Thursday, February 5, 1998
Community Briefs
UC stalling on labor policy, group says
A foreign policy watchdog group criticized the UC Board of
Regents on Monday for failing to implement a resolution calling for
an end to the UC system’s purchase of slave-made goods from
overseas.
The anti-slave labor purchasing policy was approved by the
regents when they passed their annual budget last March. The policy
followed a state law that prohibited the government from buying
foreign slave-made goods.
"It shouldn’t take more than a month to just write up the
procedures and do it," said Carl Olson, chair of State Department
Watch, a labor watchdog group. "For some reason, the university has
decided to stonewall and delay."
The anti-slave labor policy forbids the regents and the
university from purchasing foreign-made equipment, materials or
supplies produced by forced labor.
Supporters of the state mandate said that though there is a
longstanding federal statute against the importation of slave-made
goods, the Clinton administration has failed to enforce it.
State Department Watch officials said this week that the UC
system’s contract with the U.S. Department of Energy has been a
deterrent to the effective implementation of the regents’
policy.
S. Campus explosion results in no injuries
A mixture of two incompatible chemicals caused an explosion on
the third floor of the Engineering I building Wednesday at 4:30
p.m. No one was injured.
A waste bottle containing a mixture of nitric acid and acetic
acid probably sparked the explosion, said Bill Peck, a UCLA
chemical safety officer. The bottle, which was stored in a cabinet,
exploded and sprayed the chemicals within a six feet distance.
A professor, who was in the room when the bottle exploded, left
the left the room safely. Fire and safety officials were called in
to inspect and clean up the mess.
The severity of the explosion, said campus fire marshall Gary
Dunger, was "mild to moderate."
Health insurance will cover more children
The situation for many of California’s 1.7 million children
without health care could soon improve, according to a UCLA study.
If reforms approved last year by the state legislature are
successfully enacted, about two-thirds of the state’s uninsured
children will soon become eligible for some types of low cost
health care.
The state’s new Halthy Families program will provide low-cost
health insurance to children whose families do not qualify for
current programs, but cannot afford private coverage. Also,
Medi-Cal, a state and federal program, has been expanded to cover
an additional 36,000 children, increasing the number to 678,000
children covered by this program created to give health care to the
poorest families in the state.
"These reforms will make affordable coverage available to most
of the state’s uninsured children," said E. Richard Brown, director
of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
Reforms last year also included a simplification of the Medi-Cal
eligibility process as part of an effort to make receiving benefits
easier for families. "For these reforms to be successful, we must
find a way to make sure children actually get the insurance
coverage," Brown said.
Although these programs will decrease the amount of children
without health coverage, 499,000 California children will remain
uninsured because their family incomes are too far above the
poverty line.
Compiled from Daily Bruin staff and wire reports.