From Welfare to Warfare
The New York
Times lead reveals that states have not spent about 20 percent of the
money they received from 1997-99 to fund anti-poverty programs. The Los Angeles Times goes
with a Syracuse University study showing that federal prosecutions of gun cases
have recently dropped by a third and that convicted criminals are serving less
jail time. The paper off-leads tomorrow's referendum in East Timor on
independence from Indonesia. The Washington Post leads with a report that two local
utilities cannot account for about 66 million gallons of water a day--a fifth
of their total supply. The loss, which adds up to millions of dollars each
year, is brought to light as area residents are being asked to conserve,
conserve, conserve.
An analysis conducted by the NYT probes an unforeseen effect of the
1996 welfare law, which freed states to run their own anti-poverty programs: A
combination of fixed federal grants and shrinking welfare rolls have left
states $7.4 billion in the black. The paper conducted a mammoth survey of state
spending records to figure out where the money is going, and found that "in 50
state budgets reside 50 different stories." The article emphasizes four results
of the study and profiles Wisconsin, New Mexico, and Texas: 1) The federal
government spends 64 percent more per family than before the law took effect,
averaging $5,300 in 1998. 2) Differences in states' allotments and changing
state welfare enrollments may feed new political clashes (Wisconsin got about
six times more money last year than Illinois). 3) Much of the money hasn't been
converted into new benefits and services--state spending has increased only 28
percent. 4) Some of the poorest states, such as New Mexico, are the slowest to
tap their anti-poverty funds.
Militias in East Timor said they will restrict their armed forces to certain
areas to prevent interference in tomorrow's referendum, according to a
LAT front-pager. The paper cautions that similar agreements between pro-
and anti-independence forces have dissolved in the past. The U.N. will
supervise the vote and announce the results in no less than a week. The
NYT depicts the military struggle as more one-sided, conducted by
"brutal, rag-tag militias that oppose independence." Both papers explain that
East Timor, which has 800,000 residents, would face intense poverty if it gains
independence.
Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit told the Post that northwestern
cities have industrialized and expanded over the past few decades, despite a
string of predictions that an earthquake would hit. The paper points out that
in 1997, a respected (though unnamed) journal singled out Izmit as most
vulnerable to a quake. Other details of the government's role are emerging: The
state never set up a communications network that would link them to local
officials during crises. Turkey's president, vacationing in Istanbul, could not
call to Ankara for four hours after the quake. A law requires the state to
provide people with new homes for free; costs to be met with international
loans. A dramatic LAT "Sunday Report" looks at four middle-class Turkish
families who must rebuild their lives from scratch.
The Syracuse study suggests that criminals' shorter prison terms indicate
that investigators have been less than successful targeting the nation's
biggest illegal weapons dealers. Opponents of gun control blame federal
authorities for failing to enforce existing laws. An ATF officer told the
Times that the survey did not take enough into account, like
understaffing or the number of cases referred to state officials. The
LAT devotes its entire editorial space to a plea for stricter gun
control. The paper calls on lawmakers to ban assault weapons, require that guns
be registered and owners licensed, impose background checks at gun shows, and
ban Internet gun sales by private parties.
International health specialists concerned with preventing malaria are
trying to soften a possible U.N. global ban on DDT, the NYT reports. The
group wants the treaty to allow people to spray small amounts of DDT on walls
indoors to repel disease-carrying mosquitoes. A U.N. official told the
Times that such a provision is likely, but not without a fierce struggle
by unlikely adversaries: public health experts and environmentalists.
The WP puts Russian "capital flight" at $100 billion-150 billion
since 1992 and suggests that all the country's problems (the prime minister
carousel, inflation, and social disintegration) have only encouraged a broad
range of people with money to find ways to send it westward. The article
mentions a couple of recent, highly visible financial scandals but does not
allot space to the back-stabbing political environment that is thought to have
helped them surface.
A NYT "Week in Review" piece takes on the First Golfer's notorious
habit of hitting "mulligans," or spontaneous "do-overs," after flubbed strokes:
"Mr. Clinton, after all, claimed that he did not inhale, and that he did not
have sexual relations with that woman. Why wouldn't the President also put the
spin on his golf score?" Dissatisfied with its own first shot, the NYT
grants itself a mulligan. Earlier in the week, the paper (and others) ran a
glorious photo of President Clinton following through on a swing, his cheeks
inflated Dizzy Gillespie-style, eyes intently tracing the ball's path. The
Times' second shot turned out much better: It's in full-color and at
least twice the size of first, which had hooked left, straight onto the back
pages.
