Women's hoops loses control, drops ball, season opener man's :est Friend' consumes all ut still b"Ites It 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 { I50- 40 - Cigarettes 30 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- 7a, MARTIN 20 10 0 an Marijuana Coaine - -=I -L ,- l I I I 1 i 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 25 200 - M 150-- 30 - 20[ 10 i