
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 11, 1995                   TAG: 9507110044
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RAY REED
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SECRECY RAISES WIDE SUSPICIONS

Q: A few years back, I recall an independent political candidate raising the issue of a world conspiracy directed by a group she called the Bilderbergers. Recently, I ran across the term in the June 19 issue of The New Yorker. Who are/were the Bilderbergers? And while we're at it, what's the Trilateral Commission, another entity conspiracy buffs often raise? Couldn't find either in an encyclopedia.

R.L., Radford

A: There's a one-world conspiracy theory for nearly every letter of the alphabet. These are two of them.

The Bilderbergs and the Trilateral Commission are real; that is, they actually meet.

The Bilderberg Conference is a yearly three-day gathering of Europe and North America's most influential bankers, politicians, economists and other government types.

Its purpose is a private exchange of the ideas and interests held by several countries' leaders without fear of having their words quoted.

Fertile ground is there for conspiracy theorists because the Bilderberg meetings are held in rigid security. Each delegate is pledged to secrecy. After the meetings, current and past members receive a summary that identifies speakers only by country.

World-class elitists meeting in secret. Surely they're plotting a one-world government.

The Trilateral Commission was formed by New York banker David Rockefeller in 1973.

This group consists of 250 or so people at any given time, from North America, Western Europe and Japan.

They hold a meeting of the minds, but some folk see it as a covey of criminals trying to set up a new world order in which to run up their profits.

Want some proof? OK, Jimmy Carter was a Trilateralist. So was George Bush. Carter staffed his Cabinet with fellow Trilateralists. Bill Clinton attended a Bilderberg Conference.

And we're afraid these guys were going to take over the world?

Center-turn lanes

Q: What is the purpose of center-turn lanes like those on West Main Street in Salem? I've seen people use them to merge into traffic and almost run into each other head-on. How should these lanes be used?

B.W., Salem A: They are, as you say, turn lanes.

Those solid-yellow lines on each side of the lane, and pavement arrows indicating ``turn,'' make it pretty clear this is no avenue for accelerating or passing.

``Wait'' was the word Salem Police Chief Harry Haskins used a couple of times in describing the center lane's purpose.

Pull into the lane and wait until you can complete a left turn. Or, pull out from a business location and wait till traffic clears from the other direction.

Haskins didn't recall any head-on crashes in center lanes - but there have been plenty of the regular kind where people didn't wait long enough to make their left turns.

Got a question about something that might affect other people, too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Give us a call at 981-3118. Maybe we can find the answer.

by CNB