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Airport health stations aim to stop pandemics

By Times wire
Published August 29, 2005

WASHINGTON - The government plans to more than triple the number of quarantine stations at airports around the country and hire scores of health officers as part of a broad plan to try to stop deadly infectious diseases from entering the United States.

Ten new stations, at airports stretching from Alaska to Puerto Rico, are already open or nearing completion, and 50 new health officers are undergoing training. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plan to build an additional seven stations as soon as they get the money. Eight stations that have existed for years are gaining staff members, so that when the plan is complete, the country will be blanketed by a network of 25 centers designed as a first line of defense against a global disease pandemic.

If a global pandemic looms, the plan calls for the centers to play a key role in setting up a firebreak that would try to keep the disease out of the United States.

Federal experts emphasized that passengers would be quarantined only if there is strong reason to suspect they have been exposed to a serious disease, and then only long enough rule out that possibility or get them into medical-isolation wards at hospitals.

"We're not going to lock you up for days," said Jennifer Morcone, a spokeswoman for the CDC, noting the negative connotation the word quarantine once carried. "The goal here is to take care of people."

Jackson offers support for Venezuelan leader

CARACAS, Venezuela - The Rev. Jesse Jackson offered support for President Hugo Chavez on Sunday, saying a call for his assassination by a U.S. religious broadcaster was a criminal act and that Washington and Venezuela should work out their differences through diplomacy.

The U.S. civil rights leader condemned last week's suggestion by Pat Robertson that American agents should kill the leftist Venezuelan leader, calling the conservative commentator's statements immoral and illegal.

Jackson urged U.S. authorities to take action, and said the U.S. government must choose "diplomacy over any threats of sabotage or isolation or assassination."

Deportation hearing today in Cuba bomb case

EL PASO, Texas - A 77-year-old anti-Castro militant accused of orchestrating the deadly 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner faces a deportation hearing that also will consider whether the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion was an act of U.S. terrorism.

Luis Posada Carriles is being held in a federal detention center in El Paso on charges that he sneaked into the country through Mexico in March. He was arrested in Miami in May.

At issue in today's hearing, which could last a week, is whether the former CIA operative and U.S. Army lieutenant should be granted asylum in the United States despite requests by Venezuela that he be deported to that country.

Poll: Ohio voters split on governor's future

CLEVELAND - A majority of Ohio voters believe Gov. Bob Taft's ethics violations were serious, but the state is split on whether he should resign, according to a poll released Sunday.

The poll, commissioned by the Plain Dealer of Cleveland, found 57 percent of the registered voters questioned rated Taft's performance as poor, while 27 percent said he was doing a fair job.

Taft, a great-grandson of President William Howard Taft, pleaded no contest earlier this month to charges that he failed to report 52 gifts worth nearly $6,000 over four years. He was fined $4,000 and a judge ordered him to publicly apologize for his behavior, which he did.

Respondents were split over whether Taft should resign, with 46 percent saying he should and 44 percent saying he should not. The poll of 625 randomly chosen registered voters was conducted Aug. 26-27 by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research of Washington. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

National games prompt state lotteries to change

CLEVELAND - Several state lotteries across the country, faced with competition from multistate games that have astoundingly huge jackpots, have begun focusing on smaller games that offer fewer riches but better chances to win.

The Ohio lottery is planning to replace Super Lotto Plus in October with a game designed to be different from the 12-state Mega Millions game. And Pennsylvania, one of 27 states with Powerball, revised its game last year to increase the odds of winning. Maryland and Texas also are considering changing their games.

Chuck Strutt, executive director of the Multi-State Lottery Association, said games with a national scope typically cut into a state's jackpot game sales by about 30 percent.

[Last modified August 29, 2005, 15:10:55]