Around the Nation

Around the Nation

New Jersey Nets adopt high school

There was the aspiring surgeon who wants to go to Princeton, the would-be lawyer with her eye on Spelman College, the athlete who may become a chef-if the pro football thing doesn't work out.

These students were already assured of scholarships upon completing a separate Project Grad program, which helps at-risk teenagers improve their grades and steers them toward college. And yesterday, the New Jersey Nets adopted Shabazz High as part of a $2.5 million commitment to inner cities from the National Basketball Association, National Football League and Major League Baseball.

Clinton challenged other teams and sports to follow the lead.

He gestured at Nets players alongside him onstage, saying, "There are a lot of guys this tall that aren't playing basketball. They got a chance, and they made the most out of it. And that's what we ought to offer to every child."

In addition, several major corporations committed about $4 million in response to Clinton's "New Markets" initiative-a plan to ensure that the nation's less-well-off rural and urban areas share in the booming economy.

"Now is the time to say the rest of American should be part of our prosperity, and they are the next great opportunity-the new markets of the 21st century," Clinton said.

Later, Clinton toured an indoor marketplace in Hartford, Conn., that is helping revitalize a downtrodden neighborhood near Trinity College. He said the Department of Housing and Urban Development would funnel $6.7 million into Hartford for economic development, and urged private companies to do the same.

"It's the smart thing to do," Clinton said. "It's one of the clear ways we can continue to have this economic expansion without inflation."

The New Markets proposal seeks to spur $15 billion in new investment in poor communities through tax credits and loan guarantees.

While Clinton was in the library, other Newark students lined the bleachers in the gym, swaying to the rhythms of the marching band and chanting along with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who exhorted them to "keep hope alive." They erupted into cheers when Clinton walked in with the athletes, including many of the New Jersey Nets and their star, Jayson Williams.

Besides adopting Shabazz High, the Nets' majority owners have pledged to invest with the Community Youth Organization to help subsidize college scholarships for kids from low-income families.

Williams offered another incentive, a party at his house in Clifton, N.J., to the first 200 young people who complete service requirements for the Nets' program. He also pledged new uniforms for the band.

Other sports also stepped forward. National Football League Commissioner Paul Tagliabue committed to spend $1.5 million in grants to neighborhood-based organizations in the 29 cities where NFL teams play to build or restore local football fields.

Costco, a membership wholesaler, pledged $500,000 to encourage other professional teams to follow the Seattle Seahawks' example in forming partnerships with troubled schools in their areas.

Major League Baseball said it would take part in the Diverse Partners Program, through which baseball and basketball teams can hire minority contractors for catering, landscaping, merchandise and other needs.

The NBA pledged that each of its 29 teams would mobilize 2,000 young volunteers this season in community service projects with non-profit organizations, social service agencies or the AmeriCorps program.

Back in the library, Clinton debated with trumpet player Gary Dennis Jr., 16, over which college had the best bad-Florida A&M or Grambling State. And he marveled at Nafiys Blakewood, 16, a basketball star with a 3.7 grade point average.

"You've got a lot of options and you can't lose," Clinton said. "I just want to thank you for what you're doing with your lives and what an example you're setting for other young people in this community."

"This is a dream come true for me," said Darlene Stovall, a freshman. "I always wanted to meet a president."

Senate approves banking mergers bill

The vote was 90-8. All but one of the opponents was a Democrat.

President Clinton is ready to sign the measure, despite warnings by Democratic critics that it could lead to price-gouging of consumers and to financial conglomerates that are simply too big and powerful. In addition, consumer groups, liberal lawmakers and others bitterly have opposed the legislation on grounds it would jeopardize consumers' financial privacy.

The measure will bring "the concentration of more and more economic power in the hands of fewer and fewer people," liberal Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.), said during Senate debate.

Quick approval was expected in the House on financial industry changes first proposed in Congress two decades ago.

At stake is an estimated $350 billion a year that Americans spend on fees and commissions for banking, brokerage and insurance services.

ay the legislation will save consumers some $15 billion annually, offering them greater choice and convenience and spurring competition.

The overhaul, one of the few major pieces of bipartisan legislation to emerge from Congress this year, progressed partly as a result of industry money.

Over the years, as Wall Street and the other financial industries have pushed for such legislation, they have poured millions of dollars into lobbying and political contributions.

This year, the legislation struck a raw nerve over the issue of consumers' privacy. Critics are disturbed by provisions that would allow affiliated businesses of the newly merged companies to share customers' personal financial data as they offer one-stop shopping for loans, insurance and investments.

But supporters point to a new right given to consumers: By written request, they can stop their financial companies from sharing their data with companies outside the corporate group, such as telemarketers.

"This is a pro-consumer bill," insisted Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), whose state is home to Wall Street and the banking industry.

Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, promised the measure would "bring every city and town in America a financial supermarket ... (and) a diversity of financial products that we have never seen before."

The White House recently lifted its veto threat after administration officials reached a compromise with key Republican lawmakers on rules requiring that banks make loans in minority and low-income communities where they operate.

Gramm, an outspoken conservative who opposes the rules, managed to kill a similar overhaul measure over the issue last year.

The legislation repeals the landmark 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, which erected the barriers separating the financial services industries-a response to the devastating stock market crash of October 1929 that triggered the Great Depression.

Lawmakers wanted to separate investment banking, with its greater penchant for risk, from commercial banking in a bid to prevent depositors' money from being lost in high-flying investments. In 1956, new legislation took banks out of the insurance-selling business.

Federal regulators have been chipping away at the legal barriers in recent years, giving some banks permission to get into the securities business.

Separate versions of the legislation cleared the House and the Senate earlier this year, and lawmakers and their aides have spent months negotiating and blending the two. The final package is closer to the House-passed bill.

The senators voting against the bill yesterday included one Republican, Richard Shelby of Alabama, who expressed concern that the measure would create burdensome new mandates for banks and could damage consumers' financial privacy.

Others voting no were Democrats Barbara Boxer of California, Richard Bryan of Nevada, Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, Russell Feingold of Wisconsin, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Barbara Mikulski of Maryland and Wellstone.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), was absent, and Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.), refrained from voting to avoid a conflict of interest; he owns a large stake in the Bank of Montreal, which previously bought his family's Illinois bank.

New cancer drug reaches trial stage

"We're cautiously optimistic that the drug will have activity, but at this point no one really knows what will happen," said James Pluda, a senior scientist at the National Cancer Institute, which oversees experimental cancer-drug trials.

The first of the patients have been receiving infusions of the drug for no more than two weeks.

Concern about long-standing hype connected to endostatin, the drug drawing the limelight, has forced the two cancer centers testing it into an unusual clampdown on information about it.

Patients' identities are being guarded with stepped-up rigor. Doctors involved in the research are barred from talking to reporters. Because of the overwhelming worldwide response from desperate people with all types of cancer, at least one of the testing centers is randomly drawing participants from a computer database to eliminate any hint of selection bias.

"We're cautiously optimistic that the drug will have activity, but at this point no one really knows what will happen," said James Pluda, a senior scientist at the National Cancer Institute, which oversees experimental cancer-drug trials.

The first of the patients have been receiving infusions of the drug for no more than two weeks.

Concern about long-standing hype connected to endostatin, the drug drawing the limelight, has forced the two cancer centers testing it into an unusual clampdown on information about it.

Patients' identities are being guarded with stepped-up rigor. Doctors involved in the research are barred from talking to reporters. Because of the overwhelming worldwide response from desperate people with all types of cancer, at least one of the testing centers is randomly drawing participants from a computer database to eliminate any hint of selection bias.

11-05-99