ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 8, 1996 TAG: 9609090073
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: METRO
WASHINGTON - The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms refers disproportionately more criminal cases from rural areas and small cities to federal prosecutors than big urban centers, a Syracuse University analysis of government records concludes.
In 1995, Montana had 127 cases for a population of 870,000 people, western North Carolina had 200 referrals out of 2.2million people and northern Florida had 128 cases for 1.4million people, according to the data.
In contrast, the Los Angeles area had 113 cases out of a population of nearly 16 million, while the district including Chicago had 98 cases out of 8 million people.
After surging in the 1980s and early 1990s, ATF referrals of gun, drug, explosives and other criminal matters fell about 24 percent to 7,540 in 1995 from 9,885 in 1992.
David Burnham, co-director of the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, said the information suggests that the ATF is focusing more on rural areas when it should be concentrating on cities, where illegal guns are a huge problem.
ATF denies it pursues crime in small towns more actively than it does in big cities. ``Referrals are not a benchmark of activity,'' ATF Assistant Director Patrick Hynes said. ``One referral could have 10 defendants.''
One reason more cases originate in small towns is that local law enforcement agencies often find themselves undermanned and rely on federal agencies like the ATF to investigate crimes.
- Associated Press
Clinton says cyst from neck benign
WASHINGTON - President Clinton said that a pathologist's report confirmed that a cyst removed from the president's neck was benign.
Clinton was briefed on the results of the test Friday as he returned to Washington on Air Force One from a campaign swing in Florida. The report confirmed what doctors said they believed was the case when they removed the cyst Wednesday during a 12-minute procedure at the White House.
- Associated Press
Drug use lower in 2-parent homes
WASHINGTON - Teen-agers from broken homes who live with their fathers are more likely to use drugs than those who live with their mothers, a government study indicates. Those who live with both parents are least at risk.
The study was based on interviews during the 1991, 1992 and 1993 National Household Surveys on Drug Abuse. It found that fewer than one-third of teen-agers living with both parents reported using alcohol in the past year. That compares with 40 percent of those living with a mother and stepfather and more than half of those living with a father and stepmother.
Similar ratios were reported for marijuana use: About 7 percent with both parents used marijuana, 10 percent with mother and stepfather did and almost 17 percent with father and stepmother used it in the past year. This pattern held for use of other kinds of drugs and for cigarette smoking as well.
- Associated Press
Company lauds e-mail court order
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - A company accused of flooding computers with junk e-mail hailed a judge's order that America Online stop blocking its transmissions.
``America Online has violated the civil rights of their members and has violated our rights to send e-mail through the Internet, which AOL does not own,'' said Sanford Wallace, president of Cyber Promotions. ``In the post office, this would be considered a federal offense.''
Wallace filed suit in federal court Thursday, the day after America Online, the largest provider of online services, announced it had blocked five sites serving as clearinghouses for unsolicited, commercial mailings.
The sites were sending 1.8 million e-mails a day to America Online subscribers, causing a flood of complaints. Cyber Promotions, which sends promotions on behalf of businesses, controls three of the five sites.
District Judge Charles R. Weiner immediately rescinded the block on Cyber Promotions until Wallace's arguments can be decided at a trial Nov. 12.
- Associated Press
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