The Sacramento Bee from Sacramento, California • 18

I Oc flIIOIflflhItfi 140 I claw 0 a amioulay UIty -9 a au I OPINION The Sacramento Bee Locally owned and edited for 134 years JAMES McCLATCHY editor 1857-1883 CK McCLATCHY editor president 1883-1936 ELEANOR McCLATCHY president 1936-1978 WALTER JONES editor 1936-1974 CK McCLATCHY editor 1974-1989 GREGORY FAVRE executive editor PETER SCHRAG editorial page editor FRANK RJ WHITTAKER president and genera! manager Seeing Eastern Europe whole with Eastern Europe for aid trade and investment from the West And despite Moscow's failure so far to attempt the market-oriented reforms that its neighbors in Prague Budapest and Warsaw are daring its greater strategic importance may help it secure a disproportionate share of Western aid That could be a mistake: If the West values stability in all of Eastern Europe it must not allow such an imbalance to develop i i i ii si'' A I yYs- s- I -7'-ft' Sil '4 1: i I oelise 111 Iti ft 0 1 ''litiVe: i iieght loto 4 4 0 0 1 6 i 4i: ie to1 1111004111 i 1:64 tg ft Ao II ---tizi ''''fi NI1411bbk' I IIII de 4 4wxr: 0 el- 0 :::1 'I i- I ::4 i i A tt 1: :0 vi A :3 a 4 :4: ''It 11v '4 l's ctitaftle 'iililigiiiilip: 1 soiii: 1 4 1if-1a a 1 i i i I 11 1 1 i i i'S iniii :1 ell ''1 0 't': 1 I 1:1:::::::::::::::::: :1111:: -W: I 4 1 $7 I OMP 4011atri4 it Step by step the Soviet presence in Eastern Europe recedes The last Soviet troop trains left Hungary and Czechoslovakia last week at the same time Comecon the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance which regulated trade between Moscow and its fellow Communist countries closed up shop And yesterday the Warsaw Pact the military alliance that ceased to exist in fact months ago formally dissolved itself (Soviet troops remain in Poland and eastern Germany and are expected to leave by 1994) These historic events have been marked with little fanfare in Eastern Europe in part because the process began 18 months ago in part because people there know all too well the enormous problems they must now resolve on their own Economies that already were weak have grown weaker Inefficient as it was Comecon's barter-oriented system at least allowed Eastern Europe to obtain badly needed Soviet oil by sending Moscow manufactured goods that were hard to sell elsewhere Moscow now demands payment in scarce dollars and since the Soviets also have little hard currency their purchases of goods from the region have fallen dramatically Indeed Moscow is now in competition The European Community the world's largest marketplace has largely out of self-interest kept trade barriers high against many Eastern European products making economic growth even harder to achieve This myopia ought to be corrected when the seven major economic powers meet in London later this month Certainly the question of how to help Moscow is a crucial one but so is responding to Eastern Europe's needs Yugoslavia's current crisis notwithstand- ing its uniqueness in important respects ought to sound a cautionary note The last Russian soldier may be gone from Hungary and Czechoslovakia but that happy fact still leaves Eastern Europe beset by serious problems including ethnic tensions with potential consequences for all of Europe Sacram-enio Bee 'My nominee to replace Justice Marshall on the Supreme Court is a well-known opponent of racial quotas and affirmative action A base closes with hope el Undercounting the minorities POUTICS IN REVIEW By Martin Smith Political Editor uals were not counted The undercount in California is placed at 11 million Power and money are at stake The official census numbers are used in apportioning federal money to states and local communities They're also used to reapportion congressional representation between the states and to reshape legislative and congressional election districts within each state If By voting to close the Sacramento Army Depot as Defense Secretary Dick Cheney had recommended the national base-closing commission put 3400 Sacramento jobs in jeopardy But by also requiring that McClellan Air Force Base compete against five other installations for the repair work now done at the depot the commission held out the possibility that at least 2400 of those jobs can be preserved for the depot's workers and Sacramento Although that is not the best outcome Sacramento could have hoped for it is also not the worst Getting even that outcome was an uphill struggle The idea that an Air Force facility can repair Army equipment does not come naturally to the Pentagon It took the aggressive and intelligent efforts of Sacramento leaders from business and government to show the commission that the closure of the Army Depot could be achieved most economically and humanely by transferring a large part of its workload and work force to McClellan Although in the end the commission did not order that realignment its plan to put the Army Depot's work out to bid with McClellan as one of the bidders creates an opportunity to accomplish the same thing That means the battle to preserve the jobs of those who work at the Army Depot is not over California's congressional representatives will have to push hard to be sure that the bidding process the commission has mandated is set up fairly to consider the total cost of doing the Army Depot's work The leadership at McClellan will also have to enter the bidding enthusiastically not just for the sake of those who now work at the Army Depot or for the community but also with McClellan's own future in mind With more base closings inevitable as the military shrinks over the coming decade McClellan can miss no opportunity to attract new work to demonstrate its continuing importance to the nation's security The base closing commission has rewarded Sacramento's efforts with an opportunity to show it can do the job now it's up to Sacramento and McClellan to prove it I state would be entitled to lidn eighth additional seat in the US House of Representatives Since the undercounting most often occurred within minority neighborhoods those communities stand to gain the most from ayi adjustment The eighth new California congressional seat for example would probably represent a Hispanic district in Los Angeles The initial hopes of minority group leaders for the change may have been further buoyed by wishful thinking among members Qf the state's congressional delegation California's congressional incumbents want desperately to believe that enough new seats will be available to accommodate the ambitions of state legislators who want to move to Washington and their own hopes of remaining in the House Reports in the California news media also seemed to reflect a view that an adjustment of the census figures was highly likely if not inevitable But it still may not happen Indeed some inside 1-lurces in both Washington and Sacramento and among both Republicans and Democrats now think the odds are against an adjustment WASHINGTON Republi- can speaking on the coil- dition of anonymity said that when the survey report was first released he thought the chances for an adjustment were 50-50 Today he puts the odds against them perhaps by 60-40 explaining "It's beginning to look as if (the PES) is not a very good tool" tool of 5 1 5 1 1 1 1 4' 4 A A'is 'lll'alo' 11iTttlki 'ZI:" ilvdS)S1 Post 4 1 1 num 4 urvey 4: 111 4t SA oration -0: ir-1 1 -N :45: 1- vizj Iii i "vVP 0e 0 -3tttii-il :7::::::: s': Oii5d :40441044 Kt 0 413sif liiVt Shots not sound bites THE 1981-82 realignment of California election districts set off a futile decade-long series of bitter court suits and expensive initiative campaigns aimed at reforming the process Pushing the fight on several fronts were the state's Republican lead: ers who with considerable justice saw the Democratic gerrymandering of congressional and legislative districts as hideously unfair Little was accomplished except a further poisoning of the state's political atmosphere This time Democratic legislative leaders promise and circumstances may dictate that they'll be much more restrained if not altogether fair in how they propose carving up election districts But even if through some minor miracle Democratic and Republican party leaders resolve their differences on a reasonably amicable basis the current redistricting process may still leave others with a very bitter aftertaste Those who could wind up feeling most betrayed are black and Hispanic groups who've recently had their hopes raised too high in the view of some insiders that the 1990 census results may be statistically adjusted to give their communities a greater share of political power Commerce Department officials for now are saying as little as possible on the subject but Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher must decide by July 15 whether to readjust the total Whatever Mosbacher decides his action almost certainly will be the most controversial step he'll take as a member of President Bush's Cabinet IF THE NET partisan effects of an adjustment could be determined it might be possible to guess what Mosbacher's decision will be but because the impact is likely to vary so much from state to state and even within states this is not easily accomplished While partisan politics remains a major consideration one California Republican campaign consultant Wayne Johnson warned: "These things never come out the way you think they will" Never before in US history have census totals been altered on the basis of statistical studies But a post-enumeration survey PES in bureaucratic jargon has uncovered major problems with the 1990 nose-count especially in California Nationwide according to the survey some 5 million individ After a series of recent speeches in which he castigated Congress for not addressing the nation's problems President Bush announced he was sending administration officials around the country to find out "why kids aren't getting immunized" against measles and other preventable diseases The image for the television cameras was of a president concerned and engaged What Bush didn't say is that an administration inter-agency committee has already reviewed the nation's faltering performance on childhood immunizations and recommended a emergency plan to spend $91 million to buy more vaccine But the plan to bolster the federal immunization program the New York Times reported recently has been put off by the White House until next year The reality is a president better at image-making than action As the administration committee found the lack of immunization is an urgent public health problem Last year 89 people died of measles complications in the largest outbreak of the disease since 1977 In many poor neighborhoods as many as half of the children haven't been immunized The federal investigation found that the rising cost of vaccine has left many local and state programs without adequate resources to provide protection to all who need it The $91 million it recommended would give them the ability to locate and vaccinate 5 million to 10 million more children There's no excuse to delay doing that Local public health officials say they don't need any more federal advice or presidential rhetoric they know how to get children immunized What they need is the money to do the job GraphicHugo the census totals are adjusted to reflect the PES findings certain states would gain more congressional representation while others would find their delegations diminished The distribution of power within each of the 50 states also would be affected sometimes greatly as some communities gained additional clout within their legislatures and congressional delegations while others saw their lawmaking muscles wither The California population gain reflected in the 1990 census already guarantees that the state will get seven more seats to add to its present 45-member congressional delegation which now is the largest of any state in the Union If because of the post-enu: meration survey the Census Bureau determines that California's 1990 population should be listed as 30888000 and not the 29760021 originally reported the A Sacramento Democrat also spoke privately and in stronglr terms: "The media have taken the Census Bureau's projections as almost a done deal It's not "A lot of the bureau's professional demographers agree that the census was flawed but they also say that the (PES) projections themselves are so methodologically flawed that they're worthless The survey numbers are jut as phony as the census numbers that were released in April But the April count at least is of real people" The observation may be correct but if Mosbacher reaches the same conclusion he will infuriate leaders of minority communities who don't want to see a solution to the undercounting problem postpon6d until the next census in the year 2000 New and blue a void in the region's cultural life giving jazz local prominence at a moment when young musicians like Wynton Marsalis Marcus Roberts and Roy Hargrove are returning to the music's roots and bringing new vigor to the form WHAT OTHERS SAY azz is America's great contribution to the world's music but one would hardly know it listening to Sacramento radio Thanks to the debut of KXJZ (FM 889) local public radio's new jazz station that neglect is ending Sacramento is doubly enriched by the coming of KXJZ the second signal of public radio station KXPR (FM 909) the mostly classical station that until now has served up jazz in the wee hours It will give KXPR the flexibility to broaden its selection of classical programming And it will bring a full day of jazz to Northern California listeners starved for broadcast alternatives to rock and roll and processed pop The arrival of KXJZ fills Sununu's sore feet John Sununu Continues to amaze Having stubbed his toe on the issue of joyriding at public expense once he returns to the same place and stubs another toe Sununu had previously drawn flak when he used military airplanes for personal travel including ski trips to Colorado But now it turns out that Sununu later used a chauffeur-driven limousine to drive to New York for a stamp auction Again Sununu's response was cavalier At a Republican fund-raiser in Des Moines Iowa he said "You can't get there without traveling I know that's a very complicated concept for some" But one of those for whom the "concept" has some complications is his boss President Bush acknowledged that Sununu had created "the appearance of impropriety" Bush did defend Sununu's travel arrangements But he also made it clear he didn't wajit Sununu to make any similar trips in the future What Bush understands and Sununu apparently does not is that the American public tends to resent any behavior in its public officials that smacks of aristocratic privilege By persisting in charging his personal travels to the taxpayers Sununu appears arrogapt and self-important Las Cruces (NM) Sun-Nets Not many cities have a full-time jazz station And not many have a public radio station with two signals Sacramento owes that success to hard work by KXPR's board and staff and the community's volunteerism and financial support With the flick of a switch they have opened a new world of music for listeners and made Sacramento a more lively place to live ingoo(m It -N 1 am 0-01k ami---A-0 Al aaudedm100464mtArawmialb aMm mia-.