The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 33

How to reach us: Send questions and suggestions for -Ohio page to editor: Ron Liebau, 768-8396; fax, 768-8340, oi e-mail rliebauenquirer.com. Write us at Cincinnati inquirer, 312 Elm Cincinnati 45202. OQD A slice of Ohio: The state motto is "With God all things are possible." The first motto, adopted in 1 865, was the Latin "Imperium in Imperio. It means "An empire within an empire." The Cincinnati Enquirer firm from around flia state Sunday, September 26, 1999 B3 I Casualties of (he Cold War QmMinsider report adioacMve secrets revealec JLLiV nM.ia.ii I mi riHiiii niamt rrvr 1mm runiuM- iri 'nr-ft' 3L Press An aerial view of the uranium plant in Piketon where workers unknowingly handled uranium that was shipped from the gaseous diffusion plant in Paducah, Ky. MICHIGAN i "We want to include lung cancer screenings for people at highest risk," he said.

"That's certainly a plausible cancer related to plutonium exposure." Up to now, the medical screenings have been tests to identify those who suffered liver damage, kidney damage, bladder cancer and hearing loss. With a limited budget, allowing about $200 per person, with some 18,000 eligible to be tested at the three plants, those health problems were selected as the most likely to result from exposure to solvents, acids, asbestos, beryllium, nickel and high noise levels. When the medical project was being put together three years ago, plutonium was not a consideration, said Sylvia Kicding, a Denver-based union official who helped plan it. While Dr. Markowitz moved immediately to go after more money for the tests under his control, the Energy Department pursued a broader initiative.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson asked the National Academy of Sciences to look into "the relationship between hazardous in a part of the state with an above-average jobless rate. Vina Colley, a disabled former Piketon worker who thinks her numerous health problems stem from exposure to polychlorinat-ed biphenyls (PCBs) and other dangerous materials at the plant, said the discovery that Paducah handled 100,000 tons of plutoni-um-laced uranium has gotten her name in the paper a couple of times but didn't seem to immediately help her cause. She is president of a small local group, Portsmouth and Piketon Residents for Environmental Safety and Security, which wants a more complete accounting of worker exposures and compensation for those who contracted leukemia, cancer and other diseases as a result. Ms. Colley says she raised the possibility of plutonium contamination at the plant during a 1993 meeting, though at the time she didn't fully understand what she was talking about A devoted reader and collector of documents related to activities at the plant, Ms.

Colley had encountered reports making references to transuranic contami- (Mo snapshot Scenes from around the state i MICHAEL HAWTHORNE Weighing in on the school funding case State officials don't have many friends in the latest court battle over school funding, but the ones they've got just happen to run two branches of government On one side are Republican Gov. Bob Taft; Senate President Richard Finan, R-Even-dale; and House Speaker Jo Ann Davidson, R-Reynolds-burg. In legal briefs the trio filed last week, they contend the school-funding system lawmakers enacted last year works great. Most of the state's education establishment along with Democratic lawmakers, the ACLU and the league of Women Voters has filed separate briefs asking the Ohio Supreme Court to order another overhaul. i Known as amicus curiae, Latin for "friend of the court," the briefs allow people and organizations that aren't parties to litigation to get their views into the official record.

Stacked on top of one another, these things are more than a foot high, adding more paper to an 8-year-old case that already has cleared a swath of forest that would make James Watt join the Sierra Club. Most of the groups contend the state hasn't reduced the reliance on local real estate taxes, a tradition that has created disparities between property-rich and -poor school districts. "The new system does little more than widen the disparities," argued a brief filed by the Ohio Federation of Teachers. U.S. Rep.

Ted Strickland, D-Lucasville, was nice enough to include several newspaper articles in his brief, all of which focused on his criticism of the school-funding system. A brief filed on the governor's behalf last week touted Mr. Taft's proposal to spend $10 billion in state funds during the next 12 years on school repairs and renovations. (Iocal school districts would have to raise $13 billion to qualify.) 'The governor's plan is a rational and effective approach to addressing each and every one of Ohio's school facility needs," the brief declared. Lawyers for the state and a coalition representing most of Ohio's 611 school districts get 15 minutes each Nov.

16 to distill their arguments before the court A decision is expected early next year. TTT A closer look at the congressional map may be scaring off Democrats from challenging U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot, Cincinnati. Republican-heavy suburbs make up 60 percent of the 1st Congressional District, which Republicans drew when they won the privilege of dividing up the state at the start of the decade.

The map gave Mr. Chabot an edge last year when he faced a strong challenge from Cincinnati Mayor Roxanne Quails. Ms. Quails won city wards in the district but lost the suburbs. National Democrats have vowed to target Mr.

Chabot again next year as they try to capture five seats and regain control of the House. It looked like Ohio Sen. Mark Mallory, D-Cincinnati, would be their candidate. IYcs-ident Clinton singled out Mr. Mallory several times during a summer tund-raising trip to attorney Stan Chesley's house in Amberley Village.

But Mr. Mallory opted not to run, citing a desire to gain influ- nce in the Ohio Senate. Other Democrats consid ered for the race include Coun-cilmen Todd Fortune and Dwight Tillery and Hamilton County Auditor Dusty Rhodes. But with less than four months to file for the March 7 primary, none has publicly expressed interest in challenging Mr. Chabot.

Michael Hawthorne covers state government for The Cincinnati Enquirer. He can be reached at (614)224- 464i 'Compiled from Enquirerme service reports Toledo considers new home for Hens TOLEDO, Ohio' Down town developers are betting that a new ballpark for the Toledo Mud Hens minor league baseball team will bring new life to an area filled with shuttered brick buildings and ware houses. Although the site for the stadium has not been selected, local officials are hinting the touch-talked about ballpark will be built a few blocks from downtown. A couple of business owners have bought property in the neighborhood. 'This is going to be a happening place," said Alva Caple, who has plans to open a restaurant in one building and loft apartments in another.

The team, the top farm affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, has been pushing for a new stadium for several years, but voters last year rejected a sales tax increase that would have helped pay for a ballpark. Colors arrive early, but Oct. is peak COLUMBUS Some trees already are showing the first hints of fall color, though the Ohio Department of Natural -Resources says peak color con-' ch'tions are a few weeks away. "Early flashes of fall color are already appearing in some trees in Ohio; however, most foliage throughout the state remains green," said ODNR forester Bill Schull2. Mr.

Schultz said dry weather may cause some trees to turn color earlier, but most of the state will have peak color "around mid-October. Mr. Schultz said he has been impressed with some "earlier than normal" color in south-' Western counties, along the Ohio River. Police traffic-ticket slowdown to end CLEVELAND A slowdown in the number of traffic tickets written by police is like- ly to end Oct. 1, several officers The officers, speaking on -condition of anonymity, told the Bain Dealer that many of their were participating in an informal ticket-writing slowdown to protest the administration of Mayor Michael Court records show that from Aug.

22 to Sept. 12, the number of tickets written was one-third lower than during the same three weeks last year. Farmers upgrade hats to block sun LONDON Some farmers 'are turning in their traditional "seed caps" for more protection the sun and the risk of skin cancer. Farm safety experts gave away 450 specially designed hats with wider brims at the Farm Science Review in central Ohio last week. James Blakcslec, who raises in Madison County, the "updowner" version that some call Sherlock Holmes style.

hi It features an extra-large bill the front and a second bill in the back to shade the neck. The majority of skin cancer cases among farmers are on the neck and head, according to the National Farm Medicine Center in Marshfield, Wis. Briefly A manufacturing compa-" ny threatened by Cleveland with the loss of a $500,000 tax break has agreed to recognize a union and begin contract negotiations. "We have agreed to bargain in good faith," Industries Inc. human "resources manager Jean Forak-er said.

Sixty-five workers are suing Cleveland-based Forest City, claiming they were "exposed to hazardous materials during renovation of two apartment complexes. A woman who tried unsuccessfully to become the first female i member of the Alliance Elks Ixxlge where her husband was a longtime member has filed a $1 million gender tion lawsuit. I', Piketon workers await answers after learning they handled plutonium BY KATIIER1NE RIZZO The Associated Press WASHINGTON During the Cold War, three big, secretive factory complexes in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee made nuclear warfare possible, getting uranium ready for bombs that never had to be used. Only recently have workers and nearby residents learned that the gaseous diffusion plant in Paducah, Ky, handled uranium contaminated with plutonium. Then some of it was sent for further refinement to the plant in Piketon, which also got uranium laced with plutonium from other sources.

Because of the secrecy imposed on contractors by federal officials in past decades, no one has been' able to say with certainty how much plutonium was involved, where all of it came from, or where it ended up. The best guesses of Energy Department officials have changed from week to week as long-ignored documents and reports yield new revelations. The result has been new attention on Paducah, Piketon and the K-25 plant in Oak Ridge, new examinations of overlooked information and renewed questions about why, in 1999, it's still not clear exactly what workers were exposed to in the 1950s, '60s and 70s. Plutonium and uranium both are radioactive, and exposure to either can be harmful, but plutonium is more frightening to workers because it is more deadly and because they didn't know it was there, Plutonium is 100,000 times more radioactive dian natural uranium, and roughly times more radioactive than the highly enriched uranium Piketon workers knew they were handling. Now that it's clear plutonium was handled at the three plants, an ongoing series of medical screenings on former workers seems insufficient to Dr.

Steven Markowitz of Queens College, City University of New York, who's overseeing the tests. His proposal for $3.6 million in additional testing was incorporated into an Energy Department bid to supplement its fiscal 2000 spending request. Mafocus Judge, 94, BY CHARLEY GILLESPIE The Associated Press COLUMBUS Five minutes in the federal courtroom of Joseph Kinneary can be worth a year's legal education, one lawyer says of the 94-year-old judge known for his no-nonsense rules. Former Mayor Dana Rinehart remembers well his first appearance before Judge Kinneary, who has been a federal judge for 33 years. "Only a moment passed before Kinneary stopped the court and very directly taught me how to approach the witness, or at least to ask permission to do so," Mr.

Rinehart said. Colleagues said Judge Kinn eary has a reputation as a stern jurist who gruffly reprimands prosecutors and defense attorneys who fail to conduct themselves properly. "It all centers on his respect for the law and the courtroom and what it stands for," said former Assistant U.S. Attorney David Shroyer, who said he used to make inexperienced lawyers practice how to act before going before Judge Kinneary. "He is not commanding respect for himself, but for the courtroom and everything it stands for," Mr.

Shroyer said. 'The O.J. Simpson case would have been about a three-week tri al in Kinneary's court, Mr. Shroyer said. "It may have been the same verdict but he wouldn't have put up with all the nonrelc- vant or repetitious questions." Judge Kinneary still runs his courtroom by simple rules that he calls the four B's: "Be on time, be prepared, be well-dressed and be brief." The rules apply to lawyers, their clients, jurors and even people sitting in the gallery.

still demands respect contaminated with plutonium nation. When she asked about that contamination, she was told amounts were small and the word plutonium never came up. Transuranics are elements such as plutonium with atomic weights higher than uranium. "I didn't know what that meant," said Ms. Colley, who was an electrician at the plant in the early 1980s.

"I'm not a scientist." The presence of plutonium and other transuranics was revealed in different ways over the years, in bulletins, reports and at a routine public meeting. "The issue of transuranics has been with us for years," said Energy spokesman Steve Wyatt The spokesman acknowledged the information wasn't communicated very well. An expert who works with citizen groups such as Ms. Colley's contends poor communication is the same as covering up. "This is a working-class area where people often have no more than a high school education," said Bob Schaef for of the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability.

'To talk about it only in college-physics-or-above terms is to be intentionally deceptive." Oct. 2-3: Civil War Encampment, Hayes Presidential Museum, Fremont. Oct. 2-3: Apple Butter Festival, Indian Hollow Road, Elyria. Oct.

2-3: Bear's Mill 150th Anniversary Festival, Arcanum-Bear's Mill Road, Greenville. Oct. 2-3: Zoar Apfelfest, Zoar Village, Zoar. Oct. 2-3: Civil War Encampment, Spiegel Grove, Fremont.

Oct. 2-3: Lebanon Antique Show, Warren County Career Center, Lebanon. Oct. 2-3: MacQueen Orchards Apple Butter Stir, Garden Road, Holland. For more information, call (800) BUCKEYE or wsrohiotourism.com on the Web.

Lake Erie I OHIO Columbus Cincinnati KENTUCKY exposures and illnesses in our workers at Paducah and other Energy Department sites." Next month, the investigators will go to southern Ohio's Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, which is now operated by U.S. Enrichment Corp. The plant about 75 miles east of Cincinnati enriches uranium to make fuel for power plants, and is under federal contract to buy Russian uranium removed from nuclear warheads and sell it to utilities. With the immediate focus on Paducah, residents in Piketon are taking a wait-and-see attitude. The plant employs 2,100 workers building named after him.

Last year, the federal courthouse in Columbus was dedicated in his name through an act of Congress. He was sworn in as a federal judge in 1966, and accepted senior status in December 1987, which reduced his docket by 20 percent. But he has no plans to retire. "The responsibility that I have is my principal reason for getting up in the morning," Judge Kinneary said. "I will retire when the funeral director comes in with a wicker basket" Chrystal McNamee, who has been the judge's secretary for 16 years, says Judge Kinneary's doctor continues to give him a clean bill of health despite his aversion to exercise.

The judge is fond of saying "Whenever I feel like exercising, I lie down until the feeling passes," Ms. McNamee said. Judge John Holschuh, a colleague of Judge Kinneary's for years, said Judge Kinneary has a great desire to make sure every case before him is well-tried and that justice is done. Judge Holschuh likes to tell a story about two mismatched lawyers who once appeared before the judge. The younger lawyer was not prepared, and the other lawyer, who was experienced, took advantage of the situation by asking witnesses several inappropriate questions.

Judge Kinneary fidgeted in his seat, then said, "Aren't you ever going to object?" The younger lawyer jumped to his feet and said, "Yes. Yes. I object!" Judge Kinneary leaned back, thought a moment and said, "Overruled." mmp! hi i in i ii 1 1 ii iHiij 8 0 1 The Associated PressPaul M. Walsh 111 the ShadOWS: The silhouette of Aaron Conley of Quality Masonry Co. in Marion is shown as he works on the front of the Palace Theater last week.

Renovations for the structure, built in 1928, will total just under $1 million. The Associated Press Judge Joseph P. Kinneary gestures during an interview on his 94th birthday last week in Columbus. He is the oldest judge in the Federal Courts. He has been known to order his bailiff to remove anyone reading newspapers in his courtroom and reportedly has even told his bailiff to order a member of the gallery to stop picking his nose.

"The courtroom really is the only physical place where an ordinary citizen comes in contact with the big concept of the federal government," Judge Kinneary said. "For that reason alone, the courtroom is a sacred place, the place where an ordinary citizen is given his rights or restrained in his rights. A place where the Constitution and all of our history come into being." There are only seven judges older than Judge Kinneary, who turned 9-1 last Sunday, with sitting senior status, according to the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, D.C. Also, he is thought to be the only federal jude working in a Emntscalendar Places to go and things to do Oct. 1-2: Johnny Appleseed Fest '99, downtown Ashland.

Oct. 1-2: Ohio Swiss Festival, downtown Sugarcreek. Oct. 1-2: Oktoberfest, Wheeling Avenue, downtown Cambridge. Oct.

1-3: Paul Bunyan Show, Hocking Parkway, Hocking College Campus, Nelsonville. Oct. 1-3: Egyptian Galleries Reopening Festival, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Oct. 1-3: Harvest Hoe Down Festival, downtown Blooming-burg.

Oct. 2: Homesteader's Day, Flint Ridge State Memorial, Hanover. Oct. 2: Granville Antiques Fair, downtown Granville..