The News Journal from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 1

I i mKC i 2 tA. urna 1993, The News Journal Co. A Gannett newspaper Wilmington, Del. 115th year, No. 257 35cents SATURDAY Dec.

25,1993 HOLIDAY EDITION Ihe News ffrf i mjufmjv Tiro fiiBTfirr Medicaid required to pay for abortions Foes say directive pushes states too far A fable of how the holiday spirit sprouted By AL MASCITTI NCE UPON A TIME a little seed grew From there it could see for miles. It looked down on and streams. Its favorite sight was a spot on the trees grew, hundreds of them in long after row. "Why do those trees grow that way?" "That is a Christmas tree farm," its On watch, guard gives tree No. 8 silent night By CRIS BARRISH Staff reporter CLAYMONT On the night before Christmas, this town's inspirational little yuletide tree No.

8 if you're counting was safe and sound, awaiting the arrival of Santa Claus. And the tiny fir at Philadelphia Pike and Interstate 495 had no reason to fear thieves overnight. A security guard would keep an eye on it until today. So concludes a saga that began two weeks ago, when Claymont-area residents decorated a weed that had sprouted through a crack. On Dec.

17, The News Journal published a photo of the sprout. A state highway crew cut it down that same day. Residents have replaced it and others stolen by Grinch-like creatures. The newspaper hired a security guard Thursday to keep watch until today. J.R.

Gettior, the security company's owner, agreed to share costs. From 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, Pete Civitarese stood guard. The air was chilly, but his heart was warmed by passers-by who dropped off goodies.

"I was told to guard it and I said, I thought it would be a Mickey Mouse assignment," Civitarese, sporting a Santa cap, said at 3:30 p.m. "But it's been kind of nice." In front of him were cups of coffee and hot chocolate, as well as doughnuts, homemade cookies and candy. There were also toys, including a wood carving of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. One woman even offered to take him to dinner. (He has a girlfriend and declined.) While Civitarese spoke to a reporter, Claymonters Karen Shock-ley and her mother, Erica, pulled up in a van.

They handed the guard a box of chocolates. Then Claymont resident Wanda Cogan rushed over with a camera. "I'd like to take your picture," she said. "People in Claymont don't believe anything like this could happen. It's awesome." trees grow big enough and the weather grows cold, people will come to bring them inside their houses.

There they'll be covered with lights and tinsel and shiny glass balls. Everyone will gather 'round to open gifts and sing happy songs. Christmas trees make people very happy, and they are remembered with joy." "That's what I would like to be someday," the little seed said. "A Christmas tree." One windy day, the little seed and all its brothers and sisters left the hill and drifted into the sky, looking for their own spots to take root. Some dropped on the hill near their mother.

Some fell in gullies, some on the anks of brooks and creeks. But the little seed kept pot to grow. Soon the seed saw a wide, wide river. "1 would like to see the other side," he said, but suddenly the wind died, and the little seed dropped. It landed in a spot where the ground was hard and gray and grimy.

The little seed spent a lonely night. Nothing green was anywhere around. No oilier plants kept him company. He knew he could never grow here. The next day it rained, and the water carried the little seed into a tiny 11 crack in the road, for a road is where If was When he did, he whizzing by, making a horrible noise and filling the air with soot.

But in the crack was a little bit of dirt, and the little seed knew it time to sprout. saw he was not alone. He shared his tiny crevice with several other See WEED-A7 "Vj r. Bells kept on ringing at Del. shops By SPENCER RICH The Washington Post WASHINGTON The Clinton administration has decided to require states to pay for Medicaid abortions for low-income women in cases of rape or incest or if needed to save the life of the pregnant woman, federal Medicaid administrator Bruce C.

Vla-deck said Friday. Abortion foes charge that the administration has exceeded Congress' intent in requiring rather than merely permitting states to pay for the operation with federal matching funds. Roughly half the states have provisions banning them from paying for abortions except to save the mother's life. Federal Medicaid laws were liberalized in October to remove prohibitions against abortion pay-i ments to women pregnant as a result of rape or incest. The new directive faces opposition from anti-abortion groups, including the National Right to Life Committee.

Previous administrations have allowed states to decide whether to use federal funds to pay for abortions to save the mother's life. States have always been able to use their own money to pay for abortions, but if they wanted to use federal matching funds from Medicaid programs, they were restricted by federal law. Douglas Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee charged that the directive interprets this year's abortion language too broadly and will open the doors to more abortions. But William W. Hamilton Jr.

of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which wants all restrictions on Medicaid abortions dropped, applauded the directive. The congressional restriction on use of federal funds for Medicaid abortions has been sponsored each year since 1976 by Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Iil. For the past 12 years, the Hyde amendment has allowed use of federal Medicaid funds to pay for abortions only if the pregnancy threatened the life of the woman. President Clinton proposed that this limitation be dropped so that the states could use Medicaid funds to pay for abortions sought by low-income women in circumstances other than when the pregnancy was life-endangering.

Johnson said this interpretation runs directly counter to commitments made by the Clinton administration earlier this year. "This is a violation of assurances respecting the right of states to keep abortion out of their Medicaid programs," said Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee. HIGH LOW 35 25 Business Dear Abby C4 Classified Editorial Automotive D4 Movies C4 Employment D3 Real Estate Tab Obitu aries A 14 Public Diary A 5 Sports B1 Television C2 Comics C5 Crossword C4 52 "40901H52526'' 235-9100 D1 on a plant high on a hill. woods and meadows, fields hill below, where many fir straight lines, row after row the little seed asked. mother explained.

"When the going, looking for a special he was. Cars and trucks kept perfect present clerk Jeni Bell, 19, embodied the yuletide spirit. She wore a Santa Claus cap. Red and green polish dotted her nails. Her dangling earrings were a cat dressed as Santa, her necklace was a Christmas tree and her bracelet had Christmas bells.

"I do this every holiday," Bell said. "People always comment." At Bellini's Nursery on Concord Pike, some shoppers got into the spirit by hunting for a bargain. Assistant manager Mike Gallagher said one shopper cut himself a deal. The guy wanted a discount on a wreath priced at $27. "I told him I'd give him the wreath for $10," Gallagher said.

"Then he said, 'How about two for So I said, At this point you get what you can." way to hire women. "I don't see it (a gender pay gap) as a problem," he said. For workers who do see a problem, resolving it can be a Herculean task. In the private sector, employees can file employment discrimination complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, an independent agency that investigates allegations and takes employers to court if the agency finds evidence of unfair employment practices. The EEOC, under legislation approved by Congress, also requires businesses with more than 100 employees to track and report information about hiring prac- See CONGRESS A8 HOME DELIVERS 324-2700 or (800) their way to last-minute bargains, the Thousands bustled By CRIS BARRISH Staff reporter The 1993 holiday season smiled on Emma and James Brinkley.

James, who worked only part time a year ago, now has a good carpentry job. And Emma has plenty of money to buy gifts for their children and grandchildren. So the Brinkleys were able to join thousands of folks doing last-minute shopping on Christmas Eve. Many packed into area malls, but others visited Wool-worth's on Wilmington's Market Street Mall. Emma held two bags, presents for her grandson and granddaughter.

One bag held two hamsters, the other two parakeets. "The girl gets the birds. The boy gets the hamsters," Emma JIMMMHlK Fund shows people still care about the needy The Needy Family Fund is a private, nonprofit fund run by The News Journal. "I thought my husband was paying the utility bill. After he was incarcerated, I found out that we were behind in the bill.

I didn't know where to turn. Help from The Needy Family Fund showed that people still care." How to give and today's list of donors, A5 iring House and Senate rules prohibit discrimination in personnel actions on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age or disability. In addition, House provisions also prohibit wage discrimination on the basis of sex. But there are no enforcement mechanisms to back up those rules. And without employment data collection, there's no way to tell if the rules are being followed.

SELL WITH Friday, traffic was heavy at stores. Salesianum School teacher Pat Scarpello and his wife, Kim, arrived early at Concord Mall and left by noon. They picked up a sweater for Pat's father, silk boxer shorts for a friend, and stocking stuffers. How would they spend the rest of Christmas Eve? "Wrapping," Kim joked as they left. At Matthew's Hallmark store, manager Sharon Pugliese was prepared.

She had 11 staffers there are three on a typical day to serve customers who began pouring in at 7:30 a.m. "It's nuts," clerk Grace Chen said. Debbie Ready, stationed next to her, completed the thought: "But it's fun." At Lechters in Concord Mall, the GNS findings or that the man who today represents her home district, Rep. Howard Coble, pays his male staffers twice as much, on average, as he does his female employees. "That doesn't surprise me one bit," she says.

As Walker sees it, nothing will ever change in Congress until it obeys the same rules it requires of the private sector and the rest of government, and sets up an independent system for reviewing employment complaints. "I think they should hire and fire on the same basis as the private sector," Walker said. "Congress doesn't have to answer to anybody, except itself. That's the problem." Coble says he goes out of his laws don't apply to Cofre said. "I had to wait until today or they would have found out." After she took the gifts to her East Side home, she planned one more stop at Woolworth's.

"I'll get something for my daughter. Probably a sweater," Brinkley said. And buoyed by her husband's new job, Brinkley said: "It's won- Snow for Delaware? A7 derful. It was terrible last year, but it's nice this year. We're doing a whole lot better." If you looked at the cars jammed into the Concord and Christiana mall lots, or listened to the ringing of cash registers inside, one got the sense that many people are doing better in 1993.

With most companies closed still doesn't enforce equal opportunity employment laws it imposed on the private sector to reduce racial and sexual discrimination in hiring. In fact, Congress doesn't even collect data on the sex and race of the more than 12,000 employees who work for individual lawmakers on personal staffs, though private employers by law must keep track of the demographics of their workers. A Gannett News Service study shows that women who work for members of Congress are concentrated in lower-paying jobs. Even when they get top jobs, they are paid less on average than men. Walker, now 64 and semire-tired, says she isn't surprised at 2424 By PAMELA BROCAN Gannett News Service WASHINGTON When Anne Walker lost her job as House restaurant manager 11 years ago because her boss former Rep.

Ed Jones, D-Tenn. allegedly told others her $45,000 salary "was ridiculous for a woman," she had to go to court to press her claim of discrimination. That's because Congress didn't have any mechanism for handling job bias cases. And, even though a federal appeals court awarded Walker an undisclosed amount of money, things have been slow to change on Capitol Hill. Congress has not established an independent agency to oversee its employment practices.

Congress CLASSIFIEDS: 324-2424 or (800) 427.