Across the Nation Clinton's final address free of scandal WASHINGTON - When President Clinton strides into the Capitol tonight to deliver the final State of the Union speech of his presidency, gone will be the dramas of his past addresses, the impeachment trials, the exploding sex scandals, the sense of drift and disarray. Without the melodrama or political intrigue of the past, this year's speech will offer an ambitious legislative agenda for Clinton's final year in office that not even his top aides believe will pass on his watch. "He'll be laying out an agenda for the decade," said Sidney Blumenthal, a senior White House aide, "an agenda that understands the new realities, that's visionary and practical. They may not all be reached this year, but they will be reached." For much of his tenure in office, Clinton has been a master of this venue, a rambling yet eloquent orator who used his epic State of the Union addresses to re-energize his presidency. Each year, the image of Clinton evoking cheers from a joint session of Congress has lent his presidency a stateliness it otherwise did not always convey. Last year, as an extraordinary Senate impeachment court stood in judgment of him, Clinton used the address to try to prove that an expected acquittal would not, in effect, end his tenure in office. This year, no less an authority than Clinton himself says he is simply trying, in the waning months of his presidency, to stave off nostalgia for past triumphs. "I do feel some nostalgia," he said this week. "It's something I'm very much trying to fight off, because I think the important thing is to keep the attention of the country focused on the future." Any drift toward nostalgia is not for lack of legislative initiatives. In Thursday night's speech, and in his proposed 2001 federal budget to follow on Feb. 7, Clinton will offer a 10-year, $110 billion health care initiative to provide insurance for at least 5 million uncovered Americans, and to bring down the cost of insurance for those who are covered. He will request an expansion of his signature AmeriCorps national service program, a $21 billion boost to the earned-income tax credit for the working poor, a $30 billion tax cut to defray the costs of college tuition, new efforts to combat infectious diseases and to find environmental causes of illnesses, an aviation safety initiative, and a program to bolster the enforcement of gun laws. His education proposals will include $1.3 billion for the renovation of schools in poverty-stricken areas, a $120 million request to help districts create smaller schools, a $30 million program to enhance training for early childhood educators, and a new teacher quality initiative that Andy Rotherman, a Clinton education adviser, promised would be "eye catching." The president will push Congress to approve China's inclusion in the World Trade Organization and to send Colombia an aid package to combat drug traffickers. At the same time, Clinton hopes to head off any major Republican tax cut by diverting most of the expected budget surplus into federal debt reduction. The most ambitious of those proposals have little chance of passage in a year when Congress will try to do as little as possible, hoping to avoid any missteps that would alienate the voters. Sen. Pete Domenici, the New Mexico Republican who is chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, scoffed at Clinton's agenda, saying the president has already proposed 21 new programs worth $150 billion. "Now you see, right off the bat, that's pretty inconsistent with talking seriously about paying down the debt and giving the taxpayers back a little money," Domenici said. Blizzard covers N.C., reminices Floyd RALEIGH, N.C. - Four months after Hurricane Floyd's devastating floodwaters, North Carolina struggled yesterday with the aftermath of a "white hurricane" - a record 2-foot snowfall in a part of the country that doesn't have much experience with blizzards. The snowstorm left thousands of people stuck in cold, dark homes and paralyzed Raleigh and other communities. "I'm 45 years old and I've never seen it like this. Our fire trucks couldn't go anywhere. Our ambulances couldn't go anywhere," said Rick Harris, emergency management coordinator in rural Montgomery County, outside Charlotte. Raleigh Mayor Paul Coble, snowbound yesterday like many of his constituents, described the storm in terms people in North Carolina are certain to understand: "a white hurricane." More than 140,000 homes and business remained without electricity yesterday in North and South Carolina. The storm was blamed for one traffic death in North Carolina and two in South Carolina. Two people were found outside dead of exposure in South Carolina. The Rev. Anne Beach, pastor of the Biscoe Presbyterian Church in Montgomery Couty, said her church shelter was running out of food to feed people whose homes lost electricity. "We have plenty of cans of soup, but nothing much to go with it," she said. "I'm just praying for the loaves and the fishes to multiply." The storm dumped 20.3 inches at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, breaking Raleigh's previous single-storm record of 17.8 inches from March 2, 1927. It also set a record for snowfall in a month, giving Raleigh a total of 28.2 inches. The previous mark was 20 inches, in January 1893. Travel was especially treacherous along Interstate 85 just south of the Virginia-North Carolina line. The road was virtually shut down for several hours Tuesday night and Wednesday morning by jackknifed and abandoned tractor-trailers. The Raleigh-Durham airport was closed until Thursday morning. Spokesman Mike Blanton said 120 people were stranded in the airport's two terminals Tuesday and Wednesday, but a hotel chain fed them at no charge. Blanton said the airport was closed for several hours during Hurricane Floyd in September and Hurricane Fran in 1996, but never for two days. The nor'easter swept up the East Coast from South Carolina, dropping heavy snow inland. The Northeast got up to 2 feet of snow, which snarled roads and closed schools and government offices, but most places were almost back to normal on Wednesday. Raleigh and Richmond, Va., which got 11 inches, were still largely paralyzed Wednesday. "My guess is from what they're saying is it's going to be Sunday before you start to see any real movement," the Raleigh mayor said. Stewart McGough, a First Union Bank employee from Charlotte, described downtown Richmond as a ghost town when he arrived Tuesday night after several hours of treacherous travel. "It was like a war zone - a demilitarized zone of sorts," he said. National Guardsmen in Humvees in North Carolina and Virginia helped state troopers reach traffic accidents. The vehicles also served as ambulances and helped take people to shelters. Some Raleigh residents emerged from their houses and apartments Wednesday for the first time since snow began falling Monday night. About 80 people got in line outside a supermarket, where managers permitted only a few customers inside at a time because only a few employees had come to work. Some customers needed supplies; others were just breaking the monotony of being inside for more than a day. "It's fun for the first couple of days, but then it becomes a nuisance," said Eric Ricks, who was in line with his fiancee, Denise Edwards. Edwards said she had spent her enforced confinement working on wedding plans. "I've got him cornered to do the invitations," she said. "I'm addressing them, and he's stuffing them." Smokers sue for tobacco settlement PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Lawyers for smokers are planning to sue eight states seeking a share of the $206 billion national tobacco settlement. That settlement was reached in 1998 with 46 states seeking to recover money spent treating smoking-related illnesses of people on Medicaid. But many states plan to use the money for unrelated projects, and that has angered some smokers with tobacco-related illnesses. The new lawsuits are being filed this week in Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Rhode Island, lawyers said. Some were filed yesterday, while others were delayed by winter storms. Similar lawsuits are pending in other states. "It became crystal clear recently that states weren't going to do the right thing. They're going to spend money on bridges and highways and not give any money to the people on whose back they won the settlement," said Antonio Ponvert, an attorney helping coordinate the lawsuits. Ponvert said the eight states were chosen because lawyers believed technicalities in the settlement and Medicaid laws gave them a better chance for success there. The lawsuits do not specify damages, and Ponvert said it was impossible to know exactly how much money was involved. Rhode Island Lt. Gov. Charles Fogarty has said the national tobacco settlement was meant for a broader purpose. He has proposed dividing his state's $56 million annual payment between anti-smoking campaigns and general health care programs. "This was not an attempt by the state at all to get money for individuals," Fogarty said. "This was an attempt to stop the tobacco companies from perpetrating a fraud on people and help people break the cycle of addiction." The national litigation alleged that tobacco companies made an addictive product and sold it without properly warning the public. Lawrence Tyler, 54, a former truck driver from Burlington, Vt., is among the new plaintiffs. He smoked four or five packs a day for 43 years and now has emphysema and can't work. "The tobacco companies, they made cigarettes addicting to people. Why should the state get the money?" he said. "Why shouldn't we get a little something out of it?" The $206 billion settlement covers 46 states. The four remaining states settled separately for an additional $40 billion. The National Conference of State Legislatures said only about 8 percent of the first payments made in the settlement with the 46 states have been budgeted for anti-smoking campaigns. The rest is slated for general costs or to cover losses from tax cuts. The new lawsuits hinge on a provision in Medicaid law which requires states to pursue a party responsible for an injury. The money recovered would first go to a state to cover its expenses, then to the federal government for its contribution to Medicaid costs. Anyone hurt by the responsible party would get the rest. Last year, Congress waived its interest in any proceeds from the tobacco settlement. Paul Billings of the American Lung Association in Washington, D.C., said he hadn't seen the lawsuits and couldn't comment directly on them. But he criticized the way states are spending the settlement. "I think that states are squandering the opportunity the settlement offered to reduce the horrendous toll that tobacco takes ... and reduce the future Medicaid liability," Billings said. Similar lawsuits previously were filed in California, Wisconsin and other states. In the California case, a tentative ruling in state court indicates the lawsuits have some merit, Ponvert said. In Wisconsin, however, a federal court ruled the lawsuits violated the 11th Amendment, which generally prohibits federal lawsuits seeking monetary damages against a state by citizens of that state or any other state. That ruling has been appealed. Originally on page 2A in the 1-27-2000 issue of the Daily.