2 -The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 15, 2000
NATION/WORLD
FAA to order redesign of Boeing
Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON - The Federal Aviation Admin-
istration announced yesterday that it will order a
redesign of vital controls on the world's workhorse
airliner - the Boeing 737 - to prevent an elusive
failure that can cause a catastrophic crash.
The action came after an FAA-appointed expert
panel concluded that previous fixes of the plane's
rudder ordered by the agency had not addressed
more than a dozen possible ways in which it could
fail.
It may take the better part of a decade to design
and install the new rudder controls on nearly 4,000
aircraft, but Boeing insisted yesterday that 737s are
safe, saying the problem is rare and that the previous
fixes eliminated the most dangerous of the potential
failures.
Allen Bailey, Boeing's chief engineer for the 737,
said the planes do not pose a safety risk to con-
sumers. "I'm going to put my family on one in about
a month," he said.
Though the 737's overall safety record is twice as
good as the industry average, rudder problems have
been blamed for two disasters that killed 157 people.
USAir Flight 427 went down Sept. 8, 1994, near
Pittsburgh, killing all 132 people on board. United
Airlines Flight 585 crashed March 3, 1991, near Col-
orado Springs, Colo. The 20 passengers and five
crew members all died. Both crashes occurred dur-
ing the landing approach.
In each case, investigators blamed the rudder, a
vertical surface on the tail that helps pilots steer the
aircraft. The failure of a component is believed to
have caused the rudder to veer in the opposite direc-
'I'm going to put my
family on one in about a
mont h."
- Allen Bailey
Boeing Chief Engineer
nACROSS THE NATION
Clinton announces last act as president
WASHINGTON - Bill Clintordwill-visit Vietnam as a final act of his presi-
dency, personally confronting a painful chapter in the history of the nation and
one of most controversial in his own life.
The politically sensitive trip, planned for mid-November, would come after the
election, in part to avoid competing with Vice President Al (lore in the final
weeks of his presidential campaign. The Vietnam swing was tacked on to a prc-
viously planned trip to the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in
Brunei on Nov. 15 and 16.
The White House made no effort to hide the symbolic power of the first vx
by a U.S. president to Vietnam since the war ended 25 years ago, at the cost of
58,000 American lives.
"The president believes that there has been a consensus that has developed in
this country over the last few years that the time is right to move forward," White
House spokesman Joe Lockhart said yesterday. "But there's very much a syn4
bolic value in the president ... going actually to visit the country."
The meaning of the trip is only enhanced by Clinton's personal torment with
Vietnam. The president actively opposed the war and sat out the conflict as a stu-
dent at Georgetown University, Oxford University and Yale Law School.
Charges of draft dodging dogged his 1992 campaign and have flared up every
time the administration has moved to change U.S. policy toward Vietnam.
tion intended by the crew - as if a driver were turn-
ing the steering wheel of his car to the right and the
vehicle swerved left.
Jetliner pilots use the rudder primarily to compen-
sate for crosswinds when landing or taking off.
Boeing's Bailey said the company already has
begun redesigning the rudder controls.
British fuel tax protesters call off block
LONDON (AP) - Fuel tax protesters whose
demonstrations had dried up tanks at British
gas stations called off a slew of key blockades
yesterday, saying they won a moral victory and
would have lost public support had they contin-
ued.
Demonstrations ended at 10 fuel refineries
and depots, roughly a quarter of the facilities
hit by people angry over the cost of fuel in
Britain.
But even after the protests are over, getting the
country back to regular fuel levels would likely
take two to three weeks, said Ray Holloway, direc-
tor of the Petrol Retailers Association.
"Initial deliveries to filling stations are not
going to resolve this problem" he said.
Earlier in the day, Britons awoke to eerily empty
roads, depleted supermarket shelves and troops on
standby, a sign of Prime Minister Tony Blair's
hardened resolve not to give in to a week of
protests and blockades.
Blair said Wednesday that "lives are at risk"
from the protesters, whose demonstrations out-
side fuel depots and refineries have left gasoline
pumps bone-dry and disrupted schools, hospi-
tals, businesses and transportation across
Britain.
The first to withdraw yesterday were pro-
testers at Stanlow in northwestern England,
where the fast-spreading action began a week
ago.
"We have backed down," said Brynle Williams,
spokesman for protesters at the Stanlow refinery.
"We have won a moral victory."
He called on other demonstrators across the
country to call off their pickets and join in a
national campaign for a cut in fuel tax.
Soon after, pickets in Scotland, Wales, and east
and west England announced that they, too, would
cease their actions.
"Public opinion would have gone against us
had we continued," said Robert Burns,
spokesman for protesters at Grangemouth, in
Scotland.
"I think we will het a few concessions in
November now as they (the government) realize
this could all be done again," he said.
Similar fuel protests - though less severe -
hit other European countries, including France,
the Netherlands and Germany.
Clinton, Reno differ
on Los Alamos case
WASHINGTON - In a rare public
disagreement, President Clinton said
yesterday that Wen Ho Lee's long
detention "just can't be justified," but
Attorney General Janet Reno refused to
apologize and said the confinement was
the nuclear scientist's own fault.
Lee, a former Los Alamos laborato-
ry scientist, went free Wednesday
after pleading guilty to one felony of
mishandling weapons secrets.
Reno told her weekly news confer-
ence that Lee could have avoided nine
months of detention by agreeing earli-
er to plead guilty and tell the govern-
ment what he did with the secrets.
FBI Director Louis Frech said "the
safety of the nation demands that we
take this important step" under which
Lee was sentenced to the 278 days he
had served. The government dropped
58 other counts.
Hours after Reno spoke, Clinton
expressed an opinion far closer to that
of U.S. District Judge James Parker,
who said Lee's detention "embar-
AROUND THIEC
rassed our"entire nation.'
Clinton said he found it difficult in
retrospect to reconcile how the gov-
ernment could "keep someone in jail
without bail, argue right up to the 1I1th
hour that they're a terrible risk, and
then turn around and make that sort of
plea agreement."
Navy to make toilet?
"gender-neutral"
WASHINGTON ,-- The Navy has
issued orders to replace urinals on the
surface fleet with a "gender-neutral"
commode.
Within sev'eral years, 3,000 "heads,'
or bathrooms, are to be converted, at a
projected cost of Sl187,000 apiece, to a
new modular desiun that is easier
clean, cheaper to maintain and m*
suitable for female crew members. A
single bathroom can contain several
commodes.
"The goal is to make all sanitary
spaces gender-neutral to facilitate
changes in crew composition," said a
Navy memo distributed throughout the
fleet this week.
Won<t
AP PHOTO
A police officer keeps watch on motorists filling up
with gasoline in a filling station in Manchester,
England yesterday.
-04
AMERITECH
Continued from Page 1
In addition, the severe storms that
Michigan has experienced in the past
few days have put a damper on things,
Balmer said.
"There are numerous kinds of situa-
tions that the weather can create which
we have no control over, like saturated
wires and car accidents hitting junc-
tion boxes," she said.
HE WOULD HAVE
VISITED US.
GREENPOS.COM
BOOKS & MUSIC
The hearing.on Monday is an oppor-
tunity for the public to speak out about
problems they have encountered trying
to receive telephone service, Kunkle
said.
Ameritech will be presenting its
problems and a plan of action.
"This is not only an opportunity for
the public but for the commission to
hear from the public," she said.
After reviewing Ameritech's pro-
posal, the MPSC will issue an order
ACLU
Continued from Page 1
Though Abraham has given no
indication of when he will decide if
he supports the legislation, his cam-
paign insists that his position on
racial profiling should not be misin-
terpreted.
"The ACLU has dramatically mis-
fired in questioning his support of end-
ing racial profiling," Davis said.
Michigan is not the only state in
J
Consider Living This Fall in
THE STUDENT
HOUSING CO-OPS
Approx. $400/month
Includes utilities, laundry, parking, social
activities and all the food you can eat.
662-4414
Student Owned - Democratically Run
for action.
"We have already opened a proceed-
ing to have enhanced standards and
stricter enforcement to ensure good
quality service for customers," Kunkle
said.
If customers cannot make the hear-
ing Monday morning, there are other
ways to contact the MPSC.
They can be reached at 1-800-292-
9555 and through their Website at
cis.state.mi. tus//lmpsc.
which the ads currently are run-
They have also aired in Utah and
Missouri, the respective home states of
Republican Sens. Orin Hatch and John
Bancroft.
Both men are members of the Judi-
ciary Committee where the bill is cur-
rently awaiting a vote.
The Michigan State Police as well
as the Ann Arbor Police Department
began compiling racial statistics on
traffic stops earlier this year.
MISS THIS
WEEK'S MASS
MEETING?
YOU'VE GOT ONE
MORE CHANCE!
MONDAY, 7 P.M.
IN THE STUDENT
PUBLICATIONS
BUILDING.
M ekong River rises, about I millionv
M ekongThe water level
500,000 left homeless is expected to rea
Officials saids
HANOI, Vietnam - The mighty . could be flooded i
Mekong River flooded a wide swath 38 feet, The Asso
of Southeast Asia yesterday, inundat- ed.
ing villages and homes in Vietnam's The Internationa
rice bowl and leading to warnings that Red Cross issueda
streets in the Cambodian capital could tance to the region.
be underwater by the weekend.
With the river rising half an incha
day for the past month in some areas Group to c
- and not expected to peak until next action gi
week - more than halfa million peo-
eople.4.
near Phnom Penh,
cl 37 feet Friday.
streets in the city:
f the level reaches
ciated Press report-
l Committee of the
an appeal for as*
,reate U.N.
delines
YOU ARE INVITED...
Sunday, September 17th, 7:00-3:30 pm
Democratic Headquarters,
325 E. Liberty Street, between Division and 5th Ave
PIZZA AND POP
Meet
Congresswoman Lynn Rivers
State Representative John Hansen
State Representative candidate Chris Kolb
Ann Arbor's Mayoral candidate John Hiefjte
pie have been left homeless, schools UNITED NATIONS - A Canadi-
closed, roads cut and at least 97 peo- an-led commission yesterday launched.
pie killed. an effort to help the U.N. decide
Meteorologist said flood waters whether to step in when a count
may reach the highest levels in the faces a crisis within its borders, eveno
region in 75 years. its intervention is unwanted.
In Phnom Penh, the Cambodian The independent commission will
capital, the government began dis- produce guidelines for U.N. action to
tributing 350,000 sandbags as the stop tragedies in the making, while
world's seventh-longest river - heeding the objections of countries
about 2,700 miles from China to which believe internal conflicts are
the South China Sea - washed not international affairs,
across the nearby low-lying plains,
lapping its way toward the city of -Compiledfom Daily ire reports.
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