ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 30, 1996 TAG: 9605300099
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
Educational TV mandate urged
WASHINGTON - A letter signed by a majority of House members urges federal regulators to require TV stations to air at least three hours of educational shows for children each week.
The letter, initiated by Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and containing the signatures of 220 lawmakers, was sent Wednesday to the Federal Communications Commission. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and other GOP leaders did not sign.
The FCC hasn't been able to reach consensus on the matter for more than a year. However, that might change now that FCC commissioner James Quello has reversed his position and supports the concept of a minimum standard.
The National Association of Broadcasters spokeswoman Patti McNeill said the House letter won't change the industry's opposition. The industry says a program requirement would be unconstitutional and could lead to endless government demands on programming.
- Associated Press
O'Connor blocks suicide ruling
WASHINGTON - Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor temporarily stopped doctors in Washington state Wednesday from helping any terminally ill patients end their lives by suicide.
In a brief order, O'Connor blocked a federal appeals court ruling from taking effect Wednesday night. Without the justice's action, the lower court's decision would have immediately nullified a Washington state law that makes ``assisted suicide'' a crime.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled 8-3 in May that patients who are so ill that they will not recover have a constitutional right, if they are mentally competent, ``to hasten their own deaths'' with the aid of a doctor.
As a result of that ruling, doctors in the state gained the option of prescribing life-ending medication that the patients themselves would take to end their lives whenever they chose.
Wednesday, the appeals court refused to reconsider and announced that its ruling would now take effect.
- The Baltimore Sun
Whirlpool-shutoff law promised
TRENTON, N.J. - State lawmakers promised Wednesday to push for a law requiring whirlpools to have nearby emergency shutoff switches after a 16-year-old girl drowned in a hot tub, the sixth such fatality nationwide since 1980.
Friends of Tanya Marie Nickens tried in vain to pull her free last weekend from the 3-foot-deep tub, where 12 tons of suction pressure pinned her body over an unprotected grate.
It took several minutes for someone to reach the emergency shutoff switch in the fitness club's basement. By then it was too late. She died at a hospital.
Since 1980, there had been 18 reports of people trapped in hot tubs or pools, including the five others who died, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said.
Since 1978, there have been 49 reported cases involving people trapped in drains by their hair, and 13 of them died, said Rick Frost, a spokesman for the safety agency.
``This is not a new issue. It's been around for years,'' said Mary Ellen Fise, product safety director at the Consumer Federation of America, an advocacy group.
Last year, former Los Angeles Rams defensive end Greg Meisner barely managed to wrench his 6-year-old son from the suction of a hot tub outside their home, and a 10-year-old Sacramento, Calif., girl died when her long hair was sucked into a spa drain as she ducked underwater to wet it.
In Tanya's case, the plastic grate over a 12-inch by 12-inch drain opening in the hot tub was broken into four pieces, said Monmouth County Public Health Coordinator Lester Jargowsky.
- Associated Press
Fleiss gets new trial on pandering charge
LOS ANGELES - ``Hollywood Madam'' Heidi Fleiss' pandering conviction was overturned Wednesday by a state appeals court that said jurors had engaged in vote-swapping misconduct to avoid a deadlock.
The Second District Court of Appeal ordered that a new trial be held, said Emma Amos, a spokeswoman for the court. Fleiss, 30, faced a three-year prison term on the charge.
The ruling does not affect her federal conviction on money laundering charges. She remains free pending her sentencing in that case, which is set for September.
- Associated Press
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