ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, April 26, 1997               TAG: 9704280068
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-3  EDITION: METRO 

IN THE NATION

Satcher tops list for dual health job

WASHINGTON - The Clinton administration is preparing to nominate Dr. David Satcher, now director of the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as both surgeon general and assistant secretary of health.

In the past, the positions - both advisers to the president on health issues - have been separate.

White House spokesman Mike McCurry said Friday the administration was considering nominating ``someone who, as the military likes to say, would be dual-hatted.''

An administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Satcher was the White House's choice and would take on both jobs.

The nation's acting surgeon general, Dr. Audrey Manley, is scheduled to leave office July1. Assistant Secretary of Health Philip Lee already has left his post.

-ASSOCIATED PRESS

Steelworker fired before ceremony in his honor

ROCKVILLE, Md. - Steelworker Gregory Cooper had been on the job with a Virginia company for less than a month when he helped pull 15 people from a burning building next to his work site.

Then on March 25, just before a ceremony with Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., honoring Cooper's bravery, he was fired.

``We're walking up to face the TV cameras and the foreman - who's just fired me - says to me, `Don't say nothing about it.' He's smiling and telling reporters, `Oh, he's such a good worker!''' Cooper said.

Officials at Burkholder Inc., the welding and crane rental company that employed Cooper, said the firing was due to job performance and had nothing to do with the heroics.

Cooper said he was never told why he was dismissed.

``Everything got worse after the fire,'' Cooper said, recalling that his co-workers and supervisors seemed resentful or shunned him after the incident.

During the fire, Cooper, co-worker Dave Thomas and Safeway employee John Neff kicked in doors to an apartment building and carried people out.

-ASSOCIATED PRESS

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