The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 3

The Pantagraph Monday, February 23, 1998 jJ Is Mardi Gras party out of control? Lewinsky lawyer seeks defense fund A it hA si yJjK'tlv-i -fit Mardi Gras revelers, such as those pictured here, have celebrated on Bourbon Street in New Orleans every year. Once considered the city's salvation, many now fear the yearly pre-Lenten celebration has run out of control and become a Locals fear real meaning of celebration being lost in liquor, lewd behavior NEW ORLEANS (AP) More than just a fling before the austere religious festival of Lent, Mardi Gras has become a happening, the dazzling celebration that helped save this city when the oil ran out and the economy ran down. Now a lot of people fear the event has run out of control and become a caricature. "Nationwide, the image is that of a drunken orgy," said Arthur Hardy, who publishes a popular Mardi Gras guide. "There are at least four companies marketing nude Mardi Gras videos nationally.

There are the television shows that feature women showing breasts and men showing themselves." That anything-goes image attracts young tourists who care little about tradition, as resident Dave Johnson discovered a few years ago when he was host to several Florida State University classmates. "Everybody wanted to get nude and lewd," Johnson said. "They weren't driving all that way to eat fried chicken and catch beads with my parents." Carnival, which began Jan. 6 and ends this week with Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, has always been a mixture of high society and street scene. The city's bluebloods staged grand balls while the gay community held drag contests.

Families held reunions along parade routes while college kids partied in the French Quarter. After Louisiana's oil-fired economy fizzled in the mid-1980s, the city was hungry to boost tourism even when it infringed on local customs and laws. Mardi Gras crowds have been estimated at more than 1 million people; there was a sharp decline last year with Fat Tuesday falling right after the Super Bowl, but hotel reservations jumped again this year. Nudity, once a tantalizing possibility, became commonplace, even along parade routes popular with families. "There was always a wild side to Mardi Gras," said French Quarter resident Tom Finney, 62.

"But there was a lot more to it than that. It was always a family event too. Now I don't see that very much, at least not in the Quarter." "Mardi Gras used to be a special day," said WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) Monica Lewinsky needs a legal defense fund just like the president, her lawyer said Sunday, declaring: "I am not being paid appropriately." "I would welcome" a responsible law or accounting firm's coming forward to create a fund "like the one that's helping President Clinton out," attorney William Ginsburg said in responding to questions on NBC's "Meet the Press." While "I'm not looking personally for anybody's sympathy," he said, "I am not being paid appropriately and her father has limited resources." Ginsburg said Lewinsky has no current plans to write a book about her Washington experiences but that "a literary effort may be her only choice" ultimately. A medical malpractice lawyer, Ginsburg has represented doctors in high-profile cases such as the deaths of entertainer Liberace and Loyola-Mary-mount basketball star Hank Gathers.

Lewinsky's father, Dr. Bernard Lewinsky, whom Ginsburg has represented for 25 years, has said Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr has spent tens of millions of dollars trying to build a case against the president, "and there's me. Out in the middle of nowhere, I'm supposed to fight this battle. I don't have the means for this sort of cost." Dr. Lewinsky said Friday night on ABC's "2020." In a Sunday appearance on CBS's "Face the Nation," Gins burg waded into a discussion of the role of longtime presidential confidant Vernon Jordan.

Ginsburg rejected the notion that Lewinsky got a job offer through Jordan in exchange for denying in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit that she had had a sexual relationship with Clinton. "Unequivocally no. No quid pro quo," Ginsburg said of a suggestion that Jordan's assistance on a job was a payoff for her denial. Ginsburg said Lewinsky met with Jordan in early November about help getting a job, a month before her name turned up on a witness list in the Paula Jones case. But Ginsburg would say nothing about whether Lewinsky ever told Jordan that she had had a sexual relationship with the president.

Jordan says Lewinsky asserted to him that she hadn't. "I will not and I never have violated the attorney-client privilege, and I cannot talk to you at all about any conversation that she related to me," said Ginsburg. He also left room for possible involvement by more than one person in referring Lewinsky to Jordan. Jordan maintained in his only public statement that Lewinsky was referred to him by Clinton's personal secretary Betty Currie. "Monica Lewinsky was referred, principally by Betty Currie, to Vernon Jordan," said Ginsburg, leaving the possibility others might have played a role.

I I 11 m. I and get away from the anything-goes image. "I want my grandchildren to be able to have as much fun as I always had," said Adele Mullin, who still celebrates every Mardi Gras with her family in the French Quarter. "It would be a shame if it becomes just a bunch of drunks taking their clothes off. It would be a shame if it's just something we stage for tourists and the residents ignore." Louis Sahuc, a photographer and French Quarter resident.

"We waited for it and enjoyed it. Now we have it every day. Any convention or group that can afford it can stage a parade now. They roll all the time, people wander around in beads year round. We're becoming a caricature of ourselves." Sentiment is growing to limit parades, crack down on underage drinking and public nudity, Caution, research recommended in use of dietary supplements aloe, rhubarb root, buckthorn, cascara and castor oil.

They act as laxatives that, when consumed in excessive amounts, can disrupt potassium levels to endanger the heart. The teas are linked to diarrhea, vomiting, chronic constipation and fainting. DHEA: A hormone that turns into estrogen and testosterone inside the body. The National Institutes of Health says there is no evidence that DHEA fights aging as it claims, and warns that it could increase cancer risk and may lead to liver damage even when taken briefly. FDA records show 31 reports of possible DHEA side effects, from fainting to hepatitis.

Sassafras: Once a flavoring for root beer, the oil is banned as a U.S. food additive. But sassafras still is sold as a supplement to make "tonics" and teas. It has been shown to cause liver cancer in animals. Comfrey: Banned in Canada and severely restricted in Germany, comfrey root originated as a poultice to reduce swelling but later was used internally.

It contains alkaloids toxic to the liver, and animal studies suggest it is carcinogenic. FDA knows of one death. "Dieter's teas:" Herbal blends containing such ingredients as senna also known as cassia angustifolia Health foods or health risks? About 900 of the illnesses and 44 deaths involved people taking herbal products that contain ephedrine-like stimulants. Other possible culprits range from "diet teas" to hormones like DHEA and even high-dose vitamins. Millions of Americans take dietary supplements, particularly the herbs that are the fastest-growing segment.

They spent $3.2 billion last year. Supplements promise they'll slow aging, improve memory, clean kidneys, protect the heart, even prevent cancer. There is evidence that certain herbs, vitamins and minerals do help. Folic acid prevents birth defects. Calcium wards off osteoporosis.

Many scientists agree that garlic may help lower cholesterol, ginger calms nausea, and valerian is a mild sleep aid. The National Institutes of Health is studying whether St. John's wort is an anti-depressant. WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) Burkhard Bilger and his wife never had heard that the ancients used the herb pennyroyal to induce abortion.

They just liked the tangy mint taste of pennyroyal tea until she discovered she was two months pregnant, and her doctor asked her to avoid caffeine. Soon after, Jennifer Bilger had a miscarriage. When he learned the tea may have been to blame, "I was horrified," said Bilger, a New York science editor who contends supplements don't come with proper warnings. "There are a lot of very potent herbs out there. You go into a food co-op, and you don't know what you're getting." An Associated Press analysis of Food and Drug Administration records suggests Bilger's experience is not uncommon: The agency has logged more than 2,500 reports of side effects and 79 deaths associated with dietary supplements.

chief of special nutritionals, but the agency has listed 16 supplements as risky. "You're self-medicating," notes Mark Blumenthal of the nonprofit American Botanical Council. "People should learn how to use these products properly. "You almost have to be a detective," said Mary Ellen Camire, food sciences chief at the University of Maine, who studies natural remedies. Most such products do not raise safety concerns, said Elizabeth Yetley, FDA's But scores of other products have sparse, if any, data to support claims that even some in the industry call exaggerated.

The pills, tonics and teas sell with little to guide consumers about what actually works or potential side effects. 111' I I :1 -lit i t-Jr AP Cambridge Plush yr Posturepedic 1 Erie Posturepedic win tlOC Cnnn i MowtoP hlMX $c17 FULLarc $219 $197 Reg. Price $499 TI I Reg. CLOSEOLT HM IRfelttB' QUEEN2PC $447 1 $ACH QUEEN $537 trrl FULLSET "tr rirt ealyX sealyX sealyX Medalist Exquisite Corniche Posturepedic Rush orFinn Posturedic Plush pnsnirpnpHif twin $177 I twin ntn EACH PIKE Vf EACH PIECE 17 Ultra Plush 4 Reg CLOSEOLT 1 Reg CLOSEOLT CU)S0LT $247 QUEEN set $627 QUEEN set $899 $797 VostoV cl0sioW ctostoy FBI searches anthrax suspect's residence LOGANDALE, Nev. (AP) FBI agents in surgical gloves removed boxes full of materials from the home of a researcher Sunday, a day after he was released from jail when tests showed he possessed a harmless animal vaccine, not a biological weapon.

More than a dozen agents descended on William Leavitt property in this small farming community 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas. Neighbors said the agents had been searching the home and an adjacent shed since Wednesday, when Leavitt was arrested along with Larry Wayne Harris. Leavitt's lawyer, Lamond Mills, called the search "a fishing expedition" and said he planned to visit the home to "see what kind of shape the house is in and what they've taken." FBI agents at the scene declined to comment. Agents, some wearing surgical gloves, were seen removing boxloads of materials from a building next to the house. The boxes were placed into a rental truck.

The search came on the eve of Monday's detention hearing for Harris, who remained jailed over the weekend on biological weapon charges. A government lab on Sunday was still testing material seized from Harris' Ohio home to determine if it is a dangerous and illegal biological agent, federal sources have said. Harris is on probation for a 1995 conviction for illegally obtaining the bubonic plague bacteria. The FBI says its investigation into both men is continuing, even though authorities announced Saturday that a substance once feared to be the ingredients of a biological weapon turned out to be a harmless anthrax vaccine. The material was seized from Leavitt and Harris on Wednesday in Henderson, just outside Las Vegas, triggering a nationwide scare.

They were arrested on charges of possessing a biological agent for use as a weapon. Leavitt was released from jail Saturday night on his own Building collapse BONUS it 2 BONUS 1 FREE Itedframe A rescue worker stood on top of the rubble of a building that collapsed Sunday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Residents abandoned the building during the night after hearing strange noises within the walls, but four people were reported missing. BONUS 3 FREE Removal (with purchase of any FREE Delivery Set-up HURRY SALE ENDS SOON! 9 I (viih purchase of an i(h purchase of any Posturi'iNik-') Posturepftlii' Spiilv HmtiiFrnrdit'' Fighting reported in E. Afghanistan 862-1136 xrtiris KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) Opposition forces said Sunday they were advancing on a.

strategic provincial capital in eastern Afghanistan, despite ferocious resistance by the Taliban religious army. The opposition, a northern-based alliance of minority ethnic groups, claimed to have captured several districts barely 12 miles north of Methran in Laghman province. But the Taliban, based in the capital, Kabul, said its soldiers were holding firm. It was impossible to independently confirm conflicting claims made by both sides in the conflict. If opposition forces gained control of Methran, it would put them in a good position to press on toward the highway that connects Kabul to neighboring Pakistan the source of most of the Taliban's food and fuel.

The Taliban, which gained control of Kabul in 1996, rule 85 percent of Afghanistan, but its opponents are applying considerable military pressure on several fronts to try to erode its hold. HOURS: MON'TUES'THURS'FRI 10-8 WED SAT 10-6 Martm Horn Furnliof 3 3f El I Foil Jesse 5 HOME FURNITURE.