Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 28, 1993 TAG: 9311280184
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A. Discrimination against people from Appalachia is enough of a problem in Cincinnati that the City Council thought it warranted mention in the ordinance, said Deputy City Solicitor Karl Kadon. The Appalachian region stretches across parts of 11 states, primarily Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina, and a lot of people from those areas have settled in southwestern Ohio. Stereotypes about uneducated, backward "hillbillies," recognizable by their accents, dress and customs, have led to discrimination in housing and employment that the ordinance seeks to prevent.
Mike Overbey, employment specialist with the Urban Appalachian Council, said school dropout rates for Appalachians are as high as 68 percent in Cincinnati, and unemployment rates are proportionally high. He said some Appalachians alter their accents to avoid ridicule, but are still discriminated against because of where they live - predominantly poor, white areas of town considered Appalachian neighborhoods.
Q: Is there a symbolic reason why the Pentagon building is in the shape of a pentagon?
A: The building's shape was dictated by the original site proposed for it, which was about three-fourths of a mile north of where it was ultimately built. An early plan called for a square building with one corner cut off to accommodate an existing road, resulting in a skewed pentagonal shape.
Objections were raised to the intended site, on open land directly between Arlington National Cemetery and Washington's Monumental Core, and planners looked for another site. As discussions proceeded, the project's chief architects, George Bergstrom and David Witmer, decided to keep the five-sided design anyway, but to make all sides the same length - 921.6 feet. The result was a regular pentagon. Built in just 16 months during World War II, the Pentagon covers 29 acres and has about 3.8 million square feet of office space.
Q. Does the North American Free Trade Agreement make any provision for the possibility that U.S. companies located in Mexico could be nationalized by the Mexican government?
A. NAFTA has a clause stating that none of the three NAFTA countries may directly or indirectly expropriate investments "except for a public purpose on a nondiscriminatory basis and in accordance with principles of due process of law," said a spokesman for the U.S. trade representative. If Mexico were to nationalize an investor's assets, he said, it would have to promptly compensate the investor at fair market value, plus any applicable interest.
Q: The comic strip "Doonesbury" is saying that Michael Milken still has a billion dollars. How much money does he have?
A: Even when the Wall Street junk bond king was in jail making 30 cents an hour, he still made Forbes magazine's list of the richest Americans in 1992. The millions Milken paid in fines and civil settlements cut his net worth of $700 million in half, according to the magazine. Milken's brother Lowell appeared on the list for the first time last year, with a net worth of $275 million. The brothers have extensive junk bond holdings that appreciated over the past year.
Q: Does Ross Perot spend any of the money people send in to join his United We Stand America organization? And if so, for what?
A: Because United We Stand America is not officially a political campaign organization, it isn't required to divulge where its money goes. But a spokeswoman for the self-styled citizens' action group has said the $15 membership fees are spent solely on United We Stand America expenses - which include membership services, membership cards, newsletters, state directors' salaries and staff expenses - and not on any politician, cause or outside interest. The spokeswoman said Perot pays for TV time himself. She declined to divulge the total membership.
Q: What are the coincidences between the Kennedy and Lincoln assassinations?
Lincoln was elected in 1860, and Kennedy was elected in 1960.
Both were concerned with civil rights.
Both were slain on a Friday in the presence of their wives.
Their successors were named Johnson and were Southerners who had served in the U.S. Senate. Andrew Johnson was born in 1808 and Lyndon B. Johnson was born in 1908.
John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassins, were killed before trials were held.
Booth was born in 1839; Oswald was born in 1939. Both were Southerners with radical ideas.
Lincoln and Kennedy lost children through death while living in the White House.
Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy; she advised him not to go to the theater. Kennedy's secretary was named Lincoln; she advised him to skip Dallas.
Kennedy was shot in a Lincoln car made by the Ford Motor Co.; Lincoln was shot in Ford's Theater.
Booth shot Lincoln in a theater and ran to a warehouse; Oswald shot Kennedy from a warehouse and ran to a theater.
Q: What is the procedure for withdrawing from NAFTA in six months? Would there have to be another vote in Congress?
A: All that is required is for the president to notify Mexico and Canada that we want out. And that's it.
by CNB