsB2! Point about porno backfires on legislator By Lynda V.

Mapcs Staff writer LYMPIA Most of the handouts lawmakers distribute to each other on the House floor are pretty dull. But the one distributed this week by Rep. Gene Goldsmith, R-Fcrndalc, was decidedly not. Goldsmith, a staunch pro-family conservative, used 14- and 15-year-old pages and a state copying machine to distribute a pornographic picture published in Western Washington Universitys student newspaper. The picture showed a naked woman with a piece of raw meat stabbed to her right breast with a bloody spike.

Goldsmith meant the piece to shock his colleagues into agreement with him that public colleges and universities ought to be privatized. But it didn't have quite that effect. Instead, House Speaker Clyde Ballard, R-East Wenatchee, publicly reprimanded Goldsmith for distributing the picture without his permission after House Democrats sent Ballard a note complaining about it. I Iis judgment on the distribution of this material is unquestionably poor at best, the letter stated. It was also an outrageous violation of a state law prohibiting exposure of minors to pornographic materials, passed by the House just dayslater, Democrats said.

Goldsmith issued a public apology to the pages and the I louse, but added: This is just one more reason I am calling for the privatization of all the states public universities. If the state doesn't have the power to stop pornographic university publications, at least taxpayers dont have to pay for them," The thinnest majority Senate Democrats have been having a tough enough time holding their one-vote majority together over the GOP. Some of their Democrats vote with Republicans on many issues. And now the majority has dwindled to a tie. One of the Senate's dependable Democratic votes, Sen.

Cal Anderson, has been hospitalized to undergo chemotherapy. While Anderson has been away, the Senate GOP has played. Twice this week, Republicans took over the Senate with parliamentary moves. The first time, GOP senators were stymied in their attempt to yank a bill from committee to the floor by Democrats who scratched up enough votes to defeat them. Not that it was easy: one Democratic senator was seen weeping after a four-hour closed-door session in which she was convinced to vote with her party.

Republicans also rammed thiough amendments to a regulatory reform bill using Lt. Gov. Joel Pritchard, a Republican, to break ties in their favor while Anderson was gone. The question is whether they will try next week to yank Initiative 164, the property rights initiative, out of committee for a floor vote a move Republicans have threatened throughout the session. It now would be easier to pull off.

Republicans deny taking advantage of Andersons illness. But Democrats arent convinced. This goes to a new level, A low level, said Sen. Marilyn Rasmussen, D-Eatonville. Slow going Conference committees were convened in open session for the first time in state history this week.

The pace was far from breathtaking: Negotiators reached only one agreement in four days of meetings. Too slow, far too slow. People are acting like peacocks and that always is a problem, said Rep. Jean Silver, R-Spokane, a member of the budget conference committee. slower than snails pace led one of the primary proponents of opening the meetings, Rep.

Dale Foreman, R-Wenatchce, to hedge on just how open the meetings ought to remain. Wouldnt it be faster, say, if just two of six members could meet privately to reach agreements, and then bring them to the committee? Foremans suggestion was panned by the other conferees this time. Cmislophor Andersorvlho Spokosman-Review Terri Willis of Spokane Community College goes up the pole in the 30-foot climb competition. She won her match and advanced In Friday's Logging Competition at the competition grounds at SCC. Lifting the burden Proposal simplifies forest practices Instead, the agency would use a mathematical model to ensure the forest provided enough habitat to keep species alive, he said.

Instead of going out to count spotted owls, you would go out and count acres of old-growth. Instead of monitoring owl population trends, you monitor old-growth acre trends. You will never know if your model is correct because youll never know if the number of the species is going up or down, Stahl said. Kevin Kirchncr, a lawyer for the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, added, Its like putting the canary in the coal mine and then telling the workers We are taking care of you. We installed all these things to make the mine safe, but we are not going to check to see if the canary is alive.

The change in the so-called viability rule" is expressed as an option" in the proposal the Forest Service published in the Federal Register on Thursday. The other option would be to stick with the current rule, a move opposed by the timber industry. The Forest Service, under the Bush administration, proposed doing away with the viability rule" altogether. Defending itself against environmen- Contlnued: ForestsB2 Foes say emphasis on restoring ecosystems deters other uses By Scott Sonner 1 Associated Press WASHINGTON The Clinton administration on Friday proposed streamlining rules governing logging, recreation and other activities on national forests while placing added emphasis on restoring damaged forest ecosystems. The proposed revisions of the National Forest Management Act drew criticism from environmentalists and timber industry leaders alike.

Industry officials said the new priority on maintaining sustainable ecosystems would undermine other laws directing national forests be managed for multiple use, including timber production. "This would change the whole purpose of the national forests, said Anne 1 Icisscnbuttel, director of forest planning and policy for the American Forest Paper Association. Instead of providing for goods and services for the American public, the rule says the principal goal of the national forests is to maintain or restore the sustainability of ecosystems," she said. i tasss The proposed changes are based on three central principles, which Include: El Making forest plans and planning procedures simpler, clearer and less expensive. II Promoting stronger relationships with the public and other government agencies.

Incorporating principles of ecosystem management Into the land management planning process. Source James Lyons, assistant agriculture secretary. Environmentalists said the proposed changes would result in less protection tor fish and wildlife, easing a requirement that the Forest Service maintain a "viable population of all vertebrates found on an individual national forest. Andy Stahl, executive director of the Association of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics based in Eugene, said the proposed change would free the Forest Service from monitoring populations of troubled species. Judy Hawk struggles to hold the cross during a Good Friday observance in Riverfront Park.

Hawk represented the Womens Drop-in Center, one of several organizations to sponsor stations ot the cross In the event. 4 West Side Stories runs every other week. i 7.