Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 21, 1993 TAG: 9303210272
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETTY PARHAM and GERRIE FERRIS COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
QUESTIONS ABOUT THE NEWS
Q: President Clinton wants to add 100,000 police to the beat. How many are there now nationally?A: There were 535,629 in 1992 - an average of 2.8 to 3.6 per 1,000 population. The higher figure is for major cities.
Q: Many food labels say "fancy." Even McDonald's ketchup packets are labeled "fancy." What does "fancy" mean?
A: Can and package labeling concerns nutrition, said a Food and Drug Administration spokesman, and "fancy" has no nutritional designation. The U.S. Department of Agriculture grades some commodities - meats, fruits and vegetables - and labels them accordingly, said a USDA spokeswoman. "Fancy" in raw fruits means top quality, pretty, best-of-show quality. And both agencies agreed the "fancy" label is likely to cost more.
Q: What is the ides of March?
A: In the ancient Roman calendar, the ides was the 15th day of March, May, July and October and the 13th day of the other months. Julius Caesar was assassinated by Brutus on March 15 in 44 B.C. William Shakespeare, in his play "Julius Caesar," has a soothsayer shout one of the Bard's most quoted lines to Caesar in the public square: "Beware the Ides of March."
Q: Why has the media ignored the fact that a situation similar to the standoff in Waco, Texas, involving the group MOVE in Philadelphia also involved children, but the FBI chose to bomb the buildings rather than wait it out.
A: It wasn't the FBI or ATF that dropped a bomb on the MOVE headquarters in 1985; it was the Philadelphia Police Department. A commission that investigated the incident, which killed 11 people including five children, primarily blamed Mayor W. Wilson Goode.
Q: In the standoff in Waco, who fired the first shot?
A: The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms says the Davidians fired first. A Waco Tribune-Herald reporter, who had been conducting an eight-month investigation and was on the scene that day, said the ATF agents had not completely dismounted from the cattle trailers that had conveyed them to the site when shots erupted from the compound. However, he said, even as an eyewitness, he did not know definitively who fired first.
Q: What was the result of the Russian space experiment that was supposed to reflect light from the sun on the darkened Earth?
A: The experiment was declared a success, although there were reports only of flashes of light from Belarus and none from Europe, as scientists had hoped for. The experiment was only the first in a series that Russian scientists hope will create an effective stellar spotlight that could be used to light up nighttime work, aid in rescue operations and illuminate blacked-out cities.
Q: Who exactly can use a Veterans Affairs medical facility? It used to be that all veterans could, but there are situations now where veterans have been turned away.
A: Recent changes by Congress have redefined who is eligible for care at a Department of Veterans Affairs facility. The VA must care for veterans with service-connected illnesses, former POWs, veterans who were exposed to health hazards while on active duty and need treatment and those on a VA pension or on Medicaid. For the others, care is discretionary. It's up to the facility, depending on space and other resources, if the veteran has a non-service-connected condition or his income is above the legal limit. If a veteran's income is higher than $19,409 if single and $23,291 if married, a co-payment for care will be charged.
Q: The human rights group Africa Watch criticized the United States for "cozying up" to Somali warlords and "ignoring their crimes." But other than warlords, what political leadership is left in Somalia?
A: The United States has been trying to reconstitute the police force in the capital, Mogadishu. This force apparently is the only civil institution with any integrity left in the country. There never were many leaders in Somalia who weren't corrupt, and members of the professional class - doctors, lawyers, etc. - have mostly left - although a small number is returning. So, like it or not, we have to deal with the warlords because they control large numbers of people.
Q: What were the circumstances surrounding passage of the first gun law in 1934?
A: One of the offshoots of Prohibition was an unprecedented - until now - wave of violence, with mobs and gangs warring with one another in the streets. Although Prohibition ended in 1933, Congress recognized that illegal liquor barons still posed a threat to legal distillers and brewers. The 1934 National Firearms Act was passed to control what Congress termed "gangster-type weapons" such as machine guns and sawed-off shotguns.
Q: What is the marital status of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who helps people commit suicide?
A: He is a lifelong bachelor, though he has had "many lady friends," according to his lawyer.
Q: How many aides, secretaries, speechwriters etc., work in the offices of senior members of Congress - at what cost?
A: Congress employs 37,000 people and costs more than $2.5 billion a year to run. Personal staff for the members has tripled since 1960 from 6,791 to more than 19,000. In just 10 years, congressional staffs have grown by 59 percent, or 14,000 employees, from cooks, beauticians and travel agents to actual policy and constituent-service aides. Members of the House have a clerical hiring allowance and are permitted to hire up to 22 staffers. Senators have an administrative and clerical assistance allowance and have no limit on the number of their administrative staffers. All congressmen must report how many staff members they employ and their names. To find out your representative's staffing, write: House Document Room, B-18 Ford House Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515; for your senators' staffing numbers write: Senate Document Room, Hart Senate Office Building, B-04, Washington, D.C. 20510.