Subject:  "its the American Way"........
Date:     Tue, 19 May 1998 071110 -0500 (CDT)
From:     "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org>
To:       emfguru@hotmail.com
--------------------------------------------------

Hi everybody:

We have quite a number of California people on this list....
The following Reuters story is about California.

However, the picture reported below has many applications -- not
just in California.....  Trent Lott (Republican leader of the
U.S. Senate) is the one who described it as:  "The American way"....

One application I'd hope some of our media people would soon begin
to look into:  this situation applies with equal "Smelliness" to
the contributions and influence of the electrical and telecommunications
industries vis-a-vis EMF, the 1996 Telecommunications Act, etc.  It would
not be hard to get the data. You wouldn't even have to get it all....
Just track the contributions of General Electric, Westinghouse, Motorola
and AT&T (perhaps SPRINT) over the past two decades since the EMF issue
arose (with Nancy Wertheimer and Ed Leeper) in 1979.....

Cheerio.....

Roy Beavers (EMFguru)
rbeavers@llion.org..............http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html
................................It is better to light a single candle ...
than to curse the darkness...............................................

     _________________________________________________________________
   
   
09:25 PM ET 05/18/98

Calif. candidate attacks rivals on tobacco money

        
            By Greg Frost
            OAKLAND, Calif., (Reuters) - A former U.S. congresswoman
seeking to become attorney general of the nation's most populous
state blasted her opponents Monday for accepting hundreds of
thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from big tobacco
companies.
            Lynn Schenk, a Democrat running to be her party's nominee
for California Attorney General, asked Democratic State Senators
Bill Lockyer and Charles Calderon to return the money, saying it
could compromise their ability to sue the tobacco industry to
recoup billions of dollars in health care costs.
            ``Who can the voters rely on to act against the industry in
an unconstrained manner?'' Schenk said in an interview. ``My
history of not having taken their money and not having voted for
them certainly is an indicator of my independence and ability to
go after them.''
            Lockyer, the powerful former president of the California
Senate, has accepted $184,475 in contributions from the tobacco
industry since 1983, Schenk said. Calderon has accepted $76,850
from the industry since 1983, she said.
            Citing a study by the University of California San
Francisco, Schenk said Lockyer had taken $44,000 more from the
tobacco lobby in 1995 and 1996 than both U.S. House Speaker Newt
Gingrich and Sen. Jesse Helms combined.
            Schenk, who was elected to Congress in 1992 but failed to
win re-election in 1994, disclosed records of her opponents'
campaign contributions after she spoke to students at Jefferson
Elementary School about the dangers of tobacco.
            A spokeswoman for Lockyer disputed Schenk's allegations,
saying the senator had long demanded the current California
attorney general, Dan Lungren, join other attorneys general in
their lawsuits against the industry.
            ``Bill Lockyer has fought vociferously against the tobacco
industry. To say otherwise is a mischaracterization of his
political record,'' said Lockyer spokeswoman Hilary McLean.
            McLean also said Schenk had accepted campaign contributions
from tobacco lobbyists, and noted Lockyer had not taken any
money from the industry during his bid for attorney general.
            Paige Bradley, a spokeswoman for Schenk, agreed that Lockyer
had not received any tobacco money during his current campaign
but noted that the hefty tobacco contributions to the senator
came during the 1995-96 season and had subsequently been rolled
over to his current account for attorney general.
            A Calderon spokesman said the senator's campaign had not
taken contributions from the tobacco industry, and called
Schenk's announcement ``cheap-shot electioneering.''
            Lungren last year was one of the last state attorneys
general to join the lawsuits filed by 40 other states against
the industry to recoup Medicaid costs of treating
smoking-related illnesses.
            The nation's largest tobacco companies agreed last June to
pay $368.5 billion to settle the suits. But the deal fell apart
last month, and the industry said it would oppose legislation in
Congress that would effect such a settlement.
            That left open the possibility that it will once again be up
to the state attorneys general to pursue litigation against the
industry. Earlier this month, the nation's largest tobacco
companies settled the latest industry lawsuit in Minnesota,
agreeing to pay more than $6 billion.
         ^REUTERS@




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Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html