Buffalo Criterion, 1987-04-23

              thursday april 23-29 1987 vul 62 — no 17 the buffalo criterion tit a tv xt established 1925 wis } s necessary minority newspaper — featuring paid legitimate circulation niagara region rochester murray elected liaison between amsa & snma joan murray a second year minority medical stu dent at the state univer sity of new york at buffalo school of medicine has been elected liaison be tween the american medi cal association amsa and the student national medical association snma she has also been elected representative for the northeast medical school section of snma as a liaison and repre sentative murray's main responsibility is to in crease participation of minority students in amsa only a small number of students are active in both orgarflza tions murray a native of syracuse resides on shir ley avenue in buffalo buffalo resident is one of very special group of blood donors helen rivers is a very busy person she has a full-time job at social security attends college at night and enjoys fishing in the niagara river whenever she can but she is never too busy to come to the american red cross blood center to donate blood through the process of apheresis i look forward to coming and i would come more often if they wanted me to she explained i find that donating blood is a real spiritual experience for me i enjoy the feeling of knowing that i am helping someone helping to save a life apheresis is a special kind of blood donation which is only done at the blood center because of the specialized equipment needed for the process instead of donating whole blood donors give a single component of blood such as platelets or white cells i takes approximately two hours for the process in which blood is drawn from one arm and passed through a cell separator machine that separates and collects the compo nent the remaining components such as red cells and plasma are returned to the donor a special feeling just bubbles up in me when i donate miss rivers said i always feel fine and i enjoy talking with the nurses and watching tv or the movies i have a very high platelet count — super platelets so i am helping people even more and that is a good feeling she is proud of being a three gallon donor and comes to the blood center every month as a receptionist for social se curity she is allowed to take the time off from work to donate apheresis a greek word meaning to take away or withdraw selec tively is a very important process that has been in existence in the buffalo area since december 1974 people with blood dis orders especially leu kemia suffer from both the disease and its treat ment drugs used to kill cancer cells cannot differ entiate between healthy and cancerous cells and destroy all blood cells as a result the patient may bleed from a lack of platelets or develop an infection from a lack of white blood cells transfusions of these components collected by an apheresis procedure can help control these problems until the patient resumes normal cell pro duction i'm a regular platelet factory and it's so nice to think what they can do for someone else miss rivers said my body , replaces them quickly so i have plenty to give apheresis donors must weigh at least 125 pounds and must already have donated whole blood more donors are needed donations are taken mon day through saturday at the blood center on an appointment basis for more information about apheresis donations contact the red cross at 886-7500 ext 325 helen rivers st john baptist church to mark 60th year st john baptist church 188 goodell st will celebrate its 60th anniver sary on sunday may 3rd the dr j alfred smith sr pastor of allen tem ple baptist church of oakland california and president of the progres sive national baptist con ference will be the speak er at the morning service buffalo will be host to the 1989 national conven tion brought about through the efforts of dr rev bennett w smith sr pastor of st john baptist church a weekend of activities has been planned begin ning on may 2 at 6 p.m at the unity baptist church 183 sycamore st old st john baptist church with a concert by the united voices of st john the public is invited to end the day on sunday may 3rd at 6 p.m at the buffalo convention center a ban quet will be held for members only dr j alfred smith sr is the pastor of allen dr j alfred smith sr rutkowski accuses legislature's democratic leadership of stalling erie couty executive edward j rutkowski has charged the democratic leadership of the county legislature of stalling un necessarily on a proposal he sent to them that could still save the county tax payers approximately 287,000 in 1987 mr rutkowski said on january 6 1987 i directed a communication to the erie county legisla ture to add seven positions to the medicaid reform division ot the depart ment of social services foi the purpose of increasing the controls on the use of transportation service by the medicaid population it is estimated that this increased control would save the medicaid assis tance gross appropriation a total of approximately 287,000 during the second six months of 1987 and a potential savings of upwards of 574,000 on an annualized basis mr rutkowski contin ued this is a sound pro posal that resulted from extensive research and evaluation of how other counties control transpor tation by medicaid clients i am concerned that the democratic leadership is playing election year poli ces with my proposal by failing to act for over three months they have a responsi bility to address these issues which would result in a savings of tax dollars frankly it they are more concerned about my get ting credit for a proposal that is going to save erie money and reduce medicaid abuse i am saying today that the finger of blame should be pointed at them if they fail to act and act immediate ly mr rutkowski contin ued early this year erie county legislative chair man richard slisz creat ed a special personnel ad hoc committee of which he is also the chairman for the purpose of review ing proposed new posi tions in county govern ment while some initially per ceived its creation to be politically motivated i have no objection as long as it was a formal committee that met regu larly and considered the requests in a timely fashion that however has not always been the case they've delayed this request for over three months but another re quest i made on behalf of the sheriff's department for two deputy sheriffs on march 3rd was approved by the legislature on march sth i urge mr slisz to put politics on the back burner and begin looking at issues and proposals on their merits my proposal to create these positions will save the county money by reducing the abuses that occur mr rutkowski said under the current medical transportation program a client who has a verified medical need is given a six month approval for medical transportation the client may then call and order service from the transportation providers as needed the county has little control over the use of services and experi ence with the program has shown that both client and vendor abuse exists mr rutkowski continued in 1986 erie county's medical transportation bozer to give address at recognition luncheon joan bozer erie county legislator and a member of the advisory board of literacy volunteers of buffalo and erie county will address students and tutors of that organization at the annual recognition luncheon on sat may 2nd this event will take place at the erie county medical center where a satellite program of liter acy volunteers is held mrs bozer will be among those honored the local tutoring pro gram is part of the national project literacy u s plus campaign and the new york - you can read program the purposes of these under takings is to increase the general awareness of adult illiteracy as well as to reach out to those needing tutoring and to recruit more tutors mrs robert w groom er chairman of literacy volunteers of buffalo and erie county chapter will preside and mrs william m shempp is chairman of arrangements businessmen meet to kick-off youth for self-help program last week the criterion featured a story on youth for self-help program its object is to employ youth through self-help initiatives by working cooperatively with certified businesses in new york state „. ..•■;__....;>•.-'-- '-. .- the program is designed to give youth between the ages of 15 through 19 on-the-job-training while being subsized for 25 hours per week — 40 percent by the employer and 60 percent by youth for self-help program the idea was a recent topic on the public affairs program face up which is heard on saturday mornings on wufo 1080 am radio and hosted by imam abdel j nurridin in which wufo manager jesse key was a guest the photo shows a group of businessmen and wo > men who recently ***** to work out ideas at a luncheon held at the kensington place ..-. <-.:-■ shown from left seated are daniel workman of the m & t bank sherrell coston of coston's mobil station ms virginia murray iman nurriddin ant dorsey glover of jeff-way standing is ron hunter for further inforrnafin'i call sm-iobo atstxta thru friday from 9to m — criterion photo - - gorski announces veterans pension news many veterans are not taking advantage of pen sions to which they are en titled assemblyman den nis rorski d-cheekto waga noted veterans who served during war time and who are perman ently and totally disabled are eligible for pensions survivors also have the right to receive a pension based on the veteran's length of service — 90 days or more in specific war periods — provided the veteran was not dis honorably discharged gorski continued no disability or age requirements exist for sur viving spouses the yearly maximum benefits are 5,903 for single veter ans 7,811 for veterans with one dependent and 1,012 for each additional child gorski stated single world war i veterans receive 7,232 in pension funds while wid ows of veterans will receive 3,944 for further information on v.a pensions and elegibility requirements is available by contacting the office of assembly man dennis gorski gen eral donovan state office building 125 main st buffalo n.y 14203 or by contacting the local office of the state division of veterans affairs located at the same address civil rights head charges environmental racism leveling the charge of environmental racism dr benjamin f chavis jr executive director of the commission for racial justice of the 1.7 million member united church of christ declared that their just-released national re port showed that racism may be a factor in the location of hazardous waste sites throughout the united states the report toxic waste and race in the ■ united states a national report on the racial and socio-economic charac teristics of communities with hazardous waste sites was released at a press conference held on wed april 15th at the national press club in washington d c the report revealed that 3 out of every 5 african americans and hispanic americans live in commu nities with uncontrolled abandoned toxic waste sites and that the average number of racial and ethnic persons who live in communities with com mercial hazardous waste facilities was five times greater than in communi ties without such facilities in addition in 10 major metropolitan areas more than 90 percent of the african american popula tion lived in areas with uncontrolled toxic waste sites in fact the largest toxic waste facility in the nation which receives wastes from over 45 states and several foreign countries is located in emelle alabama whose popula tion is 85 percent african american at the press conference dr chavis called the situation an insidious form of institutionalized racism it is in effect environmental racism he added given the dis proportionate effect of these wastes on racial and ethnic communities this has become not only an environmental issue but a racial justice issue as well dr chavis also charged the reagan administra tion and its environmental protection agency epa with malignant neglect and said this was totally consistent with the reagan administration's general non-enforcement policy particularly in the area of civil rights the commission has called on president rea gan to take immediate corrective action in line with the report's recom mendations copies of toxic waste and race are available from the commission for racial justice united church of christ 105 madison aye , new york n y 10016 stalling tactics see page 3 st john see page 2 serving working leading in wny inner cities since 1923 price only 20 c per copy