NYT,10-16,,,A,1-4C.1 (1)

NxA01xxx By JASON DePARLE GREENVILLE, Miss. — While President Clinton has flatly de- clared ‘‘the debate is over — we know now that welfare reform works,’’ the hard-luck counties of the Mississ ippi Delta show the difficulties that can emerge when tough laws collide with a weak economy. The welfare rolls have falle n sha rpl y acr oss thi s 200 -mi le stretch of cotton fields and catfish farms, as they have in most of the country. But with unemployment rates hover ing at 10 percent or more, many of those leaving the rolls are failing to find jobs. In- deed, during one recent period , the families dropped for violating the new work rules outnumbered those placed in jobs by a margin of nearly two to one. And the penalties in Mississippi are the natio n’s toughest. Those whomiss appoi ntment s or decli ne work assignments surrender not only their entire cash grant, but all their family’s food stamps and the medical insurance of adults. Across the Delt a, mothe rs dropp ed from the welfa re rolls are now turning to relatives, boy- fri ends or other Fed era l pro- grams — most notably disability payments — or traveling long dis- tances in search of work. Maggie Miller lost her benefits andmove d inwithhersiste r,rais - ing the number of children in the two-bedroom house to 15.Patricia Watson worked a day at a distant catfish-processing plant but quit after returning home to discover that her baby-sitter could not find her 6-year-old daughter. Cur ley Barro n thr ew up her hands and returned her niece and nephew to foster care. Busy car- ing for her ailing mot her , she refus ed to join a work progra m and therefore lost the $435 in cash and food stamp s she was receiv- ing for the children’ s month ly support. It was scenarios like these in places like this that critics of last year’s landmark law feared. The landmark measure ended a 61- year-old guarantee of Federal aid and transfer red money and au- thori ty to the states. While some state s might make good use of their autonomy , the criti cs said, said, others would prove unwill- ing or unabl e to construct safety nets of their own. Mindful of this state’s many last-place rankings on socio econo mic scale s, they summarize d their fears with a frequ ent refrain: ‘‘Wha t about Mississippi?’’ The same coul d be asked of other states, particu larly in the South, that combine high poverty rates with low spending. But the poverty here has historically run highest, and the spending levels lowest. Mississippi’s Republican Governor, Kirk Fordice, is known for the veh emence of his anti- govern men t views. And wit h black familie s makin g up more than 80 perce nt of the caseload , the welfare reductions inevitably remind critics of the state’s diffi- cult racial past. For all its uniqu e regional fea- By SETH SCHIES EL Adding yet another combatant to the richest corporate takeover battle in American history, the GTE Corpo- ration, the nation’s third-largest local telephone company, made an un- solic ited offer yester day to acquire the MCI Communica tions Corp ora- tion, the nation’s No. 2 long-distance carrier, for $28 billion. GTE’s all-cash bid came two weeks after Worldco m Inc., an up- start telecommunications provider, offered $30 billion in stock for MCI. That proposal was also unsolicit ed, and like GTE’s offer is meant to overt ake a previ ous agreement by MCI to be acquired by Brit ish Tele- communications P.L.C. for about $19 billion in cash and stock. MCI did not comment, other than to say that its board, whic h was alrea dy study ing the Worl dcom offer, planned to meet again soon to weigh its options. But no matter how MCI chooses to respond to these or any subsequent offers or counteroffers, the flock of suitors signifies the telecommunications indus try’s relen tless imper a- tive to consolidate. Deregulation, the upsurge in wireless communications and the Internet’s soaring popularity are now compelling telecommunications companies of all sorts and sizes to reach out for partn ers that can help them offer every conceivabl e communications service under a sin- gle brand name. ‘‘The key produ ct strat egy going for war d forus isa bundled ser vice — local , long- dista nce, data, intern a- tional, wireless, paging,’’ Charles R. Lee , GTE’s chairman , said in an interview after announcing his company’s offer for MCI. ‘‘The ability to bundle is absolutely essential to our ability to succeed going forward.’’ Companies able to assemble such a lineup of services seek not only the rewards of rich revenues but also the considerable cost savings that would come from opera ting full- servi ce networks. ‘‘We’re going from customers taking multiple services from multiple vendors to taking multiple services from one vendo r,’’ said Eric Stru- mingher, a telecommunications ana- lyst at Paine Webber. ‘‘The idea for the companies is to get in now while By MATTHEW L. WALD WASHI NGT ON, Oct . 15 — Air - borne dust from a ceiling renovation project in a Long Island air traffic contro l center forced dozens of con- trollers to aband on their work sta- tions for almost 10 hours today, set- ting off casca ding delays that dis- rupted air travel around the country. The Federal Aviation Administra- tion, concerne d both about emplo y- ees’ health and the possibil ity that the unidentified particles might dis- able a controller at his console, rotat- ed a skelet on cre w of contro llers through the radar control center in brief shifts. The cen ter handles planes for New York City’s three major airports. Disruptions were greatest at New- arkInternatio nal Airp ort,where officials said 150 flights were canceled and arr ival del ays reached five hours. The problems were compara- bleto thosecause d bya maj orstorm, one airline official said. Many planes bound for the New Yor k area were hel d onthe gro undat airports around the country for up to thr eehours , sothatinboundplanes in flight could be separated by 30 miles instead of the usual 5. That precau- tion was meant to insure that the few contro llers still on the job, mostl y supervisors, could handle the traffic safely. F.A.A. officials in Washington said this evening that they had received preliminary reports that twice during the disruption, small planes had flown closer to each other than the rules allow because of mistakes by a WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 — Attor - ney General Janet Reno withstoo d eight hours of oft en ant agonistic questi oning today by Repub lican lawmakers, rebuffing their assault by saying that she had not uncovered enough evidence to step aside to let an indepe ndent prose cutor pursue Democr ati c campai gn finance abuses. At varying times, in her appear- ance bef ore the House Judici ary Committee, Ms. Reno seemed com- bative, stoic and conciliatory as she steadf astly refused to expla in the detail s of the Justi ce Depar tment’s inves tigati on into some aspec ts of the re-election efforts for President Clinton. But she tried to assure high- ly skeptical Republicans of her ability to conduct the inquiry impartially. Representative Henry J. Hyde, the Illino is Republican who heads the committee, got nowhere in pressing her about progress in the Justic e Department investigation. ‘‘Ms. Reno,’’ he asked, ‘‘you have a grand jury impaneled. Could you tell us what they’re looking at? What is the purpose?’’ Ms. Reno said she could not. ‘‘I cannot discuss an investigation generally in terms of steps that we’re taking,’’ she said, ‘‘and partic- ularly with respect to a grand jury.’’ ‘‘Well,’’ Mr. Hyde persisted, ‘‘may I ask you this? In the course of the grand jury’s functioni ng, have you subpoenaed any documents or tapes or records or memos from the White House?’’ Ms. Reno fired back, ‘‘I am again told that I am limited in what I can say with respect to a gra nd jury subpoena and what it seeks and the methods that we have taken to en- WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 — In the next few weeks the Clinton Adminis- tration will face the first test of its willingness to make good on a threat to punish foreign companies that in- vest in Iran. But the State Depar tment is not exa ctl y lea ping at the chance to teach a less on to Russ ia’s premier private company, Gazprom, for a $2 billion deal with French and Malay- sian companies to pump natural gas off the Iranian coast. Inste ad, offici als are disco verin g anew that imposing sanctions on foreign companies that defy American policy — in this case by doing business with a countr y that support s terr orism — rais es numer ous un- foreseeable problems. The issue is not whether Washing- ton can stop the investmen t in Iran. That is clearly beyond its reach. In- stead, it is whether Gazprom should be allowed to raise $1 billion in world fin ancial mar ket s, including the United States, next month — money that will go right into the company’s cof fer s jus t asit ispreparingtowrite the Iranians a fat check. But stopping that deal threatens to unrav el delic ate negoti ations with Euro pean allies over United States sanct ions policy, and to inter fere with Washington’s efforts to stabilize therickety Russ ianeconomy.And, to mer co-chairman is Treasury Secre- tary Robert E. Rubin, is underwrit- ing the Gazprom bond offering. The company fought long and hard to get Gazprom’s business, and many Eu- ropea n investment houses would dance with glee if Washington were to get in Goldman’s way. Even Stuart Eizenstat, the Under- secretary of State for economic af- fairs , concedes that if the United States tried to aim at Iran, the bullet would ricochet everywhere. ‘‘Thisisa mat terwhic h hasimpo r- tant implica tions for our polic y to deter Iran from acquiring weapons of mass destruction and supporting terro rism,’’ he said today. But it quickly becomes enmeshed, he add- ed, in ‘‘our broader relationship with our European allies, the Russ ian Government and the Government of Malaysia,’’ to say nothing of the im- pact on Wall Street. The origins of VOL.CXL VII . . . No. 50,947 Copyright © 1997 The New York Times NEW YORK, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1997 $1 beyond the greater New York metropolitan area. 60 CENTS Late Edition New York: Today, partly sunny, cool. High 62. Tonight, mainly clear, chilly. Low 50 Tomorrow, more suns hine than clouds, cool. High 59. Yesterday, high 64, low 52. Detail s , page B7. Airborne Dust In Radar Center Disrupts Travel On Russ ian- Iranian Oi l De al , U.S. Sanctions May Bac kf ire By DAVID E. SANGER GTE JOINS BIDDING FOR MCI, OFFERING $28 BILLION IN CASH RICHEST COMPANY BATTLE Worldcom Deal for $30 Billion Is Still Highest, but That Would Be All in Stock Welfare Law Weighs Heavy In Delta, Where Jobs Are Few The New York Times In Mississippi’s Delta counties, welf are chang es have heig ht- ened despair among the poor. WHATABOUT MISSISSIPPI? A spec ialreport. Vicksburg Mississippi Delta M I S S I S S I P P I Greenville Jackson Cars A SPECIAL SECTION Continued on Page B5 War ningGiven on Ta nker s The gas tanker explosion that closed the thruway in New York appears to have been caused by a pro blem INSIDE Reno Confronts Rep ublicans On Demands for Pr osec ut or By DAVID JOHNSTON Continued on Page D21 Continued on Page A24 Continued on Page A6 ’97 BASEBALL PLAYOFFS G. Paul Burnett/The New York Times 11 Innings Later, Cleveland Wins Right to Face Florida in Series Tony Fernandez’s home r in the 11th inning yesterday gave Cle veland a 1-0 victory over the Balti more Orioles, sending the Indians to the World Series against the Florida Marlins. SportsThursday, page C1. Baseball’s owners voted to move an unidentified team from the American League to the National. Page C1. Continued on Page A26 PUB: NYT PUBDATE:1997-1 0-16 SEC:A PAGE:1 OUTPUT:Thu Oct 16 14:4 5:33 1997 JOB:57086722 · NOTES:

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NYT,10-16,,,A,1-4C.1 (1)