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One hundred three years of editorial freedom
An AroMcia ensdy oebr2,19
tit
State, group
promotes
*tough love',
to help poor
The Zeeland-based
group links the poor
with local trade and
* business groups in
finding jobs
GRAND RAPIDS (AP) - The
government helps the unemployed,
and there are dozens of charitable
organizations that aid the homeless.
But a new group called Family
Hope USA is using a "tough love"
approach to help the working poor, a
rowing population whose members
may be only one house payment away
from homelessness or one crisis away
from going hungry.
The nonprofit, Zeeland-based
group seeks to link the needy with
local professionals and tradespeople
willing to provide services such as
health care and auto repair for free,
President Joel Samy said in announc-
ing the group yesterday.
inIn return, recipients must enter
into a "written covenant" that requires
some community service.
"As the middle class sort of disap-
pears, ... the number of calls from the
working poor has increased dramati-
cally," said state Sen. William Van
Regenmorter (R-Jenison), who is on
the group's advisory board.
The group is just beginning to
Orm its network of providers in Kent
and Ottawa counties and hopes to
branch out to other parts of the state in
1994, said Samy, who most recently
was with the worldwide relief agency
International Aid of Spring Lake.
The "working poor" is defined as
families who fall below the poverty
line but are employed and do not seek
or qualify for government benefits.
mhe poverty line for a family of four
$14,000 a year.
Among the five participants en-
rolled so far is a Hudsonville optom-
etrist who has agreed to set aside one
day per month to provide free eye
exams to children from working poor
families. Samy said he is in the pro-
cess of getting commitments from
doctors, plumbers, electricians, auto
mechanics and home builders.
NOW WHICH ONE IS TOM TURKEY?
Floods, fires
leave food
banks short
DETROIT (AP) - Food banks
that supply the needs of the homes,
elderly and unemployed are suffering
a growing gap between supply and
demand in a year plagued by natural
disasters and stagnant donations, of-
ficials say.
Two-hundred agencies in metro-
politan Detroit rely on the Gleaners
Community Food Bank to provide
200,000 meals a week. But this year,
the food bank finds itself pinched,
spokeswoman Kelly Farmer said
Tuesday.
"We are down from last year,"
Farmer said. "Financially, it's a little
bit of a harder year. Every dollar is a
struggle. We have a lot larger gap
between what's coming in and what's
needed."
In 1992, Gleaners distributed 13
million pounds of food. This year, it
expects to fall 1 million short of that,
Kelly said.
She said the largest reason for the
drop is this year's Midwestern floods
and other natural disasters.
"The food is diverted to these di-
saster zones, and it drains the food
from the system," Farmer said.
The food goes to soup kitchens
and to groups that supply food for the
needy to prepare at home, she said. Of
the 13 million pounds distributed last
year, Gleaners bought 2.5 million
pounds and received the rest in dona-
tions.
But changes in the food industry
threaten the supply of surplus food,
she said.
At a conference in Chicago spon-
See FOOD BANK, Page 2
RtECA MARGOLISUaily
Terry Collins weighs turkeys at Kroger's meat counter before putting them on display for last minute shoppers.
American Airlines is back in air; United faces slowdown
ASSOCIATED PRESS
American Airlines' flight atten-
dants returned to work and the airline
tried to resume normal service yester-
day, a day before the busiest travel
day of the year.
Passengers still faced possible
snarls and missed connections due to
disgruntled workers at another major
airline, United. Its machinists were
orchestrating strict safety checks that
amounted to a slowdown.
United reported no appreciable flight
delays from the action yesterday.
American Airlines expected to
return to full operations on Thanks-
giving Day.
The strike by the Association of
Professional Flight Attendants ended
in its fourth day Monday after Presi-
dent Clinton pushed the two sides to
submit their dispute to binding arbi-
tration.
"Directly after we met last evening,
everyone went to work to try to put
the airline back in the sky as promptly
American Airlines, which operated 60 percent of its 2,500 flights
nationwide, yesterday expects no delays for Thanksgiving travelers. At
United, machinists orchestrated strict safety checks that amounted to a
'slowdown.' United reported no delays in flights because of the action.
as possible," said Bob Baker,
American's executive vice president
for operations.
American was flying passengers
on more than 60 percent of its full
normal schedule of about 2,500 daily
flights, Baker said. He said the carrier
expected to be operating more than
70 percent by the end of the day.
On Wednesday, Baker said,
American expected to be running all
the 80 percent of its flights that it had
not canceled during the strike. The
airline had canceled 20 percent of its
flights outright and flew about 40
percent without passengers during the
strike because they lacked minimum
flight attendant crews.
By Thursday, the carrier hoped to
reach its original schedule and main-
tain it through the hectic post-Thanks-
giving weekend.
Baker said the strike does not ap-
pear to have hurt the airline's Christ-
mas bookings.
"It seems like the traveling public
had more confidence this would get
settled quicker than some of us on
both sides," said Don Carty,
American's executive vice president
for planning and finance.
American's rival carriers say they
will continue to take American tick-
ets through Nov. 30 without requiring
passengers to get American's ap-
proval.
"I think we're all relieved that
we'll have the quiet bedlam of Thanks-
giving holidays versus what we were
all anticipating," said Jon Austin,
spokesperson for Northwest Airlines.
"It seems to me the flight atten-
dants - for what they're doing -
they're pretty well paid," said Walter
Mundt of Raleigh, N.C., who was
waiting at that city's airport for a
flight to Charlotte.
"And Thanksgiving is not the time
to strike," added his wife, Donna.
"People want to be with their fami-
lies."
In Tulsa, Bernice Mitchell and her
husband said they had bought tickets
in September to go visit their son in
Washington.
"We just kept watching TV and
the radio and we were elated ysterday
to learn it was over," said Mrs.
Mitchell, a Payne County commis-
sioner from Stillwater, Okla.
"I don't have anything against
them," she said. "But we'll see. If we
can't get our flight today, then maybe
I'll say that I'll never fly American
again."
The union for American's 21,000
flight attendants said it and American
were working with the National Me-
diation Board to set up a meeting to
discuss specifics of the arbitration
process, possibly as early as Monday.
The flight attendants will work
under a contract American'imposed
on Nov. 1, which includes an average
7.8 percent annual pay raise. Flight
attendants' wages start at about
$16,000 per year, exceeding $40,000
after 14 years of service.
The union struck to try to win
better pay, medical benefits, staffing
and work rules. The strike was the
biggest against a U.S. airline since
1989.
Ab
U.S. hi school students
improve scores in math
Math scores'significantly higher' in 1990 than 1978.
irenas in the well-Deing or American youtn,
according to an Education Department
statistical survey:
Percent of seniors reporting cigarette,,alcohol
and drug use in the previous 30 days, by
substance: 1975 to 1992*
70 w ---- --Alcohol
60
4M]
WASHINGTON (AP) - American teen-
* ers are holding their own in school, even
improving their math skills, but they face dra-
matic challenges outside the classroom that
threaten to drag them down, according to a statis-
tical portrait of today's youth.
"We cannot be satisfied with just holding our
own," Secretary of Education Richard Riley said
yesterday. "It's not good enough in this new
global economy."
Riley went to Hine Junior High School, just a
*w blocks from the U.S. Capitol, to release the
Education Department's "Youth Indicators 1993:
Trends in the Well-Being of American Youth."
The 153-page study found that a much higher
percentage of students are completing high school
than in the 1950s and that college enrollment is
at n rvnrA hiorh Tn 191 _i nerewnt nf hich
0 Young people today are three times as
likely to be murdered and twice as likely to
commit suicide as teen-agers were in 1950, and
the proportion of teens getting arrested has soared
30-fold over the same period. In 1990, 57 percent
of Americans arrested for serious crimes were
under 25, the report said.
Eighty-eight percent of high school seniors
drink alcoholic beverages, but illegal drug use
has declined, from 65 percent in 1980 to 41
percent in 1992. Sixty-two percent of the seniors
said they smoked cigarettes.
The report said science scores for 9- and 13-
year-olds were about the same in 1990 as they
were in 1970, but fell for 17-year-olds. Profi-
ciency in math was "significantly higher" in
1990 than it had been in 1978.
The hid found nn nverall imnrnvement in
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GOP leader
0
sees barriers
for women
By RONNIE GLASSBERG
DAILY STAFF REPORTER
Some people may be surprised to find a Repub-
lican talking about the barriers that exist for women
and minorities.
But for Lynn Martin, the former
Secretary of Labor under Presi-
dent Bush, this train of thought fits'
perfectly with the ideology of the
Republican party.
"I think if you're a woman of
color, I think if you're an Hispanic
American, there are incredible bar-
riers still there," Martin said in an
interview with the Daily yester-
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T -( I F ! 1 k k 7 [ 1 1- 1
'75 77 '79 '81 '83 '85 '87 '89
Graduating class
* Data in first ten years of chart ato5-year intervals.
Source: University of Michigan, Institute for Social Research.
'91'92
Percent of high school sophomores
aspiring to various levels of education:
U1980 1990
4n.
Mathematics proficiency of 9-,
13- and 17-year-olds, by race:
9 -.ea-ldI 31978 1990
25
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