Worth Noting

Humanist, Jan, 1999 by Marian Hetherly

* The Clinton administration has signed the international agreement to fight global warming negotiated in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan. However, the agreement calling for sharp cuts in emissions of industrial gases from burning coal, oil, wood, and natural gas still faces substantial opposition from critics in the Senate who say the costs of compliance to industry would damage the U.S. economy.

* Recently cancelled because of a lack of funds is an anti-terrorist program aimed at protecting U.S. nuclear power plants. The November 3, 1998, Los Angeles Times reports Operation Safeguards Response Evaluations, created in the wake of the Gulf War, found serious lapses at almost half of the nation's 104 nuclear power plants. During one simulated armed attack, the Times says a team "was able to reach and simulate sabotaging enough equipment to cause a core melt."

* Negotiations on the Hate Crimes Prevention Act are stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The legislation would amend federal statutes to allow for prosecution of hate crimes as a result of a person's gender, sexual orientation, or disability. The bill failed to come to a floor vote after Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah insisted on eliminating references to gender and disability.

* The National Organization for Women charges Congress is purposely trying to limit the ability of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to combat discrimination and sexual harassment by limiting the commission's funding. Although a current federal authorization limits the number of EEOC employees to 3,220, NOW says fiscal year 1998 appropriations provide only enough funding for 2,586 employees. And the budget increase for fiscal year 1999 is a mere $18 million--$15 million of which will cover collective bargaining salary increases for existing staff.

* NOW and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People are protesting the hiring practices of the U.S. Supreme Court. Of the 394 law clerks hired by the current judges, the groups say less than 25 percent are women, less than 5 percent are Asian American, less than 2 percent are African American, 1 percent is Latino or Latina, and none are Native American.

* A study published in the fall 1998 issue of American Anthropologist reports there is no genetic basis for race in humans. Alan Templeton, professor of biology at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, analyzed millions of genetic sequences and found that 85 percent of variations among individuals are due to individual differences, while 15 percent are due to "racial" differences--"well below the threshold that is used to recognize race in other species," says Templeton. The results, he says, support his view that there are no subdivisions among humans, only "a single, long-term evolutionary lineage" that evolved in parallel in separate parts of the world, with some genetic mixing.

* A Florida state law banning a certain type of late-term abortion has been ruled unconstitutional by U.S. District Judge Donald Graham. Adopted during the 1997 legislative session, the law would have made it a third-degree felony for doctors to perform the rarely used procedure and exposed them to prison sentences of up to five years. So far eleven similar laws in other states have been blocked by federal or state courts, while judges in five states--Alaska, Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, and Montana--found the law unconstitutional.

* Move over G.I. Joe. Sales of the new Colin Powell action figure were expected to top $50,000 this past holiday season. Released by Hasbro in November, the miniature likeness of the former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff benefits the Boys and Girls Clubs of America on military bases in the United States and overseas. The consumer's cost to take home the retired general: $46.

Marian Hetherly is an editor at the Humanist.