Newspaper Page Text
CAPITOL PUNISHMENT
A regular series covering the Georgia General Assembly
PLUTONIUM! VIAGRA! BLUEBERRIES!
Would the patriarchal legislature agree to cut
health care costs, minimize the likelihood of abor
tion and give women medical equal rights? Not
necessarily. Rep. Nan Orrick (0-Atlanta) is
fighting to keep alive a bill requiring health
insurers to cover contraceptives. Orrick argues
that the bill makes good economic and family-
values sense because it would reduce unwanted
pregnancies. Live births cost exponentially more
than birth control, and most everyone would
prefer contraceptives to abortions.
About 50 lawmakers have signed on to HB
374, the top priority of the Legislative Women's
Caucus. And Gov. Roy Barnes co-sponsored similar
legislation last session. But the House Insurance
Committee, which may consider the bill this week,
seems inclined to keep it in limbo.
Undaunted, Ornck continues to hammer her
points. Women of reproductive age pay 68 percent
more than men in out-of pocket health care costs.
Half of the large insurance plans don’t cover the
pill, although it's prescribed for many medical
reasons besides as a contraceptive. Orrick only
wants “gender equity," especially considering
what many insurance companies decided to cover
this past year — Viagra. Perhaps it's a national
security issue. The Pentagon recently spent $50
million on the pecker picker upper, according to
Orrick.
Speaking of the military and energizing aging
equipment, Orrick
and other lawmakers
sat in on a panel last
week concerning
Uncle Sam's proposed
production of
weapons-grade plu
tonium to fuel old
nuclear reactors, the
latest dangerous
scheme to give the
radioactive Savannah
River Site near
Augusta something
to do.
Renowned nuclear
engineer Dr. Arjun
Makhijani of the
Institute for Energy
and Environmental
Research and other
scientists bnefed
lawmakers on the
matter. Stuck after
the Cold War with 50
surplus tons of the
world's most dan
gerous element, the U.S. wants to rely on two
companies with spotty track records abroad,
Cogema and British Nuclear Fuels, to make mixed
oxide fuel from weapons-grade plutonium, which
has never been done before. And it wants to do so
at the MOX at the Savannah River Site, by many
accounts a safety basket case.
Makhijani and others contend that running the
untested, hotter fuel through older reactors ill-
equipped for plutonium will accelerate the decay
of the power plants, and dramatically increase
the risk of deaths in the case of a nuclear acci
dent. Duke Power in North Carolina would be one
of the first utilities to use it.
SRS boosters in the Augusta delegation chant
“jobs, jobs, jobs," but lost in their mantra is a
sobering reality According to the nuclear
industry, cooler uranium fuel is more economical
to use, and less than one percent of the pluto
nium would be eliminated through MOX fuel pro
duction. SRS would do better, and make the world
safer, by converting all the plutonium into non
weapons grade forms encaset in glass or ceramics
for permanent storage.
A concern close to home is accidents during
transport. The Georgia Environmental Protection
Division, in a recent memo the U.S. Department of
Energy, cited fears that spills would expose locals
and emergency workers to the deadly toxin —
without their knowledge, as the plutonium loads
would travel unmarked.
Speaking of transportation nightmares in
Georgia, the governor's bill creating an omnipo
tent authority to run metro commuter trains
and safeguard a billion bucks in federal highway
funds sputtered in a House committee on orders
from Speaker Tom Murphy (D-Bremen) last week.
The cigar-chomping gavel banger may release
his gnp this week since he wrestled back $24 mil
lion for the proposed home district Tom Murphy
tech school in the supplemental budget, which
boosts the state spending in fiscal 1999 by
S600.000 to $13.1 billion.
But other legislative leaders didn't fare so well
in joint negotiations which concluded Sunday. The
conference tossed multi-million dollar porkers
for Clayton College and State University champi
oned by Senate President Pro Tern Terrell Star (D-
Forest Park), and Columbus State University
backed by House Rules Committee Chairman
Calvin Smyre and Ways and Means Chairman Tom
Buck, both Democrats from Columbus.
Another budget negotiator, House Democratic
Leader Larry Walker (D-Perry) lost a bid to
upgrade Macon College, but held on to millions for
more Georgia Ag Expo land and Aviation Hall of
Fame construction.
Rep. Tommy Smith
(D-Alma) kept half a
million for a blue
berry drier back
home, the Senate
$12 million for addi
tional rural highway
construction funds.
Between budget
pow wows. House
Appropriations found
time to approve sub
stantial pay raises
for legislators and
other head honchos.
Lawmakers would
receive 43 percent
bigger paychecks,
and at least seven
statewide posts from
agriculture commis
sioner to superior
court judges would
top $100,000.
State Rep. Brian
Joyner(R-Lookout
Mountain) has introduced a bill helping third par
ties in statewide elections. Currently they must
collect signatures from one percent of the regis
tered voters to get on the ballot. Joyner's bill
would change that to one percent of those who
actually vote. Some Capitol corridor crawlers
toting water for the status quo sniff at the idea,
preferring the mediocre system rigged by
Democlins and Republicrats, but third parties
deserve more respect and a better chance to get
on the ballot. The Georgia Green Party, for
example, using only write-in candidates, received
more than one in four votes in Athens in
November, said party member Hugh Fsco. This
despite the fact that, like other cities, Athens has
no directions on how to write in candidates in
purportedly secret voting booths. Voters had to
open the curtains and ask what to do.
On the environmental front, sponsors of a bill
to divert funds from the wildlife conservation
fund —- whose revenue comes from purchase of
the wildlife car tags — quailed on the quail pla*e.
withdrawing the measure after a deluge of phone
calls and letters.
Richard Sfenger
rsslenqerOhotmail com
EVERY SUNDAY NASCAR SPECIAL
52 OZ. MILLER LITE & BUD PITCHERS $4.00
459 E. Broad Street • Across from Student Notes
11:00 am-12 midnight
brMctli, jrM« clnlut. kl»ek •live*, ck««t«
§ r!ME MEXICAN FOOD s
„• Storing iteimed barritot, quetidilln, & more! jj.
• Bath Open Everyday Itam-IOpm
Five Poieli 549 4868 • Gierqttevn 549-5411
'tjnjj11 '*jt9 iptwidi
Chick Piano Co.
240 W. C/ay ton St, / Downtown Athens • 543 4348 or (54-MUSIC)
Ibanez 1998 CLEARANCE
SR800AB
Electric Bass
List $799.00
wsr
AEI8BK
Acoustic/Electric
Guitar
List $599.00
ms*
&
NOW IN
STOCK
IIBL
Speakers
Salt Prices ht ta Stack Htftlt Paly. Wkta It’s Ortr, It’s #rtr.
GuitarString^Alway^Tw^forOnel
393 N. Finlev St / Studio E3
OFF PRINCE AVENUE
NOW OPEN
Bread and Pastries Baked Fresh Daily
OPIN
eryjneV . \ lon-S; n “arrHfiprn * ’ •
Su ■
MARCH 3, 1999 FLAGPOLE D