The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

RAY SUAREZ: Good evening. I'm Ray Suarez. Jim Lehrer is off. On the NewsHour: the summary of the news; then Vatican insights from reporter John Allen; a Newsmaker interview with Education Secretary Margaret Spellings; revitalizing urban neighborhoods; pulling a painkiller off the market; and the coming of a fatal flu.

NEWS SUMMARY

RAY SUAREZ: The three-day public viewing of Pope John Paul's remains came to a close today. The lines initially closed last night, but reopened later. In all, an estimated four million people filed past the pontiff's body, some waiting as long as 24 hours. The Vatican also released John Paul's will today. We have a report on the day's developments from Jonathan Miller of Independent Television News.

JONATHAN MILLER: Pope John Paul II never took his eye off life's horizon. His will is reflective; it's clear he thought a lot about death and pronounced himself ready to meet his God. Five years ago he declared his mission complete and even considered standing down. John Paul II 's pontificate straddled so many years that a hefty proportion of those queuing in Rome to file past him weren't even born then. To the relief and delight of many of those who did not make last night's deadline, the city authorities today let latecomers join the queue. Huge numbers had arrived overnight from the pope's native Poland for them a heady mix of nationalism and Catholicism. But like presidents and prime ministers, they've come from all corners, even Baptists from Texas.

MAN: We came over here because we wanted to show our respect and the historical part.

WOMAN: You don't have to be Catholic, I don't think, to know that he was a great man and that this is a time in history that we won't probably see again in our lifetime.

JONATHAN MILLER: Also here for this epic event, vast herds of reporters. John Paul II was a media-savvy pope, describing the media as an opportunity for spreading the evangelical word. For him it was all part and parcel of his global mission. Well, over the past week, nearly 4,000 journalists have been accredited to the Vatican press office, and tomorrow morning all these banks of cameras will be broadcasting to the world the outdoor requiem Mass of the dead pontiff. He'll be placed on the steps of the Basilica, his body laid-- if they stick to tradition-- in a cypress wood coffin encased in a second made of lead. It will be contained in a third outer casket of elm.

RAY SUAREZ: The tributes to John Paul included praise from former Presidents Bush and Clinton. En route to Rome on Wednesday, they recalled disputes with the pope over the first Iraq War and abortion. Mr. Bush said the pope "was a man of peace. He was unforgettable." Mr. Clinton said John Paul had a mixed legacy, but "he did what he thought was right." We'll have more on the pope and his last will and testament right after this news summary. Shiite leader Ibrahim AlJafri was named Iraq's new interim prime minister today. The new president, Jalal Talabani, appointed him after being sworn in along with two vice presidents, one Shiite and one Sunni Muslim. Talabani is an ethnic Kurd. The factions had been negotiating since Iraq's elections in January. In Washington today, State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher was asked about the delay. ..

RICHARD BOUCHER: Yes, people in Iraq have complained and grumbled to some extent, how long it's taken to form the government. But that's what happens in a democracy, and that's a good thing. The playing out of Iraqi politics in this case, they are doing it their way.

RAY SUAREZ: Outgoing Prime Minister Ayad Allawi was asked today to stay in a caretaker capacity. That's until the new prime minister names a cabinet. The interim government has to draft a permanent constitution and hold new elections in December for a permanent government. An explosion in Cairo, Egypt, today killed two people and wounded at least 19 others; two of the wounded were Americans. The blast erupted in an outdoor bazaar full of tourists. Police said a man on a motorcycle may have set off a bomb. Militants in Egypt killed nearly 70 foreign tourists in late 1997. The U.S. Military confirmed today 13 American troops were killed yesterday in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. Three U.S. Government contractors also died in the crash near Ghazni. Two more soldiers were still missing. U.S. Officials said the Chinook Helicopter went down during a sandstorm in the southern desert. They said there was no indication of hostile fire. The drug company Pfizer pulled its painkiller Bextra off the market today. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration asked for the move. It cited a risk of possibly fatal skin reactions. That's on top of a risk of heart trouble and strokes linked to Bextra and similar drugs, VIOXX and Celebrex. VIOXX is already off the market. In February, an FDA Advisory panel recommended allowing sales of all three. Today, a member of that panel, Dr. Steven Nissen of Cleveland, gave this assessment.

DR. STEVEN NISSEN, FDA Advisory Panel: Almost everybody on the panel felt that VIOXX had more evidence of producing cardiovascular risk than any other drugs in the class. And so I don't think anyone should expect VIOXX to come back and I don't think anyone should expect Bextra to come back. However, for those patients that do need a drug in this class, Celebrex will be available.

RAY SUAREZ: The FDA Also asked for a new warning label on Celebrex and other over-the- counter painkillers, including Ibuprofen. We'll have more on this story later in the program. The Education Department announced changes today on enforcing the "No Child Left Behind" law. States will gain flexibility in meeting some standards, such as testing the learning disabled. But they'll have to show progress in other areas, such as closing the test-score gap between whites and minorities. We'll talk with to Education Secretary Spellings later in the program. Oil prices dropped sharply today. In New York trading, oil futures fell $1.74 to settle just above $54 a barrel. It was the fourth day in a row the price has fallen. The sell-off came as the Energy Department predicted the average price of gasoline will hit $2.35 cents a gallon by May. On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 60 points to close at 10,546. The NASDAQ rose more than 19 points to close above 2018. The creator of Brenda Star, the cartoon strip, has died. Dale Messick died Tuesday at her home in Sonoma County, California. Messick broke into the male world of the funny pages with "Brenda Starr, Reporter" in 1940. By the 50s the strip appeared in more than 250 newspapers, Messick retired in 1985, but two other women took over Brenda Star. Dale Messick was 98 years old. That's it for the News Summary tonight. Now it's on to a view from Rome, the education secretary, building homes and hopes, a drug's side effects, and a virulent virus.

UPDATE - PAPAL LEGACY

RAY SUAREZ: Now, the last will and testament of Pope John Paul II . Earlier this evening, Terence Smith spoke with John Allen, Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, Vatican analyst for CNN, about the pope's will and other developments.

TERENCE SMITH: John Allen, welcome to the broadcast. Tell us what you can about the pope's will that was released today.

JOHN ALLEN: Probably the first thing to understand is this is not a will in the conventional sense. Popes don't own property to speak of. So it's not like John Paul was assigning his assets. This is more akin to a kind of final spiritual testimony, a final spiritual message, if you like. Probably the two items of greatest journalistic interest: One, the pope apparently changed his mind somewhat over the years about where he wished to be buried. In his early comments... and bear in mind, this will was pieced together over a number of years. The first entry dates are 1979, and the last one, 2000. Early on he apparently was leaning towards being buried in his native Poland. But in his final word on the subject he actually left that hand... left that decision, rather, in the hands of the College of Cardinals. And as we know, they have decided that he, along with 148 of the 263 popes of the Catholic Church, will actually be interred in St. Peter's Basilica. The other point is that in the year 2000, as John Paul had turned 80, he had a keen sense that death was perhaps approaching. He actually reflected that his time may be drawing near, and that led him into a kind of taking stock of the events of his life, thanking God not only for events of his personal biography, but for what had happened in the world. For example, the pope thanks God that the Cold War ended without the nuclear holocaust that many of us had feared in that period. I was struck by the deeply spiritual tone of the message, and also by the fact that this is a pope who obviously lived over the 26 years of his pontificate with a very keen sense that death was always a possibility. And this seems to be a product of his prayer, his spiritual reflection on that subject.

TERENCE SMITH: In fact, didn't he write about his amazement at his own survival of the 1981 assassination attempt?

JOHN ALLEN: Yes, that's right. Of course this is not the only place the pope has reflected on that topic. And I think that actually is a key that unlocks much of John Paul's thought. Of course, that assassination attempt occurred on May 13 of 1981, which is the feast day of our Lady of Fatima. And the pope was convinced that the Madonna of Fatima had actually intervened to alter the flight path of that bullet to save his life. We know that because on May 13, 1982, he actually went to Fatima in Portugal and deposited the bullet that doctors had taken from his abdomen in the statue of the virgin there to thank her. And I think that helps explain his absolute confidence that the events of his life and his pontificate were unfolding in accordance with the divine plan. Among other things, it explains why it never entered his mine to resign.

TERENCE SMITH: You mentioned that he had no material goods to pass on. But he did have some directions, did he not, about his personal papers, and about how he should be buried?

JOHN ALLEN: Yes, that's right. He asked that his personal papers be destroyed, that his other... the other small things he had accumulated over the course of his life would be-- since he has no close living relatives-- would be distributed according to the wishes of his intimate collaborator and close friend Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz. Like Paul VI before him, John Paul also indicated his wish to be buried in simple earth. As you may know, most of those 148 popes in the grotto beneath the main floor of St. Peter's Basilica are interred in a sarcophagus. And this, of course, in the ancient world, was a sign of the high and mighty. But Paul VI wanted to emphasize the humility and service of the papal office, and asked simply to be buried in the ground with a stone tablet above his grave, and John Paul II has followed his lead.

TERENCE SMITH: Now, I gather the doors to the Basilica have closed. I suppose preparations for tomorrow's funeral must be under way.

JOHN ALLEN: That's right. I mean, in addition to being a sendoff to a beloved global figure, tomorrow's event also promises to be probably the largest funeral Mass in human history in terms of attendance. I think probably the only thing that would compare would be the funeral mass of the late Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran, where also millions of people turned out. It will have more than 200 heads of state including, of course, President George Bush of the United States, and former Presidents Bush and Clinton. It is a massive, massive logistical and security enterprise. And certainly around here at the Vatican, it is a state of high alert. In the end, all of this, of course, is intended to facilitate the celebration of, what is at its core, a very simple funeral rite. After all, the message of this funeral rite is that death does not have the last word in Christian belief, that there is life beyond. And that will certainly be the strong message of this ritual tomorrow.

TERENCE SMITH: What happens after the funeral? I know that the conclave to select a new pope is not until April 18. So is it simply a period of mourning, or is there more going on than that?

JOHN ALLEN: Well, two things are going on at once. There is an extended period of mourning, the so-called novemdieles, or nine days' prescribed ritual period of mourning, which begins tomorrow with the funeral Mass. There will be other Masses celebrated every day during this period, including, by the way, one on next Monday which will be led by the former cardinal archbishop of Boston, Bernard Law, who is now, of course, the archpriest of one of the major basilicas here in Rome. But in addition to that, the politics of the conclave are also underway. That, however, does not unfold in public view. This is something very private and discreet, as cardinals together in twos and threes and tens and twenties, over dinner, over breakfast, in informal moments, to talk about the issues facing the church, the profile needed of a leader to meet those challenges, and ultimately, of course, who that leader might be.

TERENCE SMITH: And the people you talk to there, John, is there expectation that it will go back to the tradition of an Italian pope, or is it simply impossible to say?

JOHN ALLEN: Well, I think the lead has to be that it's impossible to say. Certainly there are many Italians and I think a few Italian cardinals that, all things considered would like to see an Italian pope. Bear in mind, the pope is also the bishop of Rome; he is the leader of this local church. And there is a certain argument that a man who speaks that language and comes from that culture would have an advantage as pastor. On the other hand, most of the cardinals I talk to tell me they're not really thinking in terms of geography; they're thinking in terms of the best man, which means any of those 117 cardinals who are eligible to participate, though not all may be here for reasons of ill health... any of them is a potential pope. That makes this race much more wide open and more difficult to handicap.

TERENCE SMITH: All right, John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter, thanks very much.

JOHN ALLEN: It's a pleasure.

NEWSMAKER

RAY SUAREZ: Now a Newsmaker interview with the secretary of education, Margaret Spellings. Today she announced changes to the "No Child Left Behind" law. Preferential treatment will be given to states that demonstrate a commitment to raising student achievement levels. She joins us now to talk about that, among other issues.

Welcome, Madam Secretary.

MARGARET SPELLINGS: Thank you, Ray.

RAY SUAREZ: What do the changes that you announced today require of the states?

MARGARET SPELLINGS: Well, it basically said three things. It said that we're going to respect the bright line principles of the "No Child Left Behind" law which require annual assessment and reporting student data by sub group, by student achievement. And we're going to look at results. The first question we're going to ask every state is: how are the kids doing, are you closing the achievement gap. And if they're on track, having met both of those two conditions, then we're going to take a more outcome-oriented approach, a less bureaucratic approach with them, so long as they are reaching the goal of closing the achievement gap.

RAY SUAREZ: You've called these changes in various announcements a common sense approach to No Child Left Behind. Were these changes in part made in response to things that you were hearing from the states about how the law was working as it rolled out and different parts took effect?

MARGARET SPELLINGS: Well, certainly in part that is one factor. I have worked at the state level, the federal level, and the local level, and I understand different people's vantage points. This law is now three years old. We've learned some things since that law has passed. And we can refine and learn from our experience; we can learn from the research and inform this law as we move forward in the implementation.

RAY SUAREZ: One interesting passage talked about figuring out whether states were serious about reform, committed to reform. Aren't those sort of subjective analyses? How do you measure whether one state is and decide another one isn't?

MARGARET SPELLINGS: Well, that's what's so important about the core principles. There's nothing objective about whether states have annual assessment of every child in Grades 3 through 8 in reading and math in place, either you do or out don't, and whether you're reporting that data to parents and families and policy makers, by student groups so that we can focus on the needs of particular children who have so long been ignored by our system. So those are very objective standards and are very bright lines, as I call them, that we can evaluate at the department of education.

RAY SUAREZ: One of the features of the new reforms is to allow children who have learning problems to be assessed in a different way, or at least a portion of them. And over the years, educational activists have complained loud and long about the clumping of black and brown children especially in learning disabled categories, in special ed categories. Might this open the door to a kind of gaming of the numbers, putting your weakest students in those categories so they can be tested by a different standard?

MARGARET SPELLINGS: Actually, Ray, quite the contrary. This additional flexibility is based on our sound science, and is based on what practitioners tell us are the number of kids who actually need much more intensive instruction, more, a different kind after assessment, and a different approach in order to meet their needs. For too long, actually, we have either said you're this or that. This recognizes that not all special education children are created equal, and they're going to need more time, they're going to need different and more intensive and extensive instruction, and they're going to need more and better prepared teachers that can help meet their needs. And this is a more sophisticated approach to meeting those kids' needs that we've ever had. We at the Department of Education are going to provide technical assistance; I've committed $14 million to show states how they might meet this more sophisticated approach. We have some pioneers, some leaders around the country, in Massachusetts and Kansas to name a couple, that are doing some of the best work. And I want to share that around the country.

RAY SUAREZ: Would it make it easier, would the downstream effect be to make it easier for some districts to attain the targets set up by No Child Left Behind?

MARGARET SPELLINGS: What this new regulation will provide for states who are committed to providing additional instruction, teacher training and much more sophisticated assessments, it's going to make it easier for them to serve kids better. The requirements that those kids still be included in the accountability system and still be proficient by 2013-14, as I said in the core principles, the bright lines of this law, will still be in place. This just provides a practical way for them to meet those goals.

RAY SUAREZ: States have been complaining throughout the No Child Left Behind time period about the fact that they've had to come up with a lot of tasks and haven't always had all the money from the federal government that they would need to develop those new standards and new tests. Does this set of regs announced today carry with it some money to help make those new tests for let's say learning disabled children?

MARGARET SPELLINGS: That's why the Department has pledged $14 million to gather the best practices among the states and to better assess and better measure these kids. But the General Accountability Office has found that No Child Left Behind and the requirements as it relates to the additional assessments that states must do are very adequately funded and that has been found both within the government and by sources and studies and experts from outside the government as well.

RAY SUAREZ: Well, GAO notwithstanding, Connecticut I think is getting ready to test just that proposition. They want to take your Department to court and are talking about having other states join them. And they gave as an example the fact that you've laid on them about $112 million worth of requirements for which you funded about $70 million. Is that a fair description of what's happened?

MARGARET SPELLINGS: No. I think not. In Connecticut, my understanding, although I haven't seen the actual litigation, is that they want to measure every other year and not provide annual assessment as is required in the statute. And that law passed more than three years ago, we have been sending them resources to implement those annual assessment provisions since, and here they are on the eve of implementation telling us that they can't do it. I think it's regrettable, frankly, when the achievement gap between African-American and Angelo kids in Connecticut is quite large. And I think it's unfortunate for those families and those students that they are trying to find a loophole to get out of the law as opposed to attending to the needs of those kids.

RAY SUAREZ: Well, there are gaps, and since we're on Connecticut, I guess we can use it as an example, but there's also very high degrees of residential segregation, places where the schools are 100 percent white and 100 percent black, very high concentrations in certain places of great wealth, very high concentrations of other places of poverty. What are the tests really tell you that you didn't already know about a place like Connecticut?

MARGARET SPELLINGS: They tell us who needs help, they tell us who has been left behind, they tell us precisely and specifically in a good assessment system what kind of help is needed. They tell us what kind of teachers and what kind of teacher training is needed. And you know, I think it's un-American I would call it for us to take the attitude that African-American children in Connecticut living in inner cities are not going to be able to compete, are not going to be prepared to compete in this world and are not going to be educated to high levels. That's the notion, the soft bigotry of low expectations, as the president calls it, that No Child Left Behind rejects.

RAY SUAREZ: There have been complaints from some of the biggest metropolitan area school districts that they're not getting enough credit for the progress that they are making that still falls shy of the mark. The officer in charge of implementing No Child Left Behind in Chicago, for instance complained to a reporter it assumes you're going to hit the same benchmark at the same time as everyone else, regardless of where you started. And we started a lot farther back than most people.

MARGARET SPELLINGS: I recognize the great work that some of our urban districts are doing, in fact I cited them in my remarks today. They are blazing the trail, they're the folks that are not in denial; they are working hard to close the achievement gap and are seeing some of the best progress. But I would say that no small part of that is due to No Child Left Behind, to this annual measurement, to paying attention to every child, every year, and to prescribing a cure, an instructional cure if you will, so that we can get kids on grade level by 2013-14, as the law requires.

RAY SUAREZ: And yet some of those individual schools that are making the kind of strides our talking about are still classed after two or three years as failing schools, rather than schools that are moving ahead.

MARGARET SPELLINGS: The word "failing" never appears in No Child Left Behind. What the law describes is schools that need improvement. And I think that we in America need to understand that many schools need improvement, and particularly with respect to how they're serving minority children. And it just, it highlights and puts them on notice that those are the particular needs at that school that must be attended to. And I think that's righteous, I think that's what parents want to know. They want to know what's going right in the school, and what needs improvement, and that's what this law does.

RAY SUAREZ: On quite another topic that we haven't had a chance to talk to you about until now, the contretemps over Buster and the cartoon; this involved you complaining to PBS about an episode of Buster's Postcards that involved a lesbian couple in Vermont. Looking back on how that all rolled out, are you confident that your Department in asking PBS not to run it handled it the right way?

MARGARET SPELLINGS: I know that what the Congress asked the Department of Education to do was to work on early reading and early numeracy, and developmental skills for young children, in this case six- to eight-year-old children for this programming. And I believe that public broadcasting has an important trust with the American people, it's an intimate medium of television, and that we can do reading and language development for young children without getting into human sexuality. I think parents, I'm a mother of two school-aged children myself, want to introduce those concepts in their own time, in their own way. And I think we owe them that opportunity.

RAY SUAREZ: Did you take the risk, though, of leaving the impression that it's government policy that the hundreds of thousands of children being raised in homes like the one featured in the Buster episode are other than a regular family, other than a desirable family, other than a normal family?

MARGARET SPELLINGS: Well, I regret if that's what's been taken away from this discussion. All I know what is the Congress has asked the Department to do, what federal tax dollars are being supported to develop this programming for young children around early reading and around -- for six- to eight-year-old children, and that's what's been asked of this Department and that's what we'll continue to do.

RAY SUAREZ: Secretary Spellings, thanks for being with us.

MARGARET SPELLINGS: Thank you, Ray, great.

FOCUS - RESTORING NEIGHBORHOODS

RAY SUAREZ: Still to come on the NewsHour tonight, bringing back city neighborhoods, the risks of popular painkillers, and the deadly Bird Flu. Elizabeth Brackett of WTTW-Chicago has the housing story.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: The neighborhood just west of downtown Chicago has seen a remarkable resurgence: New homes, new parks and playgrounds, a new public library, and its first drugstore in 30 years. Chicago's mayor credits the federal government's Community Development Block Grants, CDBG, for much of the transformation.

RICHARD DALEY: They have been the foundation of rebuilding communities whether it's schools, not-for- profit, faith-based organizations, they've all participated... retail business, I mean, there's a variety of things that you look at to rebuild communities. And to me that is then the cornerstone of CDBG money rebuilding the souls of America.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Chicago has received $3.1 billion in CDBG funds since the program began in the early 1970s. That was shortly after the west side and urban communities throughout America went up in flames following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. CDBG was meant to restore the neighborhoods, according to Andrew Mooney, whose Local Initiative Support Corporation has invested over $100 million in the city.

ANDREW MOONEY: These neighborhoods were disinvested. People, insurance companies, banks and others literally left the neighborhoods and pulled money out of the neighborhoods. The whole point of Community Development Block Grant and funds that we use and others bring into the neighborhoods is again to bring these market forces back into the neighborhood.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Community development corporations were set up to administer the CDBG funds. As new homes finally replaced long vacant lots, the near west side CDC used the symbol of the Phoenix rising from the ashes on the homes it developed. CDC Officer Wilma Ward says the funds have worked just as they were intended.

WILMA WARD: They have worked. They work because we've seen them work in this community. You can go down blocks and you will see homes that are over 100 years old, but they're still here and there's families that live in them and homeowners that still live there.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Like 85-year-old Margaret Glenn who says she couldn't have stayed in her 100- year-old home without help for needed repairs from a CDBG-funded program.

MARGARET GLENN: I got new windows, tuck pointing on each side, on each side.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: On each side?

MARGARET GLENN: Roof. Roof and everything. See the other houses don't look much different than mine.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: And Zaccheus Miller says he and his mother would never have been able to buy their first home without a starter loan funded in part by CDBG funds.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: How much difference has it made to you and your mother to have a house?

ZACCHEUS MILLER: A significant difference. It gave us a sense of pride. You know, when we go out in the yard, do the gardening, the lawn work, when you drive down the house... down the block and you see your house and you know that's yours, it gives you a sense of pride, make you want to keep it up as well as keep up the community.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: But the Bush administration says there are more neighborhoods where CDBG funds have not made a difference than neighborhoods where they have. They point to areas like Columbia Heights in Washington, D.C., where 49 town homes remained empty three years after the local CDC received $3 million in federal funds to redevelop them. This was in the midst of a hot real estate market where private developers were rapidly transforming the neighborhood, except for the CDC-owned properties. The Washington Post reported that after a $100 million investment of CDBG funds over the last decade, Washington's neighborhoods had little to show for it-- a story that was repeated in many neighborhoods across the country says Commerce Undersecretary David Sampson.

DAVID SAMPSON: The reality is, after more than a 30-year track record and hundreds of billions of dollars that have been pumped into these communities, while there are individual cases-- you can identify where a particular initiative has been successful-- from a systemic point of view when you look at the program as a whole, the analysis simply shows that these programs have not produced measurable results.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: So the Bush administration is proposing a new program: Strengthening America's Communities Initiative. Under that program, 18 programs, including CDBG, would be combined into one program in the Department of Commerce. Funding would drop from $5.31 billion to $3.71 billion, a 30 percent cut. The administration says the cuts are misleading, since if one looks at the whole universe of economic and community development programs the budget only drops from $16.2 billion to $15.5 billion, a 4 percent cut.

DAVID SAMPSON: What we're doing is proposing the elimination of 18 different points of entry into the federal government and replacing that when a single point of entry, so that communities can go to one place to access the whole suite of community and economic development block grant funding, and it greatly simplifies the administration of these programs from a local community's perspective.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Mayor Daley doesn't see it that way. He says the department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, where CDBG is located, has always been the way mayor's accessed the federal government.

RICHARD DALEY: When you cut the funding by 40 percent, then you say we're going to put it over into the Commerce Department, they could have put it into agriculture. I mean why commerce? Commerce has no relationship with cities at all. I mean, I've been to the U.S. Conference of Mayors. They have no contact with us, you know, they don't have any expertise. They have no feeling about cities at all. And I mean, they're good people, but they're commerce. They deal with the business community, they deal with international treaties.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Many here in Chicago worry that the gains made in the cities neighborhoods will be lost if any cuts are made in CDBG funds.

ANDREW MOONEY: Whether it's 4 percent or 40 percent, any pull back at this moment is the wrong thing to do. It is exactly the right moment to move in the other direction, which is to have very strong investment in these cities in a variety of ways, CDBG being one of them.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Some are also concerned how the new proposals could impact the relationship between CDBG funds and private investment. It was private investment-- the Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks' new stadium, the United Center-- that started the revitalization of the west side. The team owners built 32 quarter-million dollar homes for residents whose homes had been torn down to build the new stadium. CDBG funds were then used to renovate and build more houses and support early child care and job training programs. After building the replacement housing the United Center continued to stay involved, much to the surprise of many. They invested another $2.6 million for the construction of new homes and the start up of businesses. United Center Vice President Howard Pizer:

HOWARD PIZER: Look, we are a capitalist society and we all know that. And ultimately economic development doesn't really occur without private sector stepping up and putting in the bulk of what it takes to get the job done. And yet government can do some things to stimulate that and I think it's probably exemplified by the community.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: But Sampson is optimistic that the new consolidated program will benefit the neighborhoods and businesses even more.

DAVID SAMPSON: It's disciplined, it's reasonable, and we think we can actually produce greater results as a result of the consolidation and the targeting and the better focus.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: But those on the near west side of Chicago aren't sure. They know what they have done, they know what still needs to be done, and they worry about the dramatic changes being proposed in programs they say have worked well for the last 30 years.

FOCUS - DRUG SAFETY

RAY SUAREZ: Now, the government weighs in on the risks and benefits of painkillers. Jeffrey Brown has more.

JEFFREY BROWN: First it was the blockbuster arthritis drug VIOXX pulled from the market last September, then news that an entire group of painkiller drugs could pose health risks. Today the FDA took further action and Pfizer, which for the record is an underwriter of the NewsHour, suspended sales of a drug called Bextra. Here to tell us about all of this is our health correspondent, Susan Dentzer.

Susan, first set the table a little bit for us. What has been the issue lurking out there these last few months?

SUSAN DENTZER: Well, Jeff, when VIOXX was pulled from the market, it was back in September, it was because a company run study done by the manufacturer, Merck, had shown that there was a doubling of the risk of heart attack and stroke for patients who took the drug at least 18 months. That cast a cloud immediately over all the other so-called COX 2 drugs, including Celebrex and Bextra, made by Pfizer. Further, people started to ask, well, if it's true for those drugs, is it also true for the big family that these drugs are a part of, which are called NSAIDS, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, so what has been going on for the last several months is the Food & Drug Administration and others have been pulling together all the existing studies on that, looking closely at it, examining the fact that studies have shown higher cardiovascular risks also for Celebrex and Bextra, and trying to figure out what to do about it. That's really -- the culmination of that is what happened today.

JEFFREY BROWN: In February an advisory committee said that yes, there are some risks, but these drugs should be available to people who need them. Today, though, the FDA said something different, at least in the case of Bextra.

SUSAN DENTZER: Well, the advisory committee recommendations were a clear vote, there was a majority vote in each case but they were very complicated. The committees were split over whether to leave, for example, Celebrex on the market or leave Bextra on the market, because studies had indeed shown higher cardiovascular risks, more heart attacks and strokes, small risks, but when you apply those to the huge populations of people taking these drugs, lots of people were having heart attacks and strokes and lots of people were clearly dying because of that. So the committees didn't roll over and say keep these on the market, but they did say weighing the pluses and the minuses, Celebrex seemed to many of the committee members to have enough benefits, there was a feeling that maybe you could identify who was most at risk for heart attacks and strokes, keep people like that away from this drug, still keep it on the market. What happened, though, today was that the Food & Drug Administration clearly said Bextra's risks outweigh the benefits. They said a couple of things. In particular, they zeroed in on the fact that Bextra in addition to having higher risks of heart attack and strokes, like Celebrex, also provoked in some people severe skin reactions, severe allergic skin reactions and not just, you know, itchy rashes, skin reactions that could actually kill people, and in many cases did.

JEFFREY BROWN: This was quite a new side effect.

SUSAN DENTZER: Well, this had been seen actually since the day that the drug was on the market, and so-called adverse event reports have been coming in over the last several years to the FDA, and in fact a warning was put out on the drug several months ago. What happened today was that the FDA sort of put all of this into its mental cuisinart and said you know what, the risks here outweigh the benefits of this drug, the FDA went to Pfizer, asked Pfizer to pull it off the market, we're told Pfizer reluctantly agreed to do that and Pfizer said in a statement today it would continue to work with the FDA to try to get the drug on the market in a limited way for certain people.

JEFFREY BROWN: Now, the FDA also called for stronger warning on Celebrex, a so-called black box warning. What does that mean what would it say?

SUSAN DENTZER: A black box warning is the stiffest form of a warning that can be put on a drug that is still on the market. And in fact the FDA is going to require Pfizer now, it will help Pfizer write the language that says this drug should not be taken by people who have other cardiovascular risks, and note some other risks as well. So it's the stiffest form of warning and this type of warning goes to physicians; it's meant to warn physicians about how to influence prescribing. But, importantly, the FDA took another step today which is it said not only are there risks involving these particular drugs, the so-called COX 2 inhibitor drugs, that they really probably are shared broadly across this whole class of NSAIDS, which includes, --

JEFFREY BROWN: Tell us what NSDAIS is -

SUSAN DENTZER: -- again it's Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. And these drugs include very common over the counter preparations like Ibuprofen, like Aleve. And what the FDA said is all these drugs have some risks, we don't know a lot about these risks, but in fact the FDA said the labels, the labels on the bottles of even those drugs now need to contain and hence forth will need to contain information about the risks of cardiovascular effects, the risks of skin effects, skin reactions, like we saw in Bextra, and also some additional risks to the gastrointestinal system, the stomach bleeding that has been a factor with many of these drugs for some time.

JEFFREY BROWN: So a person can still go in and buy these over-the-counter drugs, but the warning will be made clear if I or you go in, it will be clear?

SUSAN DENTZER: Absolutely; it's going to say at some point in the future it's going to say right on the label, be careful about these drugs for these risks. The FDA hastens to add that if consumers use these drugs according to the directions, that is for, you have a headache or whatever, you take Ibuprofen, short-term use, lowest dose possible, best anybody knows, it's safe. But it's the longer-term use at high doses that really we don't understand the risks of, and that's why the FDA has asked for these warnings.

JEFFREY BROWN: Now there have been of course a number of critics who wanted the FDA to act quite forcefully in this matter. What reaction did you get today?

SUSAN DENTZER: Well, as usual, as is always the case when the FDA acts, everybody is unhappy about something. Even people who applauded the move to pull Bextra off the market said Celebrex should have been pulled off the market as well. Again the FDA's response is no, we think we can figure out who, roughly speaking, who could be on this drug safely and that option should be available to people who need that pain relief that they believe they get from Celebrex. Others really cast doubt over this decision on the part of the FDA to create a cloud over all the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. There was a sense among many people I spoke to today that this was going to confuse consumers, was going to make consumers think that Ibuprofen is as dangerous perhaps as Bextra, and it might really just create more confusion than necessary for individuals who suffer from these painful conditions like arthritis.

JEFFREY BROWN: So that leads to the last brief question. What does a consumer do now?

SUSAN DENTZER: Well, the FDA issued the tried and true advice today, talk to your physician first and foremost. And physicians now will have more information coming through these expanded so-called drug labels and warnings. Talk to your physician, once again go over your inherent risks for heart attack or stroke; figure out if you are on the lowest dose or how you can get there. Look at other options. Some of the critics said today the FDA should have gone farther and said you can take certain combinations of drugs, one drug, Naproxen sold as Aleve with, for example, another drug like Prilosec, a so-called proton pump inhibitor, and get stomach protection from that. So there are all kinds of different solutions now that are going to have to be tried by physicians if people want to stay away from some of the risks of these other drugs.

JEFFREY BROWN: Okay, Susan Dentzer, thanks again.

SUSAN DENTZER: Thanks, Jeff.

FOCUS - FATAL FLU

RAY SUAREZ: Now, a look at one country's preparations for dealing with the deadly avian flu. Fred de Sam Lazaro of Twin Cities Public Television has this report from Thailand.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Chickens and ducks have the run of the place in much of rural Thailand. Some are treated like pets; some even are treated like royalty; fighting cocks are prized like race horses, part of the local economy, very much part of the culture. Poultry is also a staple in Thai diets and until recently, a major export. All this has made it difficult for Thailand and neighboring countries to fight what's called bird or avian flu. The virus that causes it is carried by migratory birds and waterfowl, like ducks, which are not harmed by it. It was first detected in Northeast Asia in the mid-'90s, when it had moved to chickens, which are affected. Authorities in Hong Kong, Korea, and Japan appeared to contain the flu by destroying entire flocks where the virus was detected. But last year, a more potent avian flu virus reemerged in Southeast Asia ravaging thousands of both farm and free-range chickens. After the first human cases, the Thai government destroyed millions more birds. Several dozen people have been infected in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, three quarters of them fatally. In all but one case, the disease has spread from birds to humans, humans who had long exposure to the virus, like poultry farm workers. But scientists worry the virus, which is called H5N1, is always mutating or evolving and may soon begin to move easily from person to person just like regular flu. Dr. William Aldis is with the World Health Organization.

DR. WILLIAM ALDIS: We have good reason to fear that if the H5N1 virus that's now widely established in chicken and duck and wildfowl population in probably ten countries, that it would take only a small genetic change or modification in that virus to make it rapidly transmissible to people.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: That, he said, it would quickly trigger a worldwide pandemic.

DR. WILLIAM ALDIS: The movement of people around the world and the movement of infectious agents around the world means that the risk facing one country is facing all countries almost equally. We saw that with SARS. I would say the difference between SARS and avian influenza is the stakes are much higher

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Late in 2002, an outbreak of SARS, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, began in southern China but spread rapidly across the world killing a tenth of the 8,000 people affected. The toll from avian flu could dwarf SARS and even the 1918 Spanish Flu that killed 20 million, according to Michael Osterholm epidemiologist at the university of Minnesota.

DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM: If one takes a look at the 1918 pandemic that swept around the world, literally in weeks, and extrapolate those number of deaths then to what we might expect to see today, we could easily see 1.7 million deaths in the United States in one year and up to 360 million deaths worldwide.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Public health experts say it's no longer a question of if, but rather when a major Bird Flu pandemic will hit. The challenge now is to try to contain it so that so the world can become better prepared when it hits. Thailand's approach to avian flu is being closely watched by World Health Organization and by U.S. experts. The country has long had a system of village health volunteers. Each is in charge of checking on the health of about ten neighbors. Throughout the country, they're now being deployed to look closely for Bird Flu. Volunteers try to survey bird populations and must report any ill health in animals or people to local authorities. Sick birds are tested for avian flu and positive findings bring a rapid response.

SPOKESPERSON: He says this is the pit where we buried the chickens and ducks and geese.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: In this small village, headman Vicharn Wanna says took about an hour to round up all the chickens from the village's 137 households. Sick and healthy, they were all destroyed.

SPOKESPERSON: For each chicken they get 50 baht or about $1.25.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Even with compensation, Thai farmers and peasants don't fully recover their losses when birds are culled, especially if they are fighting cocks which can fetch up to $1,000. There's worry that owners may be reluctant to report sick poultry. But Thai officials say they are making some progress. Dr. Supamit Chunsuttiwat is with the Ministry of Public Health.

DR. SUPAMIT CHUNSUTTIWAT, Thai Ministry of Public Health: In first round, we had 12 cases; in second round we had five. Since then, the surveillance on both sides, on the animal side and on the human, have been carried out at full scale, until now. We have been on high alert to detect the cases in humans as best as possible and we haven't found a case since October until now.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: In two border provinces, the surveillance has been intensified in a special joint project with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Here in Sakaeo province on Thailand's border with Cambodia, the entire population, over a half million people, is being watched for any signs of respiratory disease or pneumonia. Specimens are analyzed both here and at the CDC in Atlanta, where x-rays are sent electronically. Epidemiologist Sonja Olsen likens it to a listening post for diseases in their earliest stages.

DR. SONJA OLSEN: It may be possible to actually stop an outbreak before it were a pandemic. I think it's a sort of a new way of thinking. In the past we thought when the next pandemic influenza hits, you know, we will just try to do the best we can to prevent, you know, additional deaths or do what we can. I think now the thinking is if we can identify it at the source, and stop it, then maybe we can potentially prevent a pandemic

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: No one's sure it will work, but one reason for some optimism is that unlike the SARS outbreak, countries are far more willing to admit early on that they might have a problem, according to Dr. Scott Dowell who heads CDC's Thailand office.

DR. SCOTT DOWELL: At the beginning of Bird Flu epidemic, we saw some of the old approach of, "well, we're not sure this is the Bird Flu," from various countries, a failure to acknowledge or confirm the problem. That was when it was viewed as primarily an economic issue or an agricultural problem. Very quickly when you saw it move to human populations, it very quickly changed to a really transparent response from most countries in this region, and I think the lesson from SARS helped with that.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: But communication is just one part of preparing for a pandemic and Dr. Dowell worries there may not be time.

DR. SCOTT DOWELL: Again, if the question is, are we ready in this part of the world to respond to a pandemic, I think the answer has to be no.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: And that applies not just to Southeast Asia, says Dr. Supamit.

DR. SUPAMIT CHUNSUTTIWAT: If a pandemic comes in a few months, no one is able to help himself. No country is in the position of better enough preparedness, even the United States or Europe.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: He says Thailand is working with neighbors and the world health organization to develop a region-wide strategy to respond to outbreaks.

DR. SUPAMIT CHUNSUTTIWAT: If we were lucky enough, we would be able to work together to come up with some vaccines or anti-virals before the pandemic strikes us.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Worldwide stockpiles of antiviral drugs are well short of what's needed. Also, it would also take months after an actual human outbreak to develop a vaccine. In an upcoming article for the New England Journal of Medicine, Osterholm argues a plan is urgently needed.

DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM: How are we going to handle our everyday lives here in this country to make sure that we can deal with sick people? What do we do to assure that people continue to have a food supply once transportation is shut down? How will we manage the basic business of life when up to half the population may become ill and 5 percent of those will die? Those plans haveto be made right now.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: It is ironic, scientists say, that sophisticated molecular biology today can help anticipate an epidemic, and yet the world remains as vulnerable to devastation as it was a century ago.

RECAP

RAY SUAREZ: Again, the major developments of this day: The three-day public viewing of Pope John Paul's remains came to a close, and the Vatican released his will. Shiite leader Ibrahim AlJafri was named Iraq's new interim prime minister. And drug maker Pfizer pulled its painkiller Bextra off the market. The Food & Drug Administration said the drug may cause serious skin reactions and heart problems. And a correction before we go, I misspoke earlier in the News Summary. The NASDAQ gained more than 19 points today, to close above 2018. We'll see you online and again here tomorrow evening with David Brooks and Harold Meyerson, sitting in for Mark Shields, among others. I'm Ray Suarez. Thanks for joining us. Good night.