Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 4, 1993 TAG: 9304040326
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETTY PARHAM and GERRIE FERRIS COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
QUESTIONS ABOUT THE NEWS
Q: A a female hockey player in Minnesota is suing her employer because he asked her to wear cosmetics. Is it legal for an employer to ask a female employee to wear cosmetics?A: She's not a player, though she is an employee. In general, an employer in the private sector can have legitimate requirements regarding dress, cosmetics, facial hair, etc. in the workplace - unless a state or local law prohibits it. In this case, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer said, if there are male-specific grooming provisions as well as those applying to women, then her employer definitely would not have violated Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act.
Q: What procedure did Kim Basinger use to buy the town of Braselton, Ga.?
A: The actress didn't really buy the town; she bought about 70 percent of the property in the town. She doesn't own the sidewalks, streets, sewer system, Police Department or any of the municipal services. The transaction was like any other purchase of private property.
Q: What are Jesse Jackson's responsibilities as the "shadow senator" from Washington, D.C.? Is he on the federal payroll?
A: No. The "shadow senators" are unpaid lobbyists for D.C. statehood, with no official duties. Several territories had "shadow senators" before they became states.
Q: What was the first song ever recorded?
A: The first song recording was of "Mary Had a Little Lamb," made by Thomas Edison in 1877 as he worked on the phonograph.
Q: After the killing of the doctor at the Pensacola, Fla., abortion clinic, I didn't see any reference to two other clinic workers who were shot, leaving the impression that this was the first time an abortion provider was shot. What happened to those people, and was anyone ever caught?
A: In December 1981, two people who worked in a Springfield, Mo., clinic were shot by a ski-masked man with a sawed-off shotgun who entered and asked for the doctor. He then shot two workers. One recovered and one was left paralyzed. The gunman was never caught and no official conclusions were drawn as to his motives. The Pensacola shooting was the first slaying. There have been a number of instances of people shooting randomly into clinics and one where an employee narrowly missed being hit.
Q: A story said Gabriel Guerra-Mondragon was a member of the Clinton transition team and now is lobbying for Mexico. I thought transition team members agreed not to deal in influence peddling for a period of time. What happened?
A: The White House could not confirm that Guerra- Mondragon was a member of the transition team. In all probability, he was a consultant during the transition, not on the federal payroll and therefore not affected by the agreement to refrain from influence peddling for six months.
Q: I understand that military personnel no longer are allowed to wear uniforms in the White House. How does this affect someone like Gen. Colin Powell? What is the rationale behind this rule?
A: There's no such rule. The rumor may have sprung from an item in U.S. News & World Report that said a general visiting the White House was treated rudely by a young woman who said she refused to speak to anyone in uniform. Administration sources have said that, if she is identified, she'll be fired.
Q: Why do some movies on network television show women of color nude from the waist up, but never white women?
A: There's no firm rule about such nudity on broadcast TV. Nudity is generally considered unacceptable, and a U.S. woman, black or white, almost never would be shown bare-breasted on network TV. But an unofficial rule of thumb is that you can show women bare-breasted in a culture where that is the norm. In "Roots," African women were shown bare-breasted while in Africa but clothed when they reached America. Bare breasts also were prevalent in "Shaka Zulu." In the miniseries "War and Remembrance," naked extras were used in group scenes of Nazi death camps after ABC decided they were not being used exploitatively. Pay-cable channels are entirely different, since they enter the home only if a viewer orders them.
Q: On average, how many hearts become available for transplant in a week's time? How long from the time a heart becomes available can it be transplanted?
A: In 1991, there were 2,153 donated hearts nationwide, which averages about 41 a week. Answer to the second question: four hours.
Q: Is alcohol is a drug? A: It depends on whom you ask. Definitions of what is a drug range from any substance that can be abused or is addictive - which arguably could include a pepperoni pizza - to the Food and Drug Administration's "any substance used in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of disease," which doesn't mention addiction or abuse. If you ask Alcoholics Anonymous or the National Council on Alcoholism or the American Society of Addiction Medicine, they will tell you that alcohol is a drug and that it is America's No. 1 drug problem, costing the economy $85 billion a year and 100,000 lives.
Q: What does the proclaiming of sine die at the end of a legislative session mean?
A: Sine die is Latin and means "without a day." It is used as a signal to end a lawmaking session. It is in Robert's Rules of Order and goes back to medieval law. It is used by the British Parliament, the U.S. Congress and most state legislatures. A legislative group adjourns sine die when it recesses without appointing a day on which to reassemble.
Q: The Red Cross was robbed of $180,000 in Somalia. Why, knowing what a lawless country Somalia is, did it keep so much cash on hand?
A: There are no banks in Somalia, and relief workers need hard cash to do business of any kind - from renting warehouse space to obtaining transportation and security.
Q: What happened to Imelda Marcos? Is she still in the Philippines? Did she ever go to trial or to jail?
A: The former Philippines first lady is still in the Philippines, after finishing fourth in a seven-candidate race for president. "Nobody pays attention to her anymore; she just blends into the woodwork," said a spokesman for the Philippine Embassy in Washington. Marcos can leave the country only with permission. Charges against her are pending, and there are ongoing negotiations about money she owes the country that allegedly is in Swiss banks.
Q: Americans pay less taxes than people in Sweden, France and other European countries, but what about the services those people receive that we don't?
A: We don't have national health care, which most Europeans consider a birthright. If our taxes picked up the tab for health care, the total federal and state tax burden would jump from 29.9 percent of the gross domestic product to 38 percent or 39 percent, almost as high as the European average of 41 percent. But Americans would save on insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs. No other nation comes close to total U.S. spending on defense, education or public safety.
Q: What time is kept at the geographical North Pole?
A: There is time there only when there is somebody there who wants to know it, said a spokeswoman for the U.S. Naval Observatory. "Since nobody lives at the North Pole, there is no convention for time there. If there is a team of scientists up there, they simply keep the time of their home country."
Q: I've heard politicians call other politicians "copperheads." What does that mean?
A: "Copperhead" was a derogatory term for a Northerner who sided with the South during the Civil War, explains historian Webb Garrison.