8A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, October 2, 1997 NATION/WORLD Teen kills three, wounds 'Six ot hers PEARL, Miss. (AP) - A teen-ager stabbed his mother to death, then went to school yesterday with a rifle under his trench coat and opened fire, killing his former girlfriend and another stu- dent and wounding six others, police said. Luke Woodham, 16, was distraught over a breakup with his girlfriend, Police Chief Bill Slade said, choking back tears as he talked about the ram- page in this town of 22,000 people just outside Jackson. "He gave us a statement, and his manifesto was that he felt he had been wronged," Slade said. Woodham was arrested as he drove away in his dead mother's car and was charged with murder and aggravated assault. The shootings at Pearl High School began about 8:10 a.m. as buses arrived. An expressionless Woodham, a sophomore, entered the large com- mons area just inside the front door of the imposing school and immediately walked up to his former girlfriend, wit- nesses said. Police said she was the first fall, followed by three young men and four young women apparently shot at random. "He was shooting anybody he could find. He shot at me and hit the stair- case," said Mark Wilkerson, a first- year student. "I saw fragments going everywhere." Students ran screaming into class- rooms and dived for cover. "People were laying everywhere bleeding'" said student Nathan Henry. "I didn't hear cries. Everybody looked dead." Casey King, a ninth grader, said Woodham talked to at least one of the wounded. "He apologized, said he was sorry and was not shooting anybody in par- ticular," King said. Police later found the body of Mary Woodham, 50, at her home, about a mile from the school. The slain students were identified as Lydia Kaye Dew, 17, and Christina Menefee, 16. It was unclear which girl Government stepping up food safety laws S a WASHINGTON (AP) - Faced with soaring food imports, disease tainted fruits and vegetables and far fewer safety inspections, the Clinton administration is moving aggressive- ly to police the world's food. Under a plan President Clinton is to announce today, the government would spend up to $24 million inspecting farms overseas. Those failing to meet certain food and safety stan- dards would not be allowed to import to the United States. U.S. farmers also would face new sanitation guidelines, The Associated Press has learned, in part to forestall any complaints that the United States would hold foreign farmers to higher standards. Critics charge that the food plan is an effort to counter opposition to free trade legislation Clinton has pending in Congress. They argue that the U.S. food supply already is the world's safest. "Clearly, being the world food police complicates the trade environment we operate in," said John Aguirre of the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association. Risks from produce are low enough that "this is unwarranted," he added. But the Food and Drug Administration, which has been pushing for the changes since 1993, said it hasn't kept pace with Americans' food supply. "The whole infrastructure of food safety needs to be strengthened," said Associate Commissioner William Hubbard. FDA figures show budget constraints made its inspec- tions of domestic food supplies plummet from 21,000 in 1981 to just 5,000 last year. Foreign food imports have doubled to 2.2 million shipments a year since 1992, while FDA border inspections were cut in half. A mere 2 percent of imported foods are sampled for contamina- tion at the docks. From 1973 through 1987, tainted produce accounted for just 2 percent of disease outbreaks in which the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified a food culprit - a proportion that jumped to 5 percent of outbreaks from 1988 through 1991. Then doctors uncovered pathogens previously unknown in produce, like the cyclospora in Guatemalan raspberries that sickened some 1,400 Americans this spring and the E. coli that contaminated unpasteurized U.S. apple juices. There is no evidence that imports are more dangerous than U.S. grown produce, said Morris Potter, CDC's assistant director of foodborne diseases. "The concern is arising nde because imports are on the rise,' he said. Last year, 38 percent of fruits and 12 percent of vegetables eaten in the United States came from other countries, a dou- bling since 1986. Under the Clinton plan, a new corps of FDA inspectors would check foreign food safety systems and ban imported fruits and vegetables from countries that don't regulate strict- ly enough, said an administration official. Such authority is identical to the Agriculture Department's practice of banning meat imports from countries that don't have U.S. equivalent meat regulations. Key to the produce plan would be "good agricultural pray tices" that can build safety into a crop. In the case of the Guatemalan raspberries, it is not known how they were taint- ed with the parasite cyclospora. Potential protections could include certifying that fields are irrigated with clean water, and providing field latrines for berry pickers and teaching them to wash their hands, explained the administration offi- cial, speaking on condition of anonymity. Some U.S. inspection is already done in Mexico to prevent flies and other pests from entering the United States, but a Mexican farm official denounced the food safety plan. * "It is very clear to us that behind all this are economic interests which want to prevent Mexican vegetables from entering the U.S.," said Luis Cardenas, of an agriculture group in the state of Sinaloa, a big tomato producer. At home, U.S. fruit and vegetable growers would have to comply with similar standards, everything from testing irri- gation supplies to hiring farm workers free of such diseases as hepatitis and composting manure used as fertilizer so any E. coli is killed, the official said. Technically, the standards would be just guidelines for US. farmers, and the FDA plans no new money to enforce them But the FDA could use lack of compliance against a farm' if it suspects domestic crop contamination - and farmers who did follow the guidelines would have some legal protec-. tion in case of an outbreak. Worries about unsafe food imports have threatened Clinton's pending attempts to expand free trade agreements. Indeed, farmers' groups contend the food plan was rushed out to save the trade legislation, arguing that today's announce- ment comes a month before an FDA advisory committee was set to recommend new food safety measures. Pearl High School students and parents share emotions over the on-campus shooting deaths of two classmates and the wounding of six others. "I didn't hear cries.,Everybody looked dead." - Nathan Henry Shooting witness had dated Woodham. Three of the wounded students were hospitalized. One was in serious con- dition. Slade said Mary Woodham, a recep- tionist who apparently had divorced her husband about a year ago, was believed to have died about three hours before the shootings. Neighbors said the teen-ager's mother usually took him to school, but yesterday he got into the car by himself, hitting a tree and crossing a neighbor's yard as he drove away. In his yearbook photo, a serious looking Woodham has shoulder length brown hair and wire rimmed glasses. "lie always seemed polite, like a nice guy" said Courtni Thomas, a senior. "It doesn't seem real that any- one like him would do this." The school has no armed guards or weapons searches. "We had no idea that anything like this would ever take place at any of our schools" said school board attorney Arthur Jernigan Jr. Classes were canceled until Monday, but students were told to report Friday for counseling. Weeping students gathered in small groups outside the school, where the flag was lowered to half staff. Others held hands and prayed. t, 1 f~4le r~ r v AP PHOTO Adorned with a flower, a poster for 11year old Eddie Werner is attached to a stop sign at the end of his street in Jackson Township, NJ. Werner was found dead in the woods near his home Monday night. 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APM MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS is committed to creating a partnership relationship that focuses on the client's success. In doing so, the firm provides direct client contact at every level of a consultant's career path. Because all client work is performed in teams, APM values information exchange and mutual support, which translate into an intensive learning opportunity. APM's CLIENTS INCLUDE many of the most respected systems, academic medical centers, community and pub- lic hospitals, insurance companies, HMOs, health plans, multi-group practices, suppliers and industry asso- ciations in North America. Boy strangled while sellmg door-to-door for fund-raiser 9 TOMS RIVER, N.J. (AP) - Before he was found strangled near his home, I I-year-old Edward Werner was eagerly pursuing a set of walkie talkies, the top prize for selling the most candy and wrapping paper for his school's PTA. He was going door to door alone - a practice dis- couraged by most fund-raising groups - and sales were going so well he was flashing a $200 wad of bills to friends. Yesterday, prosecutors said, Edward was a victim of his own success, killed for his money by a 15-year-old boy who answered the sixth grader's knock ch on the door. No child s They say Edward was brought inside the home, sexually assault- sell, eve ed and strangled. The older boy then dragged the boy's 4-foot-Il Presi The suspect's parents cooperated with investigators and tbe. boy surrendered to police. He was being held in a juvenijl detention center and prosecutors will decide within 30 days whether to try him as an adult. New Jersey has the death penalty, but it is not used against juveniles. Edward was among the legions of children around the nation involved in fund raising, a fact that annoys some. The policy for all PTAs in the nation states that "chil- dren should never be exploited or used as fund-raisers,". said Maryann Kolbeck, president of the New Jersey PTA. "No child should ever sell; hould ever - Maryann Kolbeck Jdent, New Jersey PTA ever." Groups such as the Girl Scots of America have rules that an adult should accompany a girl selling or delivering cookies. The Association of Fund Raisers and Direct Sellers, a inch, 60 pound body into the woods. The 15-year-old boy, whose name was not released, was charged with murder and aggravated sexual assault in a case that has focused new attention on the wide- spread practice of using children to raise money for schools and other nonprofit organizations. Door-to-door selling is discouraged by the national PTA, the child's school district, youth organizations, as well as the multibillion-dollar industry that puts prod- ucts into the hands of a juvenile sales force. Instead, the groups suggest children sell to relatives, friends or close neighbors and have parents sell to co-work- ers. trade group representing about half of the estimated 1,50CI companies that deal with school and youth groups; adopted a policy last July saying it does not endorse door to door sales, said executive director Russell Lemieux. "That's really the bulk of sales in fund raising," Lemieux said. "The instance of a child going door to door is quite rare." The association's estimates suggest that schools and non profit groups make $2 billion a year in profits from product sales, Lemieux said. He said the need to raise money for chil- dren's activities, whether it be band uniforms or class trips, will not go away. f , ......, ..,........ .. ,.,........... ,.,.......