July 13, 1998 All Things Considered (entire program) Requires the RealAudio Player

An index of the day's stories:

HASHIMOTO RESIGNS -- NPR's Julie McCarthy reports that Japan is in political as well as economic disarray following a resignation announcement by Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto. The prime minister decided to step aside after a humiliating defeat for his ruling party in yesterday's parliamentary elections. Hashimoto viewed the results as an expression of public lack of confidence in his leadership. His resignation creates a political vacuum at a time when Japan is wrestling with a dangerous economic crisis. (4:30)

JAPAN POLITICS -- Robert talks with William Clark, the president of the Japan Society and former assistant secretary of state for East Asia, about Japanese voters reactions to the Asian economic situation and the shift in political opinion that led to Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto's resignation. They also discuss this weekend's dramatic defeat of the Liberal Democratic party in upper-house parliamentary elections, where the party successfully defended only 44 of the 61 seats it held prior to the vote. (4:30)

ASIAN ECONOMICS -- NPR senior news analyst Daniel Schorr says that only a few years ago, Americans were encouraged to look at the surging Asian economies as a model of efficiency and thrift. Now, with Japan in the midst of its worst economic crisis in fifty years, Schorr says that it may be time to rethink the conversion of countries to the free market economy. (3:00)

RUSSIA-IMF DETAILS -- NPR's Mike Shuster reports from Moscow that the international community, led by the International Monetary Fund, has announced a huge new loan package of 17 Billion dollars to shore up Russia's markets and stabilize the ruble. IMF officials have made disbursal of the money contingent on passage of tax and spending reforms by the Russian parliament. Lawmakers are to consider the government's reform proposals later this week. The pledge of new aid should put pressure on them to endorse the reforms. (4:00)

OUR DAILY MEAT -- Jeffrey Tayler attempts to buy some meat at a dingy shop in a town outside Moscow. The moldy meat, the nasty customers, the surly staff remind him that not much has changed since the Soviet era. Humiliation is a daily occurrence for the Russian people. (3:45)

PRIVACY & MENTAL HEALTH -- More than neuroscience is shaping the field of mental health care. NPR's Frank Browning examines the demand for access to patients' mental health records by many health insurance providers, particularly managed care companies and currently, the federal government under Medicare. At this point, the federal government can demand the records of even private insurance patients in order to establish whether Medicare patients in a given practice are being treated equally. This privacy breach violates what has long been regarded as the sacrosanct relationship between patient and therapist, and affects the willingness of patients to seek treatment, since they have no guarantee that employers and data banks won't become privy to highly personal and sensitive information. It also affects their ability to get treatment since, because of Medicare rules, therapy can remain truly private only if paid for in cash to a therapist who treats only cash patients. (12:00)

NYT & CUBAN BOMBER -- NPR's Tom Gjelten reports on the allegation by a Cuban exile that last year's campaign of bombings in Cuba was financed by leaders of the most important Cuban exile organization in the United States. Luis Posada, who has been involved in military actions against Fidel Castro for decades, told the New York Times that he organized the bombings of hotels, restaurants and discos in Cuba that left an Italian tourist dead. Posada said the late head of the Cuban-American National Foundation sent him more than two hundred thousand dollars over the years. The Foundation called Posada's story "totally and patently false." (4:15)

CUBANA -- Alan Cheuse has a review of an edited collection of stories called Cubana. It's a showcase for Cuban writers, and Cheuse hopes that they find the same sort of wider public recognition as Spanish language authors Isabel Allende and Laura Esquivel. Cubana, edited by Mirta Yanez, is published by Beacon Press. (2:30)

GM TALKS BREAKDOWN -- NPR's Don Gonyea reports that talks between GM and the UAW have stalled after a weekend of intense bargaining and optimistic forecast from the nation's largest car maker. The month-old strike at two parts plants has idled 180 thousand workers. Talks are deadlocked over the issues of job security on the union's part and job productivity on GM's side. Analysts warn that the strikes could now drag on for weeks and threaten GM's market position vis-a-vis Chrysler and Ford. (4:15)

GM DEALER -- Noah talks with Alan Starling, the owner of three GM auto dealerships in Florida. He's also the Florida Director of the National Automobile Dealership Association. Starling says that the effects of the UAW strike against General Motors is beginning to be felt at the dealerships. He says that the primary effect has been a shortage of trucks and sport utility vehicles, but that cars are now also in increasingly short supply. (4:15)

GM RECALL -- NPR's Steve Inskeep reports from Washington on the announcement by General Motors that the car maker is recalling nearly a million cars because their airbags may open, even when the vehicle is NOT involved in a crash. General Motors says some airbags are inflating when a car simply hits a bump. However, on some occasions, drivers reported the bag inflated after no jolt of any kind. (3:30)

MARCHES & ARRESTS -- NPR's Michael Goldfarb reports from Belfast on today's climax of the Protestant marching season in Northern Ireland. Although the Protestant Orange Order did stage traditional parades as planned, the mood was subdued by the weekend murder of the Catholic boys whose home in Portadown was firebombed. Police have arrested two men in connection with the attack. (4:00)

CATHOLIC IN DRUMCREE -- Noah talks with Joanna Tennyson, who lives at Churchill Park in Belfast. She lives just a short way from the church at which members of the Orange Order are camping out to protest a ruling denying them the right to march down the Garvaghy Road. She talks about her years of living there, and the annual ordeal of watching the Portadown Orange Order parade through this predominantly Catholic neighborhood. She says that protesters have come from all over the Ulster counties, and that it's very disconcerting and intimidating, particularly at night as helicopters pass over the area. Illegal parades are still going on in the neighborhood, at which the Orangemen beat their drums and cause a significant commotion. Children in particular are very frightened of the possibility that the Orangemen will break through the line of the British troops who are holding the marchers at bay, and are afraid of further bombings and killings. (3:45)

SOUTHEASTERN DROUGHT -- NPR's John Nielsen reports on the worst drought in 100 years in the southeastern United States. Farmers are being hurt the most, in part because the drought was not expected. In fact, it had been thought that 1998 would be a wet year for most southeastern farmers. (4:00)

FARMING SOFTWARE -- NPR's Chris Arnold profiles software entrepreneur Gary Schneider, an MIT engineer who decided to write a computer program to help farmers make better decisions on what to plant. Schneider has run into problems, though. Many farmers think high-tech products like Schneider's are more trouble than they're worth. (4:30)

ZAPRUDER FILM GOES ON SALE -- The 26 seconds of film footage of President Kennedy's assassination, filmed on an 8mm Bell and Howell by Dallas dress manufacturer Abraham Zapruder, will be released on video to the general public tomorrow. The video will include a documentary on the digital restoration of the footage and an interview with the late Abraham Zapruder, who died in 1970. While the family owns almost all rights to the footage (except print rights, which are owned by Time, Inc.), a 1992 law apparently requires the family to hand the film over to the government and has set a deadline next month for the family and the government to come to terms. But the family wants $18 million and the government only wants to pay $3 million. Some say the marketing of the video is an attempt by the family to make some extra cash. The family lawyer says it won't pay back what the restoration cost. Some say it's tasteless. But why shouldn't the family make some money? After all, Abraham Zapruder shot the film and dealt with the aftermath of owning this artifact. NPR's Dean Olsher reports on the controversy. (3:00)

BRAWLEY LAWSUIT VERDICT -- Robert talks with NPR's Melissa Block about the verdict reached today in the defamation trial stemming from the Tawana Brawley case. Stephen Pagones sued Reverend Al Sharpton and lawyers C. Vernon Mason and Alton Maddox for their statements linking him to an alleged assault against teenager Tawana Brawley in November of 1987. Today, a jury found Sharpton and Brawley's other advisors guilty of defaming Pagones. (4:30)

EVIL -- Commentator Jim Sleeper says that the Tawana Brawley case holds valuable lessons for the legal system and for the country at large about how to deal with racism. He says that it was wrong to turn Stephen Pagones into a pariah, and wrong for Brawley's advisors to "cry wolf" over the attack. But exploiting racial guilt and using media sensationalism will never be the right way to deal with the problems of racism in this country. (3:30)