European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 7, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 6 the stars and stripes tuesday. April 7.1987 new Book offers numbers of ways to compare states Washington up North Dakota has More registered motor vehicles than people. America s most profitable farms Are in Rhode Island. Florida s crime rate is triple that of Weil Virginia s. The american urge to compare one state to another got a bit of fuel monday with the Commerce depart ment s release of the latest edition of the statistical abstract of the United states. The 960-Page Book includes More than 1,500 tables and graphic charts to size up the country from its population 241.5 million in 1986 to the latest estimate of the Cost of fighting the War of 1812,1250 million St ofloj5. About 100 tables Are new the census Bureau said including reports that americans donated an average 1470 each to religious charities in 1984 and thai 7 percent of All Homes had a burglar alarm in 1984. Other reports making their debut touch on computer use in Public libraries teacher candidate shortages Union membership and cancer survival rates. Those new studies Are in addition to 60 perennially published tables ranking the states by population size and other factors. For example new Mexico has the most Highway Accident deaths per 100,000 residents at 40.6, while connect Cut comes in Spotti at 111 deaths per 100,000 residents. Minnem tons Are the nation s most conscientious voters with 68.4 percent of them cutting ballots for the presidential race in 1984. South carolinians Are the worst with a 40.6 percent voting rate. Florida took the no i spot for an average of 7,574 crimes committed per 100,000 residents in 1986. West Virginia came in last with 2,213 crimes per 100,000 residents. Maryland lopped All so Stales with 29s physicians per 100,000 residents while Idaho ranked last with 112 per 100,000 citizens in 1983. Of every 1,000 mississippians nearly 188 got food Stamps in 1985, More than any other state. Ver mongers received the least number of food Stamps 26", 1 per 1,000 residents North Dakota is the Only state in the Union with More autos than people 1,039.5 registrations per 1,000 citizens new York comes in 50th at 502.3 registrations per 1,000 Empire stale residents. Hawaiians live longest averaging 77.02 years louisianans had the shortest average lifespan at 71,74, according to a 1979-81 study. The most profitable american farms on average Are in Rhode Island where farm income was 125.8 percent larger than farm debt in 1985. Montana s farms had the wont performance that year with aver age income running 7.5 percent below debt. The rankings include figures for the District of co Lumbia but do not compare it with other states. A separate Section Cavers data for . Territories in the Pacific and in puerto Rico officials withheld pow reports from Reagan congressmen claim Washington up Pentagon and National Security Council officials have failed to Forward in East Bob Smith r-n.h., said the practice is continuing even though Smith advised Reagan last year he was not receiving important evidence on possible Ameri can captives. The defense intelligence Agency Dia just automatically tries to refute refugee reports said Row land who has reviewed classified reports chive americans and received Dia briefings on the subject. It s part of a pattern of poor management at the while House Smith said m a separate interview. Csc officials have fell the president did t need to know important  the Csc monitors Dia analyses of refugee reports and advises the president an the findings. The United Stales has made Resolution of the pow Issue a key condition for improvement of relations with Vietnam. Pentagon spokesman Keith Schneider acknowledged past problems with Dia analysis of pow reports nut he said that increased staffing and computer capability arc producing a More comprehensive evaluation of  but he said any suggestion that evidence is being withheld from the president is totally without foundation and categorically  an Csc spokesman did not respond to severe re quests for comment. Smith Rowland and some other Republican con Gressmen say credible refugee reports suggest at least a Lew dozen american pos Are still Odd captive in Vietnam and Laos the administration says that although it has no proof any american pos Are alive it fully investigates every report the Dia continues to investigate 153 unresolved firsthand reports out of 938 received since 1975, Schneider said. A Pentagon task Force found in october that administration officials were not covering up evidence of american pos but were doing a poor Job of Analuz ing evidence and reporting ii to superiors. The task Force reported a Strong possibility hat americans Are being held captive in Southeast Asia. Smith and Farmer Republican congressman William Hendon who lost his North Carolina seat last fall said they told Reagan at an Oval office meeting in january i9s6 that Csc and Dia officials were not presenting him with Complete information about american pos. Monkeys apparently transmit rare ailment to Navy lab workers Pensacola Fla. A two animal handlers at a Navy research Laboratory Are fighting for their lives one cittern in a coma after catching what is suspected of being a rare Monkey brain disease almost always fatal in humans. The men arc believed to be suffering from a form of Beningo encephalitis or brain inflammation referred to As herpes a virus or Simian b disease said cmdr. Jim Brady executive officer at the naval aerospace medical research Laboratory Al the Pensacola Nas. The men both hospitalized last weekend Are being treated with acyclovir a drug that cures herpes simplex in infants but is untested on the disease they Are believed to have Brady said. Medical experts Are unsure whether the drug is working because there has been Little experience with the suspected disease he added. Only 23 cases have been reported since the disease was discovered in the 1930s, the lust one 13 years ago he said. Only four or five victims recovered. We be got same of the Best medical minds in he country trying to help these Guys Brady said. The fact they re holding their own might mean they re either to very Strong men or he treatment is having an  the men were identified As Steve Woodson 38, and Larry d. Smith 31. A source who spoke on condition of anonymity told the Pensacola news journal thai Woodson went into a coma shortly after being admitted to suburban Gulf Breeze Hospital. Smith has been lapsing in and out of consciousness although Alan when conscious at pc Sapolu Baptist Hospital he source said. There s no pattern Brady said. We Don t know if it s worse in one Man than inc other or if it s in an earlier St go in one Guy than another or if it s two different presentations of the same  Woodson was bitten by a Young Rhesus Monkey about a month ago and Smith was scratched by an animal but officials Are not sure thai it was inc same one. The Navy lab uses the monkeys 10 Tecsi anti to lion sickness drugs. Stateside Birmingham Junior league accepts i St Black member Birmingham Ala. Athe Junior league of Birmingham has accepted inc first by act member in fun 61-year  move the president called a natural thing for the women s service group. The 30-Membcr Board of directors voted unanimously last month to accept Luria Lowe Jordan into membership said Susan Haskell president of the 1,400-Mcmber organization. Jordan 29, an auditing analyst was one of 67 new members admitted some people might think it s a Long Lime in coming others May think it happened too soon Haskell said. But really it was a natural thing to have happen at this  evacuated families fearful after returning to Homes Gillette who. A most families evacuated after buildups of toxic Gas were Dis covered have returned to their Homes but some residents say they Are still worried. My kids Are wanting to move said Diane Savage. Some of her even children have had nightmares since investigators began testing the soil around their subdivision Forgat she said. In february the presence of methane inside some Homes and Hydrogen sulfite Between two House prompted Campbell county officials to order evacuations of 31 of the neighbourhood s 215 families. About two weeks ago the county decided that All but seven families could return. Mormon Leader ends meeting saying belief makes truth Salt Lake City up the president of the mormon Church ended the Church s 157lh annual general conference by declaring the Book of mormon to be authentic and denying that the Church is under any obligation to prove that claim. We Are not required to prove that the Book of mormon is True or is an authentic record through external evidence though there arc Many 87 year old Ezra Tail Benson said sunday. It never has been the Case nor is it so now that the studies of the Learned will prove the Book of mormon True or false. The origin preparation translation and verification of he truth of the Book of mormon have All been retained in the hands of the lord. The lord makes no mis takes said Benson. Italian painting exhibit opens at . Museum new York up the most important exhibition of italian old master paintings to be shown in the United slates in 40 years has opened at the metropolitan museum with the weighty title the age of Correggio and the car acct Emilian painting of the 16th and 17th  the show will return to Bologna where in originated on May 24. It already has been seen at the National gallery in Washington where twas eclipsed by the flashier show of treasures of turkish Sultan Suleiman the magnificent. 2 killed 4 Hurt in blast at duplex in Miami Miami a a military Type bomb exploded at a duplex sunday killing two teen agers and injuring at least four other people officials said. Fire officials initially reported that a liquid Petroleum Gas Lank had blown up but police investigators later found fragments of a military Type Shell in the rubble said Miami police spokeswoman Cori Zywotow. We Don t know How it got there or who put it there Zywotow said but she noted that the two teen agers who were killed 14-year-old Martin Samson and 16-Ycur-old David Guerrero were members of the Junior Reserve officer training corps at their High school. Guerrero lived in the duplex which sustained major damage about a dozen other people were in std during the explosion shortly after 3 p.m., but no one was seriously injured said Zywotow