THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 28, 1996 TAG: 9610260013
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: 106 lines
The Canadian Football League is ``extremely close to folding,'' because of serious financial problems, said its chairman last week.
That would have been of interest to folks hereabouts if Hampton Roads had become home for the CFL Pirates.
Fortunately, local leaders withdrew the welcome mat after it was revealed the Pirates hadn't paid all their bills at their previous home, Shreveport, La.
So the CFL may fold, but there's no cause for local concern.
That's a dubious victory, however. While Hampton Roads may have avoided becoming home to a losing team in an imploding league, it has also failed so far to become home to a winning team in a prospering league. Dumb enough to win
The Inkster, Mich., high-school football team is about to get dumber and presumably better.
After the suburban Detroit school lost to rival River Rouge, 55-0, its School Board abandoned a policy that allowed students to play sports only if they passed six classes with a C or better. The school is returning to its previous requirement that athletes pass at least four classes with a D-.
If the Inkster team still loses big to River Rouge, its School Board may require athletes to sign up for four courses but not to attend them.
In the old days, they just fired the coach. Smart change in eligibility
Students who pass the Literacy Passport Test in the summer will be eligible to play sports the following fall, as the result of a State Board of Education decision last week.
Virginia public-school students first take the Literacy Passport Test in the sixth grade. They keep taking it till they pass - thus demonstrating they can read, write and do math at the sixth-grade level. Passage is a requirement for participation in high-school sports.
The test was administered in the summer for the first time this year. Students who passed were not eligible to play sports this fall. They had to wait till spring. But students who pass the test this summer and in future summers will be eligible for fall sports.
``It's just the right thing to do,'' said board chairwoman Michelle Easton. ``These young people put forth the effort and pass the test, and they should be eligible.''
She's right. Don't penalize students after they've succeeded. World class
The Greater Hampton Roads World Affairs Council - like all other world affairs councils around the nation - is a child of the Cold War, created with encouragement of Washington to involve ordinary Americans in discussions of U.S. foreign policy in the post-World War II era.
The Cold War is history. Fortunately, the Greater Hampton Roads World Affairs Council is not. Early this month, Li Daoyu, the People's Republic of China's ambassador to the United States, addressed the council. On Nov. 6, Bujon de l'Estang, France's ambassador to the United States, will speak. The ambassadors from Switzerland, Hungary and Germany are the next in line.
As a port, Hampton Roads has ever had one eye cocked outward. The World Affairs Council focuses both eyes on the globe. Charge card turncoat
There was a time when an American wouldn't have sold out his country for love or money. Now those seem to be the reasons. Ideology doesn't enter into it.
Aldrich Ames, the CIA mole, revealed his country's secrets to maintain a Jaguar lifestyle on a Jeep budget. Now Navy machinist mate Kurt Lessenthien has claimed in a Norfolk courtroom that he committed espionage in order to pay off $25,000 in credit-card debt in hope of winning his wife's love. That's betrayal at bargain-basement rates. Mr. Lucky
There's nothing wrong with the Dole campaign that a recession wouldn't have cured. And Newt Gingrich and other GOP prophets predicted one when President Clinton's economic plan was adopted. It has failed to arrive.
Instead, unemployment and inflation are startlingly low. The stock market is in the stratosphere and the economy just keeps chugging along, recording not the fastest growth in history but surprisingly steady and long-lived progress.
Nine days before the voters go to the polls, the latest report on durable goods orders showed no letup. In fact, it recorded the steepest jump in four years - up 4.6 percent in September. Military orders jumped 7.9 percent. The results couldn't be better for Democrats if they'd planned them. Clinton is one of the luckiest politicians on the planet. Not a pretty picture
Humorist Art Buchwald began his career as a columnist for the International Herald Tribune in Paris after World War II. In a recent interview in Europe magazine, a question and answer showed how much America's place in the world has changed in 50 years.
Q: Do you think the ``Ugly American'' is still around in Europe?
A: No. An Ugly American needs money. We don't have any money anymore so we're not ugly anymore. One-way street?
The United States can't prosper without free trade, and the NAFTA treaty was the right thing to do. Nevertheless, it's a competitive world and so far the benefits have tilted toward Mexico. U.S. News reports the following annual trade comparisons:
From the U.S. to Mexico before NAFTA, $41.6 billion. After NAFTA, $46.3 billion.
From Mexico to the U.S. before NAFTA, $40 billion. After NAFTA, $61.7 billion.
And the growth of trade has just begun. According to forecasts, the volume will double within five years to $200 billion a year. by CNB