Georgia Gazette

Good afternoon and welcome to Georgia Gazette. Coming up on today's program, former state attorney general Michael Bowers bid for governor is in jeopardy today following his revelation that he carried on an extra marital affair for more than a decade. He talks about the affair and his reasons for disclosing it. Comdex, the giant computer and home electronics show blew through Atlanta and as always, everyone wants to know what the future holds. Get out those old family recipes for peach cobbler. You'll want to take advantage of this year's bumper peach crop. Meet Cody Bow Claire, Georgia's state spelling bee champ and the fourth best fellow in the country. Visit the newly accredited Chiha wild animal park in Albany plus blues legend Ma Rainey. Efforts are underway in Columbus to turn her family home into a museum. Those stories and more coming up today on Georgia Gazette, the news is next.

I'm Sid Hoskinson and this is Georgia Gazette. On today's edition, former state attorney general Michael Bowers discloses a decade-long extra marital affair that could derail his bid for governor, plus reaction and analysis. Comdex in Atlanta is history in more ways than one, find out what that means. It's a great year for Georgia Peaches and the future though fuzzy promises to be even better, plus Chiha wild animal park in Albany. It's recovery from the floods that devastated Georgia in the summer of 1994 is very nearly complete. Stay with us. Former Georgia attorney general Michael Bowers rocked Georgia politics this week with his

announcement that he had cheated on his wife. The affair which lasted more than a decade could undermine his carefully crafted campaign for governor. Bowers has been meeting with individual reporters in an effort to control at least some of the damage his announcement caused. The first thing he told James Argroves was that the rumors he may have heard were true. The rumor is true and I'm confirming that I became involved with someone with whom I worked in the early eighties. She left government in the mid eighties. The relationship lasted several years. It's over. I regret it more than anything I've ever done. Most of all, I regret the hurt I caused to people that I love very much and I have no excuse. I solely am responsible for my conduct and I have prayed for forgiveness and I apologize for it. Why come out with this admission now? Because I can't keep living under the burden of guilt that I have lived under.

Just that simple. I didn't calculate it for political purposes that I will accept whatever the people say that that's fine. They've been good to me and I'm not only feel worthy to ask anything except I ask forgiveness but it's all a no say. Why did you decide? I mean, did you consider not running for governor at all? Yes, I did. And why did you decide? Because I don't know how to do anything else. I don't know any other way to serve except in this way. And if this disqualifies or renders unfit, I accept that. And you also resigned your commission with the National Guard. Why didn't you do that? I did that because I don't want to put an institution that I love very much the Air Force and the National Guard through the trauma of my troubles. So I just resigned today. What's the last couple of days been like for you?

It's been tough, very, very tough. About the second toughest time I've ever lived, the first being when my dad died, but it has to be. So there was no thought into going and addressing it now and getting it out of the way so you can move on to other issues? Well, obviously, you as a journalist can say that and others can argue that. But in my innermost mind, no, that wasn't it. I just have to get this off of me one way or the other. I hate to impose it on people, on you and others that I love. But I don't know anything else today. Are you concerned at all right now about how this might affect whether other people get in the race or how it might affect the election? Of course, I'm concerned, but I will accept whatever the judgment of the people is. One final question is how is your family holding up on them?

I have a very wonderful family that is forgiving and they're strong, very strong. Michael Bowers' announcement was viewed by some as a slap in the face. Attorney Robin Shahar once worked four hours in the Attorney General's office. A full-time job offer was later withdrawn by Bowers after he learned Shahar was planning to marry another woman. This was Shahar's reaction to Bowers' admission of infidelity. Here's news exemplifies the double standard that he and the courts are applying to gay men and lesbians versus straight people. Mr. Bowers fired me not because of the thought of me. In fact, my case was never a thought of me case. It was a case about my partner and I having a commitment ceremony performed by our rabbi with our family and friends. Mr. Bowers has continually tried to make this case about sodomy and the courts brought into that argument to a great extent when in fact there has never

been any evidence of sodomy in this case. What comes out as being so hypocritical is that Mr. Bowers has now admitted that he himself has been violating a Georgia law, specifically the law of adultery and the law of fornication. His own breaking of the law didn't concern him in terms of his ability to perform his job adequately, yet his assumptions about what I may or may not be doing seem to him to be proper ground to fire me. This just evidences the need. It shows the discrimination that comes up when gay men and lesbians are involved and shows the desperate need to have laws protecting us in employment situations. I'm James R. Groves. The next couple of weeks will be critical to Bowers' political future as the fallout from his announcement settles in.

Political analyst Bill Ships says one thing is certain, and that is that Bowers' admission has changed the dynamics of the governor's race. Before this came out it appeared that Mr. Bowers was a shoe-in for the Republican nomination. The polls I've seen show that he was clearly the front runner to win the governor's race. I think it'll be interesting to see how this received by the people. This rumor had been rampant for several months. His opposition was already using it against him. I think he felt that he needed to relieve himself of that personal and political burden. Ships says it's still too early to tell how Bowers' campaign will be affected by his confession, but a University of Georgia political scientist says Bowers' infidelity has to hurt his gubernatorial bid. Dr. Charles Bullock says that's because Bowers' reputation as an honest politician whose integrity was beyond reproach has been dealt to serious blow. It hurts him more in the sense that

his image has been that of a straight arrow, of a person who was willing to point out the wrong door and let the chips fall where they may. That was one of his great strengths, something which gave him potentially an appeal which would cross party boundaries. Now that it turns out that he himself has feet of clay, it is probably more damaging than for someone who did not have as squeaky clean and image going into it. The question now is how Bowers' admission will be received by the voters who in past elections have supported him overwhelmingly. With more than a year to go before the GOP primary, Bill Ships says Bowers' decision to admit to the affair now may help defuse the issue, but he says it will not be forgotten. I think it will be a big issue everywhere in North and South Georgia. I think it's something that the religious right must deal with and the religious right, as you know, is very important in the Republican Party. But whatever may be said,

unlike some other politicians that we know of who face the same kind of accusations, Bowers seems to me as faced up to it and been brave about it. Some might say foolish, but they've been brave about it and there's a dressy issue ahead on. So far Bowers is the only Republican candidate for Governor, but Bill Ships says now that the news is out of more conservative Republican candidate may challenge him. Meanwhile, state Republican officials are standing behind Bowers and they say he is their candidate for Governor, state Republican director Rusty Paul. Everybody that I have talked to and I've called our legislature delegation or congressional delegation and talk with the Republican activists around the state, they're all understanding and supportive. I don't think that there's a move out there at all to them. My Bowers, in fact, I see Josie opposite. I see a lot of people coming together with a lot of sympathy and caring concern about him as a human being and his family. If Bowers gets the Republican nomination, his chances of winning the governorship may rest on how his Democratic opponents address the

infidel of the issue. But political analysts say they may have to tread lightly around the question because if they make the affair an issue, they will open up their own personal lives to public scrutiny. The only two announced Democratic candidates for Governor, Lieutenant Governor Pierre Howard and state labor commissioner David Poethers have so far declined to comment on the affair. I'm James R. Groves. Newspaper, man, and Georgia Gazette commentator Frank Lamonti thinks money is at the root of most political evil and he wants to see the current system of campaign finance changed. As somebody who gets paid to write and talk for a living, far be it for me to bite the amendment that feeds me. Still, when it comes to political campaigns, the Supreme Court might be giving us more free speech than we can afford. The courts have consistently said that political spending equals political speech and telling a candidate he can't spend all the money he wants

means you're rationing his constitutional rights. That's a little like saying there's no difference between telling your mother-in-law you'd like to ring your neck and actually paying someone to do the deed. In March, Congress had a chance to weigh in in favor of campaign spending caps for federal elections and to no one's surprise decided things would just find the way they are. If only Congress were made up of the people who lost the elections, we'd have campaign finance reform in a snap. Since it doesn't work that way, maybe it's time to try something else. I like to take credit for this suggestion but actually it's not original. I stole it from Joe Camel. Why not put warning labels on candidates? It's already a well-established and constitutionally tested law that every campaign ad has to end with a disclaimer saying who paid for it. So, let's let everybody take as much money from as many contributors as they can. But as soon as they spend over the limit, every piece of mail, every commercial, every radio spot has to carry

a disclaimer. This candidate is bought and paid for by corrupt special interests. If the public still wants to elect the guy after hearing that, hey, it's a free country. But just like with cigarettes, at least you'll know what you're buying. In fact, the same principle could work in place of term limits, another attempted reform that's been successfully challenged as unconstitutional in court. So let the strong thermons and robert birds of the world run to lay keel over. But once they've served over 12 years, all their ads have to conclude with. This candidate has been in office way the hell too long. He wants Senator Wiesbag back anyway. Fine, that's democracy. At least you've been warned. Maybe it seems like a stretch to apply the same rules to politics and cigarettes, but think about it. They're both habit-forming. They both involve blowing smoke. They're both safest when filtered. And after prolonged exposure for enough years, they both make you sick. Frank Lamonti is the Atlanta bureau chief for the Morris

News Service. The giant 1997 Spring Comdex computer and personal electronics show in Atlanta is over. Georgia Gazette Web Watcher Mike Newmeyer was among the 100,000 or so people who attended this year. Mike, hi. How you doing? Pretty good. Have it yourself, Sid. Pretty good. Listen, tell me, what was Comdex like this year? Well, Sid, I have to admit, it was kind of a snooze this year. It wasn't really as exciting as it's been in the years past and definitely not as exciting as the recent show out in Vegas. And that's just not my sentiment. I talked to some other folks also, some PR folks and some magazine folks and some vendors. And they all seem to think it wasn't the show it used to be. What do you think the problem is? We know it's moving now after this year, it'll be in Chicago. Was that part of the problem? Well, we lose it to Chicago. It goes up North.

And I think part of the reason is timing. It just didn't have very good timing this year. There's another major show in two weeks called PCX Bo up in New York. A lot of companies are holding off on unveiling some new neat gadgets and gizmos up there. So I think we kind of lost that little edge. There were some neat things. I mean, there were there were fun stuff. Kodak had some really neat digital cameras. They're getting into digital video cameras. And that was probably the theme of the show. Out in Vegas, earlier or late last year, the theme of the show was push technology, which now you read about in all the magazines and how things are being delivered right to your desktop over the internet. So that was the big push show. This was probably the big digital show. I guess that's what you'd have to say. So tell me, did you come across stuff that you really want to own? Well, there were some neat things. There's some neat game type stuff out there, which we'll probably see a lot of in a few weeks here with the E3 show coming up. But there were

some virtual reality games where you're putting on those clunky looking headsets that cover your eyes and you actually move your hands to move chest pieces on the board and it appears right in front of you 3D like so it does away with a joystick that you know some of us know with the Atari days and such. So that was that was kind of fun. That's that's a consumer side fun thing. But probably the most exciting thing of the show. Well, do you think we're going to miss in Georgia having calm decks here? I think that and I was speaking actually Cox had a reception a few nights ago and was speaking to a colleague with PC magazine and I asked him what he thought about Atlanta as far as a high tech city and he said we're not quite there. We're not in the top 5 but we're certainly growing. We've got some really great technology companies. So I wouldn't be surprised if we see some more shows like this coming back to us because we're we're really starting to move. There was a recent report which ranked us number one in high tech job increase over the past year. We were 11th overall in number of high tech jobs but number one

in the increase. So the technology community's really booming. Sounds like you had fun at calm decks. It was fun. It was it was neat to walk around and see all the vendors. I'll go again. Thanks Mike. Mike Numeier is with Duffy Communications in Atlanta. Last spring Georgia peach farmers couldn't grow fuzz but what a difference a year makes says Joe Corson with the University of Georgia. The trees hang heavy in Peach County with red and yellow peaches ready for harvest. Workers have no problem quickly filling the pouches that hang around their shoulders. When the pouches are filled the workers dump into large white bins on a trailer pulled by a tractor that carried the peaches to the processing shed nearby. Growers like Bill

McGay he got a break this year. Hey boys a little cool and kind of slow things down but it's been a almost the perfect spring for us this spring. Growers had high hopes last year for a good crop but it didn't happen. Late season cold weather killed tender blooms necessary for the peaches to form on the limbs. Growers had only about an 8 to 10 percent crop last year. That's the worst percentage that we've had this area of back in 1955 when we lost a entire crop. When the losses were added up Georgia producers lost about $27 million worth of peaches last year. It was completely different this year. Growers had to prune the trees extensively because there were too many blooms and for a change the weather cooperated. Butch-porea horticulturalists with the University of Georgia's College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences saw the good crop coming. From a volume standpoint we're certainly going to have a better year than we did last year because we probably picked more peaches in the first week than we picked all of last season. That gives

you an idea how bad last season was. Processing shed some that haven't operated in two years now run at full speed. Peaches get washed as soon as they arrive at the shed and then they are sorted by size. Hundreds of peaches on conveyor belts zoomed by workers who inspect each one. Then they go to a box and carefully stored in a cool place for shipping. In the future workers may not have to be so careful processing peaches. That's because agricultural scientists have developed a heart of your peach. In a small experimental orchard indicator county in deep southwest Georgia gerard pruer of the University of Georgia's College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences along with horticulturalists from the University of Florida and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have produced a peach that tastes good but isn't so delicate. The shelf life of these peaches is phenomenal. You can you can pick them and put them at room temperature and often they'll keep for a week or more room temperature even though they are picked when when ripe. The research team

hasn't decided on a new name for the new type of peach but they have started the process of getting a patent for it. Growers could start planting the new variety in about two years. Then we'll take about another three years or so before consumers will get to eat them. In the meantime, gerard pruer says whenever you buy peaches now there are a number of things to look for to get the juiciest and the sweetest ones. Generally good peaches have a pleasant aroma and have a have a nice yellowish background color indicating that they're physiologically mature. Georgia peach growers see peachy years ahead starting with this one and even better ones when the new variety starts producing peaches and orchards throughout the peach state. Joe Corson lives in Tifton. He's with UGA's College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Chihaw Wild Animal Park in Albany was devastated in the summer of 1994

when a surge of flood water wiped out live exhibits and killed nearly 40 animals at the zoo. But this past March after years of hard work and careful planning, Chihaw became a member of the American Zoos and Aquariums Association. AZA accreditation is based on a number of factors including the way a park displays its animals. Melissa Gray went to Chihaw to see what's new and to take a little walk on the wild side. I'm Steve Marshall. I'm General Manager here at Chihaw Park. This was built right on the right on top of a wetland and it's such a unique environment to put a wild animal park in. People in New York and in San Diego and in Cincinnati spend millions of dollars to reproduce this wetland as an exhibit and all we did was build a boardwalk over it. Our master plan from this point entering the entrance plaza will be able to take a left and go toward this sweetgum swam and that'll be our Georgia Woods section and right through here will be our gateway to Africa.

So that's the only two things that we're going to do, Africa and Georgia. We think that that fits well for our climate here and also for the demographics of our area. We think we've got the cultural ties. One of our big cultural events here is our Elephants birthday and we have the African Caribbean Association come and there's dance and there's drumming. I'm John Fowler, General Curator. These are the Calibis monkeys. They're from species from Africa. As you see they've got thick black hair and then they have these long white capes of hair growing off of the back and also a long white tuft on the tail. They're leaf eating species of monkey that live. They spend a lot of time up in the trees and they leap from tree to tree and they they use the tail for balance and counterweighting their bodies when they make these jumps and the capes of hair kind of flap as you can see this one running right now almost like Superman's cape. It's flashy looking when they move from tree or perch to perch. This is a natural tan rooker right here at the park and we just sort of claim it as another exhibit although we

don't do anything to to assist these animals but they come every year and there's our alligator right there. Look out there's an alligator. When the young start hatching the parents have to go for food about five, five, thirty in the afternoon there's this huge fly-in of all the adults and it just darkens the sky and they start circling and coming back into the nest. That's a really great sight. Our animals exhibit natural behavior here because of the type exhibits that we have in. There's a section of so many anchors for a particular animal and then like a gazebo almost. What we're trying to do of course is get away from looking at things through the fence and through wire or bar so we elevate the boardwalks a little bit and have viewing decks over vistas. Jim Fowler that you know world renowned mutual Omaha wild kingdom. He was utilized to lay out the first design of Chiha Wild Animal Park. He was the one that Marlon Perkins always sent out to wrestle the alligators and stuff right. Right and we're very

proud to have him as a native son. These are white-handed gibbons. This is their natural coloration, the females in the wild are blonde and the males are dark black. They're from Southeast Asia, rainforest, canopy dwelling, ape. Of course they don't have any tails or not monkeys and they make they make that loud long vocalization as a territorial marker to let anybody else know that they're in the area. Right now they're just kind of chatting back and forth. Take a year to recover from the flood and then we took another year and a half, almost two years to plan what we could do here, what we thought we could support. We think that we're going to be

able to open Chiha in probably July. We went ahead and built a Chiha exhibit in house. We built it to Chiha's specifications but because we didn't have ACA accreditation we couldn't get the Chiha's. But now we've got two Chiha waiting on us at Jackson, Mississippi at the Jackson Zoo. All we need to do is build a viewing deck and go get those Chiha, cut the ribbon, it'll be a great day for us. Goats and peacock cut in again and it comes a llama to see what's going on. When the ears are back like that that's usually the posture they take when they're ready to spit but they do that a lot more than they spit but that's sort of their defensive posture. They have to be a little more upset but they do below and that's sort of like a greeting isn't John. They usually watch when I get her they prefer to check out your breath and they do that in the wild. They were kind of breathing that. They can tell what other llamas from other areas have been

feeding on and what other individuals have been eating that way. Apparently he does not like what you've been eating. I guess not. Cheerios must not be her thing. Well kept secret and we don't want to keep it that way anymore. We'll take anybody and and and give them that nature experience that we say we do so well. Albany's Chihaw Wild Animal Park and Zoo Atlanta are the only two AZA accredited facilities in Georgia. Unfortunately a small rift has developed between the Georgia zoos over funding and autonomy that could possibly affect Chihaw's accreditation in the future. Still to come on this edition of Georgia Gazette meet Georgia's Felling Champ.

Not only is 14-year-old Cody Bow Claire of Warner Robbins the state's number one speller he's one of the best in the nation. Plus a real house of blues in Columbus efforts are underway to save the home of blues legend Ma Rainey and turn it into a museum. Stay tuned. National Spelling Bee ended last week. The state of Georgia could lay claim to the fourth best speller in the country. 14-year-old Cody Bow Claire of Warner Robbins made it through to the final rounds but got tripped up on the word doyan. There are two spellings and he just happened to pick the wrong one. We talked to Cody about his experience which he says included just being a tourist in DC. Well tell me how did you prepare for this huge spelling bee. I looked at every word guide I could get my hands on.

Anything from the library that went into word roots or words the pie day of which is the original script powered word list that they're using this year that it's words only come up in round one though. I also looked at SAT words the words of the champions which is the 93 study guide that has much harder words and the spelling bee website which is very helpful because it gave info on word roots and the webmaster of this site Carolyn Andrews I'm beginning to know better. He's become a good friend of mine. Are there any kinds of words that gave you bigger problems than others words with foreign spellings words with odd or unusual meanings. It wasn't as much my words as it was other people's words such as Kwashi or Kor, KWA and H-I-O-R-K-O-R which is an African word

that means malnutrition and divine dva dva and dva which means a type of compound word. Now it sounds like in addition to the spelling you know all the meanings of these words how important is it to know the meaning or to understand the meaning. Sometimes you can get like the major word root on the letter that you might not have guessed otherwise. Can you give me an example what like if it has a Latin root or a French root? Like if they said diatrimus you might say DRM or DRAM for the middle of this word but if you know that it comes from the word Drome which means movement then you'll spell it DR-O in. Okay well listen what got you on the path what is it about spelling or that started you along this path to the national spelling bee and the Georgia champion?

I've been watching the national spelling bee on GP ever since I was little and tried to spell the words along with the sellers that was always one of my hobbies around this time of the year. Now you're 14, you're Georgia's spelling bee champ, you're fourth in the nation in the national spelling bee. What's next? Um, jeopardy. I want to go and try for the jeopardy teen tournament if I can. And when is that? The tryouts are going to be in DRM North Carolina I think in August. Well we'll be rooting for you how about that? Okay cool. Good luck. Okay bye. Bye bye. Kids or rather kids' parents are on the mind of Georgia Gazette commentator Audrey Balloon.

She says a bumper sticker she saw got her to thinking. I saw a bumper sticker a few weeks ago that said my kid is an honor student. Fair enough I thought the parent should be proud. Then riding to work the other day a pickup truck cut me off. Although the driver was speeding I was able to catch a glimpse of his bumper sticker which said my kid beat up your honor student. I found a chilling to think of that parent as a role model for any child. I began to think about a bumper sticker for my car to answer those parents. It could say something like to the parent of the kid who beat up the honor student teach your kid to use his brains rather than his brawn. Sincerely a lawyer. No too long-winded. But hey what can you expect from a lawyer? Well what about to parents who think that violence is an answer? Listen to the questions with a different ear. Sincerely a lawyer. No too vague. Hmm but I guess vagueness is often a lawyer's handy tool. My thoughts were interrupted when I

realized that I'd promised a young client I'd see him at the jail. He became my client because I'd represented his father for spousal abuse. This child now and jail himself was only 18 but he'd seen his family deal with situations in a violent manner. The youngest of three siblings in his own family he'd been raised in a polluted atmosphere high on anger and low on insight. He now had a growing record for disorderly conduct, a good old fashioned street brawl drunk driving and a car chase that puts the one I saw Jean Hackman do in the French connection to shame. On the way to the jail I decided to drop off my car payment at the bank. It was then that the irony of the situation hit me. My car payment was just about equal to the fee I'd been paid to work out this kid's guilty plea. That's it. The perfect bumper sticker message that might attract enough attention to make explosive parents think before acting. I can see it now. Don't let your kid become my next car

payment. Sincerely a lawyer. This is Audrey Balloon. Audrey Balloon is a familiar site these days on I-16. She lives and practices law in both Macon and Savannah. The novelist Jenna Stardey was born in Eccles County, Georgia, where she's lived for more than 50 years. Fellow writer Pat Conroy says of Darty's work, quote, there is a lot of red clay and long nights in every line she puts on paper. And that holds true for her latest novel, Earl in the Yellow Shirt, which is set in the back woods of the South Georgia. She knows so well. Jenna Stardey was in Atlanta recently and spoke to Sincere and Flynn about her new book. Earl in the Yellow Shirt is the story of the impoverished scurvy family in the setting set in South Georgia, South East Georgia,

and the scurvy family has to somehow raise the money for a proper burial of their mother. The task of taking care of the family falls on the only daughter, Lugin, whose hope and life seems to be her, the awkward suitor named Earl. And that's where the title comes from Earl in the Yellow Shirt. Tell us about Earl. The way that you tell the story, as you say, is anecdotal. It's told from the repeated perspectives of the different characters within and around the scurvy family. Yes. What led you to name the novel Earl in the Yellow Shirt? Because it seems to me that he doesn't automatically come to mind as being the protagonist. Yes. I had the title for the novel long before I read it, maybe six months or a year. That's the kind of things that are in my journal. I keep every day. And I met Earl. I did not meet Earl. I saw Earl in an emergency room, a hospital emergency room in Valdosta, Georgia. I don't know his name,

really. But he had on the cap, turned backwards. He was obviously what people call a redneck. And a very chivalrous, apparently his girlfriend, about a 16, 17-year-old girl, was being wheeled in and a wheelchair by her, maybe her mother, some member of her family, user imagination. And Earl, he just reached down and grabbed her hand and kissed her hand. And he held her hand while they wheeled her along the hallway. And he had on a yellow shirt. I wanted to write about him. Lou Jean is the 16-year-old daughter who is left to raise the baby. Right. Her mother dies not long after giving birth. And the fact, as you say, the family is impoverished. You create a family, a world of characters that is so real. How much of that is your experience? How much of Earl in the yellow shirt, as a book, do you yourself know?

I did know it. These are the people from my county, the types of people. Not real people. I create them, but they are types of people from my county, Eccles County, in Georgia. Smallest county in Georgia. So I certainly know these people very well. I know they're dialect. The dialect is fading now. You don't hear it as much, but I can hear it in my head. And I think it's very special. Swanucci County, which is the fictional county, is that based on Eccles County? Yes, it is. Very much geographically based. I've got to have a geographic base in my head. So I borrow everybody's houses and move my characters right in with other troubles. And Cornerville, which is the small town that they live in. Is that based on a real town? It's based on my town of Statenville, which was known for my family. This is set in the early 1960s. And it paints a picture of a very brutal life. How real is that? A very, very real. This is what I love. I love the struggle. I love people who are living just

a real simple life. And every day is just trying to climb that ladder and be a knocked off. And that's what seems so valuable to me is dealing with that. There's one very intriguing character, and that's Alamond. Yes. He is the 14-year-old, the youngest child prior to the birth of the newborn. Tell us about him because he really is maybe misfits not the right word, but a very intriguing character. Where does he come from? And what does he add to this dysfunctional family? He's one of the few characters that I write about that is actually based on a person, my brother, who died the year I wrote Earl and the Ella Shirt. And he was an artist. My brother was an artist. And he told me the story. He told me that when he was about 16 years old, that he went into retreat in our great aunt's old house, she had just died. And he drew the town

on the inside walls of her house. He sketched it with pencil. And I never got to see it. And he told me this shortly before he died. And so I wanted to recreate that for him. And Alamond actually draws Cornerville on the walls of Old Aunt Becky's house. What function does that drawing have as far as Alamond is concerned? As far as it's making a hole, or that's the way I see it in my mind, making a world where things fit, I think he says, creating your own place, even though it's a real place, but kind of making things come together for him. They have to somehow raise the money to bury the moment. Do they manage to bury her? Yes. Yes, because of her all. Thank you very much. Well, thank you for having me. Known as the mother of the blues, she was one of the first women ever to cut a record.

She was also a native of Columbus, Georgia, where efforts are underway to restore her family home. She's in a capitalita was curious about my rainy, so she went to Columbus. Here's her story. This house was actually leaning over like this when we was laying to the side. When we purchased it, they did have a demolition notice on it. As the city's director of urban renewal, Amy Carroll keeps the keys to the two-story white frame house at 805 Fifth Avenue. In the early 1990s, the city realized that the house might be an important landmark and spend $80,000 to stabilize its exterior. But that's all that's been done. Now a group calling itself friends of Marraini wants to turn this shell of a house into a museum. Richard Hyatt, with the Columbus ledger inquirer, says the city needs a place to remember the blues singer. This is a place she should be remembered, not down the road, not somewhere else.

And then right now that's the way it is. You got to go to Macon to the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. You got to go Cleveland to the Rock and Row Hall of Fame. There you can find Marraini. Here, you know, it's just a few old clippings at the newspaper. Marraini was born Gertrude Pregid, 93-year-old Alonzo Biggs grew up in her neighborhood. I knew the Pregids and I knew that father, the mother. And when he worked on the boat down at the river and she worked as a maid at the railroad station, Gertrude was born on 8th Street in 7th Avenue right on his about two blocks over from where that house. And it said it was 1886, was what the year she was born. But her grandmother, she was the oldest and her grandmother was living then. And when the grandmother, as she began to play with her, the grandmother was a good slave dancer.

She could dance. She could sing. And in the house, every day, she would dance, a good off to sleep. Biggs says Gertrude got her first taste of show business as a little girl at the fairground in Columbus. She found a friend whose name, Evelyn, Fist Petrie. And they would play dance in the streets. And finally, Bailey and Bonafol Circles and Spock's show would come to the Daisy Bottom. And they would slip off and go to the Daisy Bottom. And when the music would start to play and they would dance all out in the streets. So the manager

down there, he told them, I don't want you dancing in the streets. I want you to dance on my stage to Daisy Bottom. And they could dance and on those side shows was for blacks. But in the main show was to fight. At 18, Gertrude Bridget married William Rainey, who was part of a traveling minstrel group. He was known as Pa Rainey. And she became Ma Rainey. Ma Rainey was a true pioneer, according to Dr. Katie Mayhann, a retired music professor who taught for 33 years at Columbus College. Actually, nobody had brought blues together like she did before

that. In her song, Literature, all her songs were blues. And about living experiences, especially here in the South. Rainey toured for decades and life on the road wasn't easy. Says Floreen Dawkins, a Columbus writer and member of the Friends of Ma Rainey. It was a hard life. This was a hard life performing. They perform at open fields with lanterns, no microphone. She had a voice. I mean, she was a performer. She was a people person. She got to know her audience. Dawkins says Ma Rainey's early audiences were people who were as intrigued by her music, as they were by her appearance. She loved to dress the sequence, the feathers, the fans, the golden eagles around her neck. I talked with her niece and we talked about. I have read during my research that Ma Rainey knew she wasn't pretty physically, as some people would attribute as being pretty at that time.

She was dark-complexed. She had very pronounced features and a lot of people maybe would not have considered that beautiful. And I think Ma Rainey did not consider that beautiful, but she made up with the dress, with her style. To get from town to town, Ma Rainey had a tour bus. Alonzo Big says this was necessary in the early part of the century, so she'd always have a place to stay. The bus was a truck, and they had the bus made into a, some like a school bus, but it had a petition, and she used that bus as her dressing room, and they would sleep in the back of the bus, but the other helpers would sleep in the front part of the bus, because it was segregated and you

didn't have nowhere to stay. Rainey had to overcome a lot of barriers, being a black woman performer in the segregated south. Her achievement wasn't always clear to her family. Sadie Rudlidge is Ma Rainey's great niece. When she was seven, her aunt Gert, as Rudlidge knew her, died, but Rudlidge says as a child, she was never aware of her aunt's fame. I think I realized a lot of things that I didn't realize as a child, and it's amazing to me that she was able to do as much as she did at that time, because things were so different, especially for a black woman, and she was able to buy, operate for a while, theaters, the bus that I told you about. It's amazing to me that in the 30s, this she as a black woman was able to know to do those things. By the early 40s,

Rudlidge says the blues was considered not proper even by Rainey's own nephew. And I think it was more so the wording than the music. And I kept my brother and I still laugh, because he went out and bought the blues down your walls and made us sit in chairs and listen. But I always like blues music. I like the beat. During her career, my Rainey had several backup bands, which included great musicians like

Fletcher Henderson, Louis Armstrong, and Thomas Adorsi, who went on to write gospel music. In the 1920s, Rainey recorded for Paramount Records. She retired in the mid-30s and moved to the house on 5th Avenue to take care of her mother. The Friends of Ma Rainey need to raise $125,000 to restore the home. They started the effort last Monday with a benefit concert featuring BB King. Alonzo Bigg says it's important for Columbus to remember this mother of the blues. She was the head of her time, but she was the first person to give the nation the music of the blues. I'm Susanna Capeluto.

And that's Georgia Gazette for this week. Our program was produced by Susanna Capeluto and Mike Savage, with additional help from James R. Groves, Melissa Gray, and Syngin Flynn. I'm Sid Hoskinson. Thanks for listening. Broadcast of Georgia Gazette is made possible in part by a grant from West Point Stevens. If you have any comments or questions about this program, please write to Georgia Gazette, Peachtate Public Radio, 1540 Stewart Avenue, Southwest, Atlanta, Georgia, 30310. Or you can send email to Gazette at gpb.org. You can also access Peachtate Public Radio on the World Wide Web at www.gpb.org. Georgia Gazette is a public affairs presentation of Peachtate Public Radio.

I feel my love for Georgia Gazette, I feel my love for Georgia Gazette, I feel my love for Georgia Gazette, I feel my love for Georgia Gazette, I feel my love for Georgia Gazette and I feel my love for Georgia Gazette, I feel my love for Georgia Gazette, I feel my I don't understand.

A Cuban boxing coach has defected and is seeking asylum. At a news conference in Miami Beach, Mariano Leyva said he left the Olympic village in Atlanta because he feared reprisals from security forces who accompanied the Cuban Olympic team. Leyva had been on loan to Mexico where he was helping coach the Mexican team. Leyva said he was concerned about his wife and three children back in Cuba but wants to

get his own immigration status resolved before he involves them. On Wall Street, the Dow gained 47 points to close at 5482. This is NPR. At least two dozen states around the country are staging protests of one kind or another tomorrow against a congressional welfare reform bill. Eugene Dillard reports that New York and Philadelphia are holding marches but New Jersey is organizing a call in day. A coalition of over 100 religious social service and anti-poverty groups in New Jersey is urging anyone who would be affected by the welfare reform bill as well as other concerned citizens to call the White House and ask President Clinton to veto the measure when it reaches his desk. Oh, dead Ramos, an analyst for the coalition, says the legislation would force a million and a half children into poverty because of cuts in food stamps and the denial of benefits to legal immigrants who don't become citizens. She said the president needs to hear from the people most affected. I think this will send the message to the president that we need to really reform welfare

and not make it harmful and put more people into poverty but to try and get people out of poverty. The coalition also opposes the lifetime five-year limit on benefits. For National Public Radio, I'm Gene Dillard in Trenton, New Jersey. The Federal Election Commission is suing the Christian coalition, charging that the religious group gave improper campaign help to Republican candidates. The civil suit charges that the group spent thousands of dollars to promote candidates such as former President George Bush, Senator Jesse Helms, and Senate candidate Oliver North. The suit alleges that the Christian coalition helped the candidates with its voter guides and with mail and telephone banks that helped get Republican voters to the polls. Coalition director Ralph Reed called the allegations totally baseless. The Christian coalition, which claims 1.7 million members, has tax-free status as a social welfare group. I'm Cory Flentoff. This is National Public Radio News in Washington. Support for this program comes from this and other NPR member stations and NPR.

NPRs include the Pew Charitable Trusts for in-depth coverage of the Environment, Arts and Religion. This is all things considered. I'm Linda Worthheimer. And I know Adams and Atlanta sentennial Olympic Park reopened today as investigators continue their search for the person who planted a pipe bomb there three days ago. And the Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper published a report in a special edition today that said investigators had focused their attention on a single suspect and that it was the security guard who first alerted police to the presence of the bomb.

NPR has weighed God a good one, joins us now from Atlanta. Wait, tell us more about what was in the newspaper report, please. Well, we don't know a whole lot about Richard Jewel. He is a 33-year-old former deputy sheriff who reportedly had some bomb training while he was a deputy sheriff. The Atlanta Journal Constitution indicates that he's one of the FBI's prime suspects. We talked to NPR, talked to the FBI today and the FBI did not say that he was one of their prime suspects. He said he was a suspect. But clearly it is surprising here that the hero has suddenly turned into a suspect. Now what other theories have the FBI been working on all along? Well, the FBI, I think at first we're thinking that perhaps it was one of George's militia groups that might have been behind this. They've gone out and interviewed a few of those people. It has not turned out as far as we know for them. Then they started looking at some of the lone bomber theories.

And I guess, you know, we'd have to say that Mr. Jewel would probably be a suspect from the very beginning, no matter who he was. I think we have to be careful here. This is a man's life reputation. And we don't want to jump all over something that we haven't confirmed yet. But he is a suspect. The FBI went to his apartment today to agent spent 10 minutes there. They confirmed that he is a suspect. And so he is being looked at as perhaps the one who planted the bomb and then claimed to have found it and saved everybody. And apparently he fit a profile they've been working with. Well, I'm always a little skeptical about these profiles. They say a disgruntled white male who was a failed former policeman who had bomb training. Is the classic profile. Apparently Mr. Jewel does seem to fit this. But I think we have to reserve judgment until we know more about him. Now there's been controversy all along since so this happened, since the bombing about how the officials in Atlanta responded to the bombing and the alert of the 911 call. Tell us what's going on with that.

Well, the irony is, is that because it seems that there was a delay behind the 911 warning call, Mr. Jewel is the great hero because had he not discovered the suspicious knapsack, it might never have been found since the 911 call didn't specifically tell where the bomb was. And it seems to have taken quite a while, maybe as long as 15 minutes for that phone call to finally reach, well, the report is that they did not reach the bomb center command before the bomb went off. And the police department has been on the defensive for three days about that now as to why it took more than 27 minutes before that bomb call reached the FBI bomb center. Do you have any idea, Wade, what the FBI will be doing now to work on this theory about Richard Jewel or other suspects? We don't. I mean, you know, it is, it is the, we're having the kinds of conversations in which they say, maybe we can talk more tonight about what we know. So there is an air of expectation, but right now they're, they're pretty mom. They're trying to, to throw a bit of a wet blanket on the fact that that Richard Jewel

is the only guy, but they still are reserving judgment and maybe we should too. Thanks, NPR's Wade. Goodwin talking with us from Atlanta. And Daniel Olympic Park had been closed to the public since early Saturday morning when the pipe bomb exploded today, crowds of people returned to the entertainment area, which we opened with a brief memorial service, NPR's Adam Hockberg reports. Thousands of visitors who came to celebrate the reopening of Centennial Olympic Park today was a time not just to remember the victims of Saturday's explosion, but also a time to send a message to prove to the world and perhaps to themselves that life in Atlanta is getting back to normal after the bombing. Kim Foltz was among the crowd of people who gathered outside the park just before eight o'clock, waiting for the gates to swing open. For the number of people trying to get in, I guess they want to show that they, uh, they won't let anybody bully them, they want to get in and do their thing. Once inside, visitors gravitated toward the lawn where Saturday's bomb went off.

He brought flowers and the grass quickly was covered with red carnations. Olympic officials let a moment of silence for the victims of the explosion, but former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young also urged the audience to look beyond the bombing and celebrate the spirit of resilience that swept through the city since the weekend. We're here to proclaim a victory. We're here not to wallow in tragedy, but to celebrate a triumph, a triumph of the human spirit. Young predicted that despite the tragedy, Centennial Olympic Park will once again become a place of celebration and happiness in the center of Atlanta, a place where visitors can, in his words, celebrate the joy of humanity. But the whole world was welcome here and the whole world remains welcome here and we want everybody to know that there's no need in being alienated from this loving community. There's nothing that keeps you out.

Even if there was nothing to keep visitors out, new security procedures did make it harder for them to get in. At the entrances to the park, guards looked inside people's purses and backpacks and inspected every beeper, cellular phone and radio to make sure that it wasn't concealing an explosive device inside, throughout the 21 acre complex police and military personnel maintained a strong presence. Some carried portable metal detectors, others were accompanied by bomb sniffing dogs. As officer James Beverage walked the park with his police dog Jack, he said he's confident the increased police patrols will prevent another terrorist act. And despite the new security measures, he says the park still will be a festive place to go. I think everybody's having a great time. People are sad that this thing happened, but everybody's going to go on with what they're here for in the spirit of the Olympic Games and not going to let this affect wild everybody's

here. Within a half hour after the park reopened, lines formed outside the souvenir stores and concession stands and children swarmed to the park's most popular attraction, a large fountain in the shape of the Olympic rings that they can run through and play in, and perhaps better than any of the speeches from officials or assurances from police. The sound of children's laughter lulled the crowd into a feeling of normalcy and security. I'm out of Hawkburg in Atlantic. . .

In Paris today, Chief Law Enforcement and Foreign Ministry officials from the group of seven industrialized nations plus Russia agreed on new measures to fight terrorism. The final communique ignored President Clinton's call for sanctions against Iran, Iraq, Libya and Sudan for their alleged support of terrorism. Had a news conference later in the day, the president said he expects the allies to come around to the U.S. position. I believe sooner or later, other countries will come to our understanding that you simply cannot continue to do ordinary business with people who believe that they have a right to practice commerce with you in the daytime and fund terrorists to kill your innocent civilians at night.

Today's meeting in Paris grew out of the G7 economic summit last month. That summit was held just after a terrorist bomb killed 19 American soldiers in Saudi Arabia. From Paris, NPR's Michael Goldfarb reports. After a meeting lasting a little over five hours, the representatives of the eight nations issued a communique with 25 specific measures to prevent terrorism. These were addressed to all countries, not just the G7 and Russia. Many of the suggested measures are vaguely worded and call for building on already existing international agreements and protocol. Point one, calls for the strengthening of cooperation amongst government agencies concerned with counterterrorism, but doesn't say how that should be done. Attorney General Janet Reno led the U.S. delegation. She said just because much of the document was not new and couched in vague terms, didn't mean governments weren't already working on the proposals together. I can't reveal where we prevent crimes and what we do to prevent them. I can't describe some of the investigative techniques that have been undertaken with other

nations to bring people to justice, but I can say that because of the cooperation of the eight and other nations around the world, because of investigative tools that are used properly and capably by law enforcement around the world, we are having an impact. Another reason for the vagueness of the document is that countries have very different ways of dealing with specific issues. For example, controlling the spread of terrorist information via the Internet, France and Germany among others want firm action to curtail that information. America's first amendment guarantees make censoring that information more difficult. 0.6 of the communique was a compromise. It noted the need to find the means consistent with national law to prevent the criminal use of the Internet. There were some specific proposals, standardization of passenger and cargo manifests on both international and domestic flights, as well as standardized vehicle identification are called for in order to aid investigations of terrorist bombings, and the FBI will begin

work on a terrorism database that all nations will have access to. The best assessment of the impact of today's meeting came from Germany's Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel, who said afterwards the conference could not produce miracles, like the total disappearance of terrorist actions, but the steps would lead to curtailing terrorism and preventing its spread. I'm Michael Goldfarben-Paris. What's an MSA and who's Kennedy Casabum? Americans and what we don't know about health care reform just ahead on NPR's all things

considered. . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . thought the public isn't a clue into this, and it also probably means that there is less downside from failing to pass it. But while people haven't latched on to the details of the Casabham Kennedy bill, they have learned something from the long, retracted debate over healthcare. For example, they've learned a little more about Medicaid and changed their attitudes since poster Bob Blenden of Harvard University. Usually, most people in earlier polls identified it very similar to welfare with very negative feelings, and this poll we found people still very negative about the current welfare system, but roughly reasonably positive about Medicaid. And we think, first of all, that people learn more about how many low-income people are actually covered, but secondly, that it is at the moment the principal long-term care program for a lot of senior citizens who need nursing home care and are middle-income.

They just can't afford it. While few in the public may be following portability, the issue of whether people can keep their insurance when they move from job to job, the poll showed that people are still concerned about the availability of healthcare and its costs. Healthcare was the third most important election issue among those polled, and Casabham says that health insurance bill can't simply be dismissed. There is a view that you hear from politicians and even from some members of the public that these health issues are too difficult, that health reform is truly the issue from hell. And if there is an agreement on insurance reform, it will at least send the message that it is possible for the Congress to legislate on some of these really tough issues, even if in the form of a smaller and more incremental proposal, and that would be extremely important for the future. So while doing nothing on Casabham Kennedy may not have a political cost, passing it could be a political plus, giving the appearance of at least doing something.

This is Joe Ansel burner in Washington. What many parents do know about childcare is that finding the right person or the right place can be a terrifying task, commentator Mary Ann Jennings has had her own harrowing experiences. One of my sons called me at the office one morning. His voice had that distinct, louder than talking whisper of a five-year-old boy with the secret. He described her nanny. Mom, she has a new tattoo on her second toe. Don't forget she already has all that jewelry on her other toes. I told you she was mean. To paraphrase the late Harry Chapman as I hung up the phone it occurred to me. My boy was being cared for by someone who looked and behaved like a date for Pearl Jam. That night I laid on the floor and whined to my husband. For ten years of childcare I can't take it anymore. We've had in-home childcare for our four children and it's been nonstop worry, constant turnover,

and surprise home visits that released terror in a mother's heart as she witnesses her baby riding on the shoulders of a twenty-year-old who is simultaneously stirring boiling water. Aggrivation, firings when you have no replacement, and sometimes purple hair. It's enough to make you leave the workforce. I'm not alone. In a file I've called Gilt, I save articles about people who leave it all behind for their children. Jeffrey Stiefler, the former president of American Express, left his position in a four million dollar salary in order to spend more time with his four sons. William Galston left his job as a domestic policy advisor to President Clinton to teach at the University of Maryland to find more time for his son. Jack Pope left his ten million dollar position as President of United Airlines to be with his three children. He now gives them daily piano lessons.

In response to a Fortune magazine story on Leia Cokas' business success, yet personal loneliness, a reader wrote, Leia Cokas has shown that it's not power, prestige, or fortune that is ultimately important. It is building and maintaining solid family relationships. What I have learned in my 13 years of childcare only confirms what my friend the entomologist told me. Baby scorpions are cute, but when non-parental scorpions are with them, they kill them. Children are cute, but known besides their parents has the patient's dedication or endurance for risk-free care. What I learned from those who choose to leave their demanding and financially rewarding positions behind is that they want and need more time with their children. They aren't satisfied with on-site day care or sick child care or even the Cadillac of all child care, nannies with tattoos. They want their children to have them. According to a Wall Street Journal survey, only 5% of U.S. businesses provide parents

the work flexibility options for more time at home. One-based businesses are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. economy. It's easy to see why. Parents want to be at home to protect and nurture their children. These little ones will face the scorpions of the world soon enough. Marianne Jennings is a professor of legal and ethical studies in the College of Business at Arizona State University. She comes to us with help from KJZZ in Phoenix. This is NPR National Public Radio.

Support for this program comes from this and other National Public Radio member stations and NPR. Contributors include Archer Daniels Middleton Company, producers of corn-based ingredients, including xanthan gum in low-fat food products, ADM, supermarket to the world. National Public Radio is solely responsible for this program. This is NPR National Public Radio. I'm Bob Edwards. Tomorrow on NPR's Morning Edition, a freshman Republican in Congress, an leading proponent of campaign finance reform, explains why reform didn't pass this session in one of the more uncomfortable aspects of disasters. Journalists talking to the families and friends of victims, work Gladstone reports on this

difficult relationship. Tomorrow on NPR's Morning Edition. It's all things considered I'm no Adams. And I'm Linda Worthheimer in this half-hour anti-government sentiment in Indonesia. The highlight of the track and field competition in Atlanta. Mrs. Ruth Owens recalls her husband's triumph at the Nazi games, Berlin, 1936.

And the first anti-count from a teammate of Jesse Owens. First, we'll have the top stories in this hour's news. From National Public Radio News in Washington, I'm Craig Windom. The FBI is now confirming that a private security guard is a suspect in the bombing in Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park last weekend, from Peach State Public Radio Bruce Dorton reports. The Atlanta Journal newspaper says the federal investigation is focusing on the security guard who first alerted police about the bomb. A spokesman for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games says ACOG will not offer any details about whether the man is a prime suspect. A.D. Frazier does say that to his knowledge, the man is not an employee of ACOG. The newspaper says the man, 33-year-old Richard Jewel, had received bomb training while working as a deputy sheriff in Northeastern Georgia. The newspaper says he resigned at job recently, and until May 21st, had worked as an officer at Piedmont College in Demarist, Georgia.

Jewel was working for Anthony Davis and Associates, a security firm from Los Angeles that was hired by AT&T to provide security at its provision in the downtown Atlanta Park. For National Public Radio, I'm Bruce Dorton in Atlanta. At this hour, Jewel is being questioned by federal authorities in Atlanta. White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta met with congressional leaders as President Clinton continued to press lawmakers to enact new anti-terrorism measures before they adjourn this weekend. But Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott says there's not enough time to review the proposals the president has made. Senior officials of the group of seven industrial nations and Russia have agreed on 25 measures to fight international terrorism. Lin Terry reports from Paris. Ministers from the eight countries said the meeting was crucial in forging a United Stance Against Terrorism Attorney General Janet Reno, head of the U.S. delegation, that we will not stop in this united effort until those responsible are brought to justice. The 25 measures aimed to step up monitoring of suspected terrorists, restrict their freedom of movement, and increase exchange of intelligence and the pooling of expertise.

The officials also pledged to tighten airport security. They find step potentially contentious issues, such as a U.S. bill that would punish foreign states doing business in Iran and Libya, Europe is against legislation. Officials said experts would meet before the end of the year to draft a convention on terrorist bombings. For National Public Radio, I'm Lin Terry in Paris. President Clinton has just vetoed a bill that would have allowed employers to form groups with workers to discuss issues such as quality control and productivity. Labor organizations had argued that measure would undermine the collective bargaining process. The jury in the whitewater trial of two Arkansas bankers is deadlocked, but the judge in the case has ordered the jurors to continue trying to reach a verdict. The jury was grim faced when it filed into the courtroom, Judge Susan Wright read an instruction, asking the jurors to do everything possible to reach a decision. Stock price is closed higher today, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 47 and a third points and on the NASDAQ, the composite index was up five and a half.

This is NPR News. When in Clinton, an Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, have pledged to do their utmost to revive the Middle East peace process. The two leaders met at the White House today. Mr. Clinton said he knows the current hiatus in negotiations is frustrating, but he urged people to be patient. The president said a slowdown in progress was inevitable during the change in governments in Israel. The House has passed a GOP bill that would allow companies to give employees comp time instead of additional pay for overtime work, if the employees agree. The measure is backed by business and deposed by labor unions. The bill would permit workers to receive one and a half hours of comp time for each overtime hour work. The bill now goes to the Senate. A Pennsylvania-based philanthropic foundation is being sued by the city of Rome over a traveling art exhibition. Elizabeth Blair, member of station WHYY, reports from Philadelphia. Rome's Museo Capitolino claims it was supposed to be part of last year's great French paintings from the Barnes Foundation tour.

Some officials say Barnes' president Richard Glenn promised verbally and in writing that the exhibition would go to Rome last spring. Instead, it went to Munich. And lawyer Michael Smirconish says Rome is seeking a variety of damages. Compensatory damages, that is, the lost revenue that was expected, punitive damages, and the city of Rome is seeking court intervention to guarantee that the Barnes Foundation exhibition is staged in that locale. The suit by the city of Rome is the latest in a series of legal battles involving the Barnes Foundation. The Barnes itself went to court to challenge its founders' will so that it could take the paintings on tour in the first place. For National Public Radio, I'm Elizabeth Blair in Philadelphia. Andre Aguizzi barely avoided defeat in the Olympics tennis competition today. He had to come from behind to beat his South African opponent and he nearly defaulted the match after being issued a warning for uttering obscenities. U.S. teammate Malovia Washington was defeated by Spain's Sergey Brughera. I'm Craig Wyndham, NPR News.

This is all things considered, I'm no Adam. And I'm Linda Worthheimer. There was rioting over the weekend in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta. And since Saturday, troops have been in the streets of the city to prevent more demonstrations. The violence began after the government attempted to throw supporters of Indonesia's new opposition movement out of one of the country's three major political party headquarters. The woman who is attempting to create and lead a party to oppose 30-year presidents who Harto is megawatti Sukarno Putri.

She is the 49-year-old daughter of Indonesia's late president Sukarno. We're joined by John McBeth, who is a correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review. He is on the telephone from Jakarta. John McBeth, did anything happen today? We had a series of bomb threats today, one in a bank building, one in a department store. I believe both buildings were evacuated. Most of the office buildings are being guarded by armed troops. And probably that is contributing to the air of unease. There's been no reports that I've heard of today of disturbances in the streets. And that is two days after the round of violence we saw here in Jakarta. Megawatti was removed as the leader of the Democratic Party of Indonesia by presidents who Harto could you explain how that works. Indonesia has three major political parties, but no real opposition and Sukarno calls the shots and all the parties.

That's correct. The concept of an opposition is not really recognized here in Indonesia. It's a fairly closed political system. All the political candidates for election are vetted by the government intelligence agencies. And the parliament is meant to operate on the basis of consensus and consultation. This is the basis of the way politics works in Indonesia. So why is this happening now? Why are Indonesians taking to the streets and burning public buildings and rioting now? I think rapid economic growth is fueling demands for political change. The political system in Indonesia I think is not responding very well to many of the problems thrown up by rapid economic growth. A lot of them revolve around land issues. There is unemployment. There are a lot of young Indonesians who come out of schools, high schools, universities

who can't find jobs. And I think the structure as it is is just simply not responding to many of these modern day problems. President Sukarno has been there for 30 years. He has a very firm grip on Indonesia. Is it conceivable that he could lose power? At this point, no. I don't think anyone sees him losing power at this point. But I think we are seeing something new in Indonesia. I think we are seeing the emergence of probably the most significant organized opposition to the president in the three decades he's been in power. And I think that in itself is extremely significant. I don't think this is going to lead to any sort of cataclysmic event. The opposition is just not strong enough and is not well organized enough to confront

the government on what is really an uneven playing field. But all the same, I think things are building here. And I think the events over the next few months and certainly before the May 1997 parliamentary elections are going to be extremely interesting. John McBath is a correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review. We reached him by telephone in Jakarta. A mid-the-strobe and sparkle of camera flashes, Carl Lewis wins his ninth gold medal.

With a stunning smile of surprise, Canada's Donovan Bayley zips across the 100-meter line owning a new world's record, two moments among so many so far during the track and field events at Atlanta's Olympic Stadium. Craig Massback, who's covering the competition for NBC, joined us to review some of the others, starting with the women's marathon, the easy victory by Ethiopia's Fatima Robo. I thought one of our competitors said it best. This course being very hilly as it was and given the human conditions probably added another six minutes to the times of the athletes, which would have put Robo right around the world record time in the event. And not only did she run that fast, but she did it with a certain joy, a smile on her face, an essence of what winning the Olympics is supposed to be all about. We saw Jackie Joyner Cursey have to leave the Heptathalon competition forced out by an injury, and the woman who won, tell us about the Syrian woman.

Got a Shua from Syria who really has emerged at a relatively young age to be someone who really can take over the mantle from Jackie Joyner Cursey as the world's greatest athlete. Jackie Joyner Cursey has owned the event really for almost 12 years. Got a Shua has a Russian coach with whom she can't communicate. They have no words in common, so there has to be an interpreter with them at all times as they travel their way through these seven different events. And she became the first Syrian to win a medal of any kind in any sport in the Olympic Games. Jackie Joyner Cursey has another event coming still though. Well, the long jump starts later this week, and there's a real question as to how her injured leg will respond to the treatment they've been giving it. There's no question she has a chance. She has to qualify for the final of the long jump, and if she can do that on one jump, she can then go back and rest for another day and come back for the finals. She saw that in the men's long jump with Carl Lewis, all he needed was that one jump to put it out there, and the competition wasn't able to respond.

Carl Lewis, 35 years old, wins the long jump. It was really a glorious moment. Was it for you covering all these events the singular moment of the Olympic so far? I think it has to be. It may be the singular moment of my life as far as sports are concerned, because when history looks back, will there be many athletes greater than Carl Lewis in the 20th century? What he has achieved over a range of years and a variety of different events under difficult circumstances, I think people had forgotten that Carl Lewis was an athlete who had two real defining characteristics. One, he's a tremendous competitor in those rare occasions when he was behind and had to do something special. He almost always did, and two, he has a tremendous sense of the moment, and this was one of those great moments in track and field. There have been a few of them through history, Jesse Owen setting six world records in an hour in a Big Ten track meet in 1935, Roger Bannister's first sub four minute mile, Bob Beeman jumping the world record at the 1968 Olympics.

Here Carl didn't set a world record, but what he did was so special, having barely qualified for the final the night before he came through when it counted to win the gold medal. Michael Johnson wearing golden shoes wins the 400 meter race last night, quite easily. Set an Olympic record, not a world record. Were you thinking he might do a world record race here? I think he's definitely capable of running the world record. It's a very, very good record, the record of Butch Reynolds set eight years ago in Zurich, Switzerland. Remember, when Reynolds did that, he ran one race. He didn't have to run four races in four days. Michael Johnson clearly did not set out with the intent of setting the record because he just didn't run fast the first 200 meters. What he's trying to do, the historical achievement he's seeking is to become the first man to win the 400 and 200 in the same games. In order to do that, he has to be at his best in the 200 meters because he's going to face a man who the last time they raced at 200 meters beat him, Frank Fredericks from Namibia.

And the 200 starts tomorrow in Atlanta. Starts tomorrow will unfold over Wednesday and Thursday. And it's a very tough adjustment to go from being a 400 meter runner to a 200 meter runner. The 400 meters is all about measuring out your speed over one whole lap. The 200 meters is all about bursting out of the blocks and throwing every bit of speed and effort into a very short half lap of the track. Greg Massback is covering the Olympic track and field events for NBC. It is said that Michael Johnson runs like Jesse Owens, the upright posture, the gracefully controlled power. Jesse Owens' widow, Ruth Owens, has noticed that. And before the Olympic Games, Mrs. Owens sent Michael Johnson a letter of encouragement. This is the 60th anniversary of the Olympics in Berlin. We talked with Ruth Owens about her memories, about hearing the news of her husband's victories in Berlin, and then traveling to New York City, where she was put on a boat to go out into the harbor to meet the Queen Mary and welcome her husband home.

Myself and his mother and father, and when we climbed up on the Queen Mary and came back into New York. So you took this tugboat way out into the harbor? Way out into the harbor, but 12 miles out I think they said. Goodness. And then you went up and then you saw Jesse right away. And I saw Jesse right away, there was quite a reception there, yes. Now was that, when you saw him, was that the biggest grin on his face that you'd ever seen? I don't know whether it was the largest grin he's ever, I have ever seen on his face. But I don't think I paid that any attention, I was so happy to see him. I want to see if this is true, that in the ticker tape parade in New York, somebody put into your husband's hands, a paper bag that turned out later, you found out, had $10,000 in cash in it.

That's very true. And he doesn't know who was, it's good enough to do a thing like that. And with all the excitement around, he didn't pick it up right away. He didn't pick it up until he got ready to get out of the car. And that's when he discovered what it was after he had an opportunity to look inside of it. And did he say, gee Ruth, look here, there's $10,000? Yes, but during that time there were so many nice things happening for him. And I, two young people who had never seen $10,000, it was shocking but not overwhelming. I think the overwhelming thing was he and I being together. And there's been a lot of talk about Berlin and the way Jesse was treated, but he has never had anything but good things to say.

And since Berlin, Jesse's days at Berlin, it's been many a year, the girls and I, when I say the girls, I say, might mean my three daughters. And I have been over there many, many times and they have treated us royally. They try very hard because they have heard about the comments made about them not being nice to Jesse. And they're still trying to make up. This is Ruth Owen, stalking with us from her home in Chicago. Coming up, Marty Klickman recalls Jesse Owens. Klickman was one of two Jewish athletes on the American team that went to Berlin that is next on NBR's All Things Considered.

Thank you. This is all things considered. I'm Linda Worthheimer.

And I'm No Adams. In Berlin, early in August in 1936, Germany's Chancellor Adolf Hitler opened the games that would become known in the years to follow as the Nazi Olympics. I proclaim open the Olympic Games of Berlin, celebrating the 11th Olympiad of the month of the Olympic era. This was, and is today, a huge stadium, built under Hitler's direction. And he had on the drawing board an even larger stadium, seating 400,000 people. It would be in Hitler's vision a permanent home for the Olympic Games. In 1936 in Germany, militarism was on the rise. And one year earlier, the Nuremberg laws had been passed, depriving Jews of their citizenship, yet the International Olympic Committee allowed the games to proceed in Berlin.

And the Nazis saw the games as a great propaganda victory. However, the performances by America's black athletes defied the Nazi concept of variance superiority. Jesse Owens won three individual gold medals at another with a 400 meter relay team. The German press called these runners America's black auxiliaries and Hitler refused to honor them. Marty Glickman, a Syracuse university student, was one of two Jewish athletes on the US team. Both of them were scheduled to run in that relay race, but they were taken off the team in favor of Jesse Owens at Ralph Metcalf. We talked with Marty Glickman about what it was like when they entered the Berlin Stadium for the opening ceremonies. There was no team meeting in terms of how we marched in. We formed outside in a huge field alongside the stadium. We formed by rank, and that is ranks of athletes. And as we walked in, we were anxious to take a look

at Adolf Hitler and see what he looked like in the flesh. We walked in looking up at his box, and he glared down to us. And you could hear the phrase run through the ranks, and I said it too. I said, he looks just like Charlie Chaplin. And everyone else echoed that thought. He was a comic figure to us. After all, this was 1936. But surely you must have felt the adulation in or did you in that stadium for Hitler and his regime at that point? Oh, I felt the adulation, and we felt the adulation. When he came in each day, after the stadium was filled, he timed his entrances quite well. And the entire stadium would rise up, and together 120,000 voices shouting, Seagile, Seagile, that was very impressive. Did you think it was real? Since there certainly was real. They all did it, and I could look into their eyes as they did, and I could see the look of adoration

in their eyes at looking at this man. And I must add that when Jesse Owens ran into the stadium to warm up for his events, we got that same response from the crowd. The crowd together, what in you, doesn't shout, oh, veins, oh, veins, oh, veins. Owens, the W. Pernasse's of V in German. And it was as loud as that Seagile. I think Jesse certainly was the most popular athlete, and the most popular person, perhaps, in all Berlin during the course of that time. When you were on the boat going over there, what was your understanding of what life was like for Jews in Germany in 1936? What did you know? Well, on the boat going over, I didn't really think in terms of what life was like for Jews in Germany. It was when I got there. I felt as though it was very much like New York

that being a New York kid, I was raised in Brooklyn. I was born on the Bronx. I knew about anti-Semitism in New York. And the anti-Semitism I felt in Germany, and it was not overt at all, was similar to that, which I felt inwardly, in New York. I thought that Berlin was like New York City in terms of anti-Semitism. And I hastened to add that this was 1936. This is two years before Kristallnacht. This is three years before the outbreak of the war. And your determination when you were asked to step aside from the relay team? I wasn't asked to step aside. I was told I wasn't running. I wasn't running. What was your conclusion as to the cause of that, the reason for that? My conclusion was that this was anti-Semitism. On the US part? On the part of the US.

Oh, yes. This was every bridge in vagaling loss in Roberson, the head track coach, to dream up of an excuse to substitute Jesse Owens and Ralph Metcalf for Sam Staller and me. We were the only two Jews on the track team. And we were going to run. We had practiced passing the baton for the 10 days, but two weeks we were there in Berlin. And an out-and-out lie was perpetrated by the American officials, the American coaches, who said, the Germans, we understand, we hear strong rumours, have been hiding their best sprinters, saving them to upset the US team in the 400-meter relay. I'm a brash 18-year-old kid, and I speak up, coach. In order to be a world-class sprinter, you've got to run in world-class competition. We don't know of any. The best German sprinter was a man named Eric Bochmeier, who finished fifth in the 100-meter final. But what was it?

What's in it for the US to take the Jews off the relay team at that point? To stop the further embarrassment of Adolf Hitler, the black athletes, the great black athletes, who had won the 100, the 200, the 400, the 800, the long jump and the high jump, were standing on the winning podium, time after time after time. And every time the award ceremony took place, Adolf Hitler and his entourage of gering and gurbals in the rest would leave the stadium. They were never there for the presentation of the American flag and the playing of the National Anthem and the giving of the medals to the great black athletes. And to have Jews stand on the winning podium would have been further embarrassment to Hitler. At that meeting to Jesse Owens, what did Jesse Owens say when the change was announced? When Jesse learned that Sam and I were being replaced by Jesse and by Ralph Metcalf,

Jesse volunteered not to run. He said, Coach, I've won my three-gold medals. He won the 100, the 200, and the long jump. He said, let Marty and Sam run, they deserve it. He volunteered not to win that fourth-gold medal. And the coach, Dean Kramel pointed a finger at him and said, you'll do as you're told. And in those days, black athletes did as they were told. And Jesse actually desired not to run so that Sam and I could have the opportunity. Until that point, I'd always admired and respected Jesse. He was a great, great athlete. And at that point, I began to love him, and I still do. Marty Glickman, talking with us at the Holocaust Memorial Museum here in Washington, they have a special exhibition about the Berlin Games in 1936. Jesse Owens died of lung cancer in 1980. He was 66. You're listening to NPR's All Things Considered. Support for this program comes from this

and other NPR members stations and NPR. Contributors include Immunex Corporation, celebrating 15 years of applying immune system science to protect human health, the estate of Frank Herschel-Tick, and the National Education Association, more than 2 million Americans working for better schools and colleges. National Public Radio is solely responsible for this program. This is NPR, National Public Radio. MUSIC This is the first time I've ever been to a place like this in my life that I've never seen before. This is the first time I've ever seen a place like this in my life that I've never seen before.

We are going to wrap up the welfare reform today. It will pass the Senate and the President will sign it. The Senate Republican leader Trent Lott is optimistic on welfare reform. It is Tuesday the 30th of July as all things considered from National Public Radio. The House and Senate have reached to compromise on welfare reform will the President agree. Egypt's president is visiting the U.S. and candidate Dole is visiting Hollywood looking for a few good movies. The people of America rejecting entertainment and insults our intelligence and offends our sense of decency. Dole likes movies where the good guys win like the wartime films of William Welman?

They came with an air of adventure or a sense of impatience in the days before America entered the war. They wore French uniforms, they fought in French planes, and they fell in love with French women. Now news. From National Public Radio News in Washington, I'm Corey Flentoff. The security guard who had been hailed as a hero for reportedly finding the bomb that blew up in Centennial Park on Saturday is now a suspect in the case. NPR's Kathy Lore reports from Atlanta. The FBI in Atlanta would only say that 33-year-old Richard Dole is one of several suspects in the case, denying that Dole is the prime suspect. Dole was working for a Los Angeles firm hired by AT&T to provide security at its pavilion in the park. According to one FBI source, Dole had a questionable background and has been fired from several jobs. He reportedly received bomb training in Northeastern Georgia while working as a deputy sheriff, a job from which he resigned.

Dole has denied any involvement in the bombing. He has not been arrested or charged with any crime, and an FBI spokesman says there are no plans to arrest the security guard tonight. I'm Kathy Lore in Atlanta. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lot says Congress isn't ready to take action on President Clinton's request for new federal powers to fight terrorism. Lot says there's not enough time to review the measures this week. The president wants two powers that were removed from the anti-terrorism legislation he signed earlier this year. One would allow federal agents to wiretap all phones used by suspected terrorists as they move from place to place. The other would require explosives manufacturers to place chemical markers in their products that would make them easier to trace. Defense Secretary William Perry is in Saudi Arabia for talks on increasing security for troop station there. Last month, 19 American servicemen were killed when a truck bomb exploded outside a military base in Dohran. NPR's Martha Reddits has details.

Improving security for U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, much of that in relocation costs. Secretary Perry has said that thousands of U.S. troops stationed in Riyadh, where a car bomb killed five Americans last November, may be moved to a more remote location in the kingdom, making a terrorist attack more difficult. Perry is talking to the Saudi government about sharing the costs of relocation and enhanced security. We have to be prepared for a chemical weapon attack, a biological weapon attack, and massive truck bombs. At the Secretary at a recent hearing, bombs in the 10 to 20,000-pound category. A U.S. task force is also visiting the region to evaluate the current security situation. I'm Martha Reddits in Washington. President Clinton has vetoed a bill that would open the way for companies to run their own unions. The president said the team work for employees and management act would harm the collective bargaining process. The measure didn't pass in either house with enough of a margin to override a presidential veto. Supporters of the bill said it would make it easier for management and workers to cooperate in non-union settings. This is NPR.

Federal Safety Officials say divers are preparing to raise a large section of the fuselage from TWA Flight 800. National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chairman Robert Francis says crews have been rigging a rear section of the body of the plane and may be able to bring it to the surface by the end of the day. At the same time, the Navy has moored a second high-tech salvage ship over the debris field, believed to contain some of the cockpit and first-class section of the plane. The stock market moved higher on optimism about stable inflation. The Dow industrials jumped 47 points to 5482. Bloomberg's Doug Krishna reports from New York. The market's brief desire of relief when the government reported that labor costs were steady during the second quarter. That good news on inflation prompted investors to perceive less urgency for fed policy makers to increase interest rates. The friendly report on employment costs, along with news of a bigger than expected drop in new home sales, sparked a rally in Treasury bond prices and the stock market followed suit.

Shares most sensitive to changes in rates like banks and financial services companies were among the day's biggest gainers, so too were computer system stocks. The S&P 500 rose by four into third points to 635, while the NASDAQ composite added five and a half points to 1072. I'm Doug Krishna. American consumers were more optimistic about the economy in July than they have been in the past six years. The conference board said its index of consumer confidence rose by more than seven points to 107.2%. The index uses a base of 100 established in 1985. The survey found that consumer satisfaction with the current economy rose sharply. I'm Corey Flentoff, NPR News. Support for NPR comes from Archer Daniels Middle & Company, producers of domestic cholesterol-free vegetable oil for food preparation, ADM, supermarket to the world. This is all things considered. I'm Linda Worthimer.

And I'm Noah Adams, House and Senate negotiators resolve their differences on welfare reform today, clearing the way for a House vote tomorrow and Senate action on Thursday. President Clinton continues to avoid saying if he'll sign the bill, which includes the most sweeping changes in the Social Safety Net since it was created 60 years ago. Although conservative Republicans have been pushing for the toughest laws they could get, the House Senate Conference Committee softened some of the bill's most controversial provisions and PR's Peter Kenyon reports. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lot has an ambitious schedule laid out for these last few days before the August recess, and at the top of the list is forcing the president to confront for a third time his campaign promise to enact welfare reform. Shortly after negotiators cleared away the last of their differences, Lot said he has little doubt that this time Congress has come up with welfare changes that will stick. We have made some modifications as it applies to obviously to Medicaid and to food stamps. It is a good bill that just governors flexibility. It's the right thing to do for America.

That's why it'll pass the House of Senate, and that's why the president is going to sign it. The negotiators agreed to sum, but not all of the changes desired by the White House. The optional food stamp block grant for states was dropped. And in what proved to be the final sticking point of the conference, another food stamp provision was softened. Ohio Representative John Kasich wanted to impose a 90-day limit on food stamps for childless 18 to 50-year-olds who aren't working. In the end, he settled for a three-month limit over a three-year period with a three-month extension for those who get laid off. Kasich says it's not everything he wanted, but he can live with a compromise. What we wanted to do was to establish a real work requirement, one that has a teeth that doesn't have 8 million exemptions that requires people to have to do something for food stamps. And I think what we need to remember in this is that the requirement always made food stamps available, but I think consistent with what Americans who go to work want, that if you're going to get some food stamps, you're going to have to do something for it. Senate Agriculture Chairman Richard Luger, a longtime champion of nutrition assistance programs, says it appears to be a workable compromise that should pass the Senate.

Luger has greater concern about another food issue, an option for states to deny school lunches to students who are in the country illegally. Luger says in his opinion, school cafeteria workers have no business trying to become de facto immigration agents. It would be an extremely difficult process to begin interrogating small children as to their status and attempting to segregate them from whatever the program was, which would mean that in some cases they would have no nutrition program at all because they are barred by other aspects from breakfast or various other meals. In another change, the conferees dropped a house provision denying Medicaid coverage to legal immigrants. That was another problem raised by the White House. Under the final version of the bill, however, states would still have the option to deny that coverage. The broad Medicaid changes Republican governors have been seeking were dropped from the bill weeks ago. Issues the White House lost on include vouchers to cover essentials for poor children whose families run out of benefits, those remain out of the bill, and denial of many welfare programs to legal immigrants remains in the legislation.

Conservatives also lost on some issues, the family cap, which bars additional payments to welfare families that have more children was dropped, and cussed to the earned income tax credit were softened. The House votes first on the bill, but its Senate Democrats who could use procedure removes to block it, but minority leader Tom Dashel, who voted against the bill last week, was generous in his praise of the changes made by the conference committee. Dashel continues to discuss the bill in ways that strongly suggest that he thinks it will become law. The question I have is, how far can we go this year, and what can we expect will be the second installment in reforms perhaps next year? I think we need to recognize that we're not going to solve all the problems relating to welfare reform quickly, or in one bill. And so the question is, will this legislation represent a good start? That's something we'll be able to decide later on in the week. I'm hopeful the answer is yes. Democrats are due to meet with.