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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 7, 1993                   TAG: 9303070182
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: FAIRFAX                                LENGTH: Short

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COLLEGE OFFICIALS DEFEND FUNDING FOR TRADE JOURNAL

George Mason University officials defended a trade journal that was criticized as an example of pork-barrel spending and denied they are laundering federal money for a conservative group.

Focused on the emerging light-rail industry, the quarterly New Electric Railway Journal is a joint venture of George Mason and the conservative Free Congress Research and Education Foundation.

"From our standpoint, it's not something we would consider pork," said Donald Danner, the school's vice president for federal relations. "This is a scholarly publication. This is the sort of thing research universities do."

A speech by Sen. David Pryor, D-Ark., and a report on NBC News recently both cited the journal as an example of wasteful spending.

By the time the grant to George Mason runs out in 1994, the federal government will have spent about $525,000 on the journal. - Associated Press

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