Washington in brief

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 4, 2001

Welfare cases begin to rise in some states

After six years of remarkable decline, the number of Americans on welfare has begun to rise in about a dozen states and has stopped falling in most others.

Case loads are still dropping in nearly a dozen states, and the national total is still creeping down, but for most of the country, it appears that the days of ever-shrinking welfare rolls have come to an end. Florida's rates were still down slightly.

"The people who could go to work have gone to work," said Rita Dobrich, a welfare administrator in West Virginia, where case loads rose by about 8 percent over the last year after plummeting 70 percent.

It's not entirely clear why some states are seeing cases rise, and officials fear the situation may only get worse if the economy weakens.

Education Department lost, misused $450-million

In the final three years of the Clinton administration, the Education Department lost track of $450-million through waste, fraud and errors, the department's chief inspector said. A Republican lawmaker likened the agency's financial practices to those of "a Third World republic."

In one case, $250-million in grants were paid twice before the recipients sent back the extra payments.

The department, which has a $44.5-billion budget and manages billions more in student loans, has reported that poor oversight resulted in several instances in which money was stolen or improperly spent. In others, payments for grants were duplicated, or money was never distributed.

Program to help blacks become homeowners

A program to make 1-million black families homeowners by 2005 was announced Tuesday by a black lawmakers' group, mortgage-market giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, major banks, mortgage companies and community groups.

New mortgages, many with special terms for low-income borrowers and those with bad credit records, could total $50-billion under the program.

The special terms will include down payments of as little as $1,000, or 2 percent of a home's value; mortgages at interest rates below the usual rates for borrowers with weak credit histories; and a one-time reduction in interest rates for borrowers who make their mortgage payments on time for 24 straight months.

The toll-free number for information about the program is 800-822-1669, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Newsman Rather attends Democratic fundraiser

Dan Rather, the longest-serving and most outspoken of the major network news anchors, recently served as the star attraction at a Democratic Party fundraiser.

Donors paid as much as $1,000 for a private evening in Austin with the CBS newsman, according to an invitation obtained by the Washington Post. Rather's appearance at the March 21 gathering generated about $20,000 for the Travis County Democratic Party -- and will undoubtedly provide ammunition to critics who have long accused Rather of leaning to the left.

Rather said Tuesday that he hadn't realized beforehand that the event was a fundraiser. "I didn't ask the question, and I should have," he said in an interview. "I take full responsibility for it. I'm responsible and I'm accountable."

Acknowledging that he didn't want to sound like Al Gore at a Buddhist temple, Rather said: "When I got there, I was very aware that it was a fundraising event. I'm not going to say I had no idea what was going on. . . . If someone wants to fault me for that, I wouldn't blame them."

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