2 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, March 20, 2001

NATION/WORLD


Debate begins on campaign finance

WASHINGTON (AP) - With a blend of street
theater and speechmaking, the Senate raised the
curtain yesterday on freewheeling debate over leg-
islation to limit the role of money in politics. "It's
time to end business as usual," said Sen. John
McCain as the bill's supporters prevailed in the first
show of strength.
"If people think money in politics is so perni-
cious, they should change the First Amendment"
and its guarantee of free speech, countered Sen.
Mitch McConnell, McCain's foe throughout long
years of political sparring over the issue.
McCain (R-Ariz.) and his allies prevailed at day's

end in the first skirmish, narrowly turning back an
amendment to raise the limits on donations to can-
didates facing wealthy, self-funding rivals. The vote
was 51-48, and came after unusually intense public
lobbying in the well of the Senate that persuaded
three Democrats to switch their votes.
The debate marked the sixth time since 1995 that
McCain, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) and other
lawmakers have pushed a campaign finance mea-
sure to the Senate floor. Two weeks were allotted
for debate, a departure from previous years when
Republican leaders set out to kill versions of the
bill as quickly as possible.


There was agreement on all sides that predictions
on the outcome were futile. "I think it would be
easier to predict who's going to win the NCAA
(basketball) tournament," said McConnell.
The legislation would ban so-called soft money,
the loosely regulated, unlimited donations that
unions, corporations and individuals make to the
political parties. It also would place restrictions on
certain types of political advertising broadcast within
60 days of an election or 30 days of a primary.
Together, the two parties raised more than $480
million in soft money in the last two-year election
cycle.
Experts
b elieve
cut rates
The Wahington Post

NEWS IN BRIEF
"HEADLINES FROM AROUND THE WNORLD }h "D ..Y"
WASHINGTON k
Bush endorses Sharon's diplomacy
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon drew the Bush administration's support
yesterday for his go-slow diplomacy and denounced Yasser Arafat's elite guard
for "terror activities."
The ex-general said Palestinian leader Arafat "must understand, first and for*
most, that he will gain nothing from violence. Israel will not negotiate while
Israeli civilians and soldiers are under fire."
Sharon's two-day visit was marred even before he arrived by new attacks on
Israeli Jews. Speaking for Sharon in Jerusalem, a spokesman accused Arafat's
Palestinian Authority of "deepening its involvement in incitement of violence
and terror" and of "closing ranks with militant fundamentalists."
In Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell renewed a pledge to stand by
Israel and criticized Arab governments for withdrawing their ambassadors
from Tel Aviv. "These states should be voices of moderation," Powell said in a
speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the leading pro-Israel
lobby.
Meeting with Sharon later, Powell stressed the need to ease economic preO
sure on the Palestinians and supported the idea of direct discussions with the
Palestinians to rebuild confidence, a senior State Department official said.
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
Rolling blackouts ordered in California
Rolling blackouts swept across the state yesterday for the first time since
January after dwindling electricity reserves prompted a Stage 3 alert.
"Everything has come to a stop," said Joan Tockey, a clerk at Mahogany
Smoked Meats and Meadow Farms Country Smokehouse in Bishop, a sm
town 270 miles north of Los Angeles. "We'll have to lock the door."
The blackouts began at noon and stretched from San Francisco to San
Diego and east to the Nevada line.
They were ordered by the California Independent System Operator, which
blamed high demand and a lack of electricity from the Northwest as it
ordered the state's two biggest utilities to cut a total of 1,000 megawatts,
enough power for roughly 1 million homes.
The order could increase to 2,000 megawatts during the evening.
Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison together serve 8.7
million customers across the state. A third utility, San Diego Gas & Electric
Co., also cut power to 41,000 customers.
SoCal Edison ordered blackouts across the Los Angeles area. 0

WASHINGTON - Wall Street is
counting on Federal Reserve officials
to lower their target for overnight
interest rates today by three-quarters
of a percentage point to help the hap-
less stock market regain its footing
and keep the economy from sliding
into a recession.
Wall Street may well be disappoint-
ed. Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan has
promised that the central bank will
respond "aggressively" to the abrupt
slowing of U.S. economic growth, but
it's far trom clear exactly what that
means in the swirling crosscurrents of
the U.S. and world economies.
Furthermore, the Fed's top policy-
making group, the Federal Open Mar-
ket Committee, has most often
changed its rate target in quarter-
point increments, and a half-point
could be considered aggressive.
A survey of 121 analysts and econ-
omists completed yesterday by Stone
& McCarthy Research Associates, a
financial markets research firm, found
that nearly two-thirds of them believe
the Fed will cut the 5.5 percent target
by half a point.
Less than a third are looking for
three-quarters, while a half dozen
said the Fed would slash rates by a
full percentage point.
"I think they are going to go half a
point," said Charles Lieberman, chief
economist for Advisers Financial, a
money-management firm.
"The recent economic data actually
suggest some improvement in the econ-
omy. Consumer spending has been bet-
ter than expected, including for cars,
(and) auto companies have boosted pro-
duction plans for the second quarter."
A larger cut could lead some peo-
ple to conclude that "The Fed must
know about some problems that we
don't," and then the markets might
sell off even more, Lieberman said.
"And I don't think they will want to
encourage anyone to think they are
doing it to support the stock market."
GHB
Continued from Page 1
campuses where the use of this
drug for harmful purposes has been
most prevalent," Shafer added.
GHB became a Schedule I Sub-
stance in the United States after
former President Bill Clinton lob-
bied for a law to control the sale
and use of this drug.
A Schedule I drug is defined as a
drug that has a high potential for
abuse, has no currently accepted
medical use in treatment in the
United States and is not accepted
for use under medical supervision.
Occurrences of GHB use at the
University in the past two years,
including the overdose of three
University students and an employ-
ee of the Nectarine last fall, were
considered red flags to outsiders
about the increasing frequency of
the drugs use on campus.
"GHB is a troubling drug
because it's used against women in
a lot of cases. It's great that there is
a GHB Awareness month now,
more educational tactics need to be
initiated to teach people about the
hazards of this drug," said LSA
senior Sabrina Charles.
While not all students on campus
have had personal experiences with
the drug, many know it is a prob-
lem.
"Everybody hears rumors about
it. I know it exists and I'm sure it's
a big problem on campus in select-
ed situations" she said.
"The Michigan Women's Com-

mission has been working on a
Inlocalize deffort hecase this is

i


PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii
Offier testes not
seein nearby ship
A key crewman aboard the USS
Greeneville admitted yesterday that
he violated orders requiring him to
report ships nearby but said he never
realized one vessel was dangerously
close.
Petty Officer 1st Class Patrick
Seacrest told a Navy court of inquiry
that he never noticed a ship was within
4,000 yards of the submarine before a
fatal collision because he was analyz-
ing another sonar contact.
"I did not see that 4,000 yards," said
Seacrest, the Greeneville's fire control
technician.
That statement conflicts with the
testimony of a Navy investigator,
who said Seacrest earlier claimed he
didn't report the close contact
because civilians blocked his access
to officers. Seacrest said yesterday
the civilians were not an impedi-
ment
WASHINGTON
Bush meets Japanese
prime minister
President Bush met with Japanese
Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori yesterday,
but the leaders did not come up with
any specific measures to revive growth
in the world's two largest economies.
Senior U.S. officials said Bush
advised Mori that Japan should not try
to stimulate its economy by increasing
exports - an approach that might
harm American industries, such as

automobiles, that compete with Japan-
ese companies.
Instead, White House aides said, the
president emphasized that Japan should
deal with its long-standing domestic
economic problems, particularly corpo-
rate debt and nonperforming loans.
Bush and Mori held their first meet-
ing at a critical juncture for the weak
ing economies of both nations. In rev
weeks, U.S. stock markets have
plunged; Japan appears to be heading
into recession once again.
TETOVO, Macedonia
NATO will committ
additional troops
.Government tanks rumbled into
Macedonia's second-largest city y*
terday to fight ethnic Albanian insur-
gents, while NATO pledged to
"starve" the rebels by cutting supply
lines from neighboring Kosovo.
A spokesman for the Macedonian
government, Antonio Milososki,
pledged "definite action" - a major
counterattack - saying field comman-
ders would give the order "soon."
The appearance of heavy armor
Tetovo also seemed to be an atteI
by the government to show that the
army was part of efforts to prevent the
monthlong guerrilla war from expand-
ing further southward from its origins
along the border with Kosovo.
The government has relied primarily
on police and anti-terrorist units to fight
the rebels, leading to speculation about
the loyalties of the conscript army, par-
ticularly its ethnic Albanian members.
- Compiled from Daily wire repo@

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