America strikes notebook

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 31, 2001

Proposal would strengthen laws for health emergencies

ATLANTA -- A model law drafted for states at the request of the federal government would give authorities broad powers to close buildings, take over hospitals and order quarantines during a biological attack.

The draft, commissioned by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and made public Tuesday, provides a template for states to respond to the release of a deadly agent like smallpox or Ebola. Whether to adopt such a law is up to state legislatures.

If any did, state officials could take drastic steps -- including controlling the sale of food and gas and condemning contaminated buildings -- to prevent mass casualties from an outbreak.

"The current laws are hopelessly antiquated," said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of law and public health at Georgetown University and the draft's principal author. "They predated all of the modern threats to the public health. Many of them are probably unconstitutional."

Bush: Bring veterans to schools

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- President Bush enlisted the soldiers of decades past to help him see a new generation through the new challenge of defeating terrorism, asking schools to bring war veterans into their classrooms.

Bush said the veterans could give America's youth "examples of duty and courage at a time when both are sorely needed."

Before hundreds of shrieking teenagers at suburban Maryland's Thomas S. Wootton High School, the president said Tuesday that he wants public, private and home schools across the country to use the week of Nov. 11, Veterans Day, to showcase the real-life stories of American war heroes.

"At this moment we especially need the example of their character, and we need a new generation to set examples of its own, examples in service and sacrifice and courage," he said.

Critics say terror law hampers trucking

WASHINGTON -- A new antiterrorism law could force commercial truck drivers to wait months to get permission to transport hazardous materials.

The law requires state and federal government to determine whether individual truck drivers who want to drive hazardous materials pose a security risk. State officials, the U.S. attorney general and the U.S. Department of Transportation would be among the authorities that could give drivers permission to transport hazardous materials.

Critics say the bureaucracy could impose monthslong waits on drivers.

"It's a very arbitrary and unfair rule," said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen. The public policy group has called for more stringent motor carrier standards, but believes that the new requirement is too extreme. "It prohibits a state from licensing a person without a substantial or several-step process," said Claybrook, who headed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration from 1977 to 1981.

The measure is part of an antiterrorism package that President Bush signed into law Friday.

Saudi septuplets given lower profile

WASHINGTON -- The Qahtani septuplets, the infants who stretched the limits of medical technology and gained global fame when they were born in July at Georgetown University Hospital, have ended their public exposure.

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, the Saudi Arabian parents heeded the advice of their Washington embassy and submerged their public profile. The Qahtani family put an end to daily hospital updates and interviews with neonatologists about the many dramatic medical developments of the five boys and two girls.

Georgetown will not say how many of the babies have been released and moved to their single-family home in Vienna, Va., a house that the Saudi royal family rented for them. The children's father, Fahad Qahtani, did not return telephone calls.

British Airways to fortify cockpits

LONDON -- Cockpit doors on British Airways planes will be fitted with full-length metal armor plates to prevent unauthorized access, the carrier said Tuesday. Flight deck door locks and hinges on all 340 planes also will be strengthened, the airline said.

Major airlines including Delta Air Lines, US Airways, Alaska Airlines, Continental Airlines, Northwest Airlines and United Airlines, have all finished fortifying the cockpits of their fleets.

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