European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 31, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 14 a the stars and stripes tuesday december 31, 1991houston mayor bows out with Pride trailblazer Whitmire leaves 10-year legacy a Houston mayor Kathy Whitmire looks out of her office window. Shell be leaving her Post after 10 years on the Job. By Susan Hightower the associated press Houston a Kathy Whitmire is proudest of helping to turn Houston s Economy around during her 10 years As mayor and opening the door for other women to Lead Large cities in Texas but she also made National news when she changed her hairstyle after being compared to Hollywood s Tootsie. Whitmire s tenure ends thursday when wealthy Developer Bob Lanier takes the oath of office. After four easy re elections Whitmire 45, finished third in a three Way race last november failing to make the Runoff Between Lanier and state rep. Sylvester Turner. During her tenure Whitmire presided Over a City devastated by the Oil bust of the mid-1980s, then took credit for Houston s subsequent economic turnaround. She also appointed the City s first Black police chief and its first female police chief. Political analysts have praised her As a great administrative mayor who moved the City Forward on Public transportation and Coffi Cicil garbage collection. But during last Falls election she was criticized for failing to react to increasing crime and for her insistence in promoting a Monorail project. She was first elected mayor in 1981, a 35-year-old widow who ran As an outsider seeking to oust the a Good old  she had served two terms As City controller. While known As a business minded accountant with a technocratic touch the City a first woman mayor found her appearance and reserved personal style the Center of attention. In 1982, the 5-foot-tall Houston native who favored serious business suits with bows at the neck was named to or. Blackwell s 10-worst-dressed list. She tied with her supposed look alike Tootsie Dustin Hoffman s Cross dressing character from the hit movie who also sported big glasses and Short curly hair. Whitmire says she did t mind the comparison nor making the Wall Street journal when she changed her hairstyle in 1985. Quot i remember telling a reporter during the transition Back in �?T81 that i had been elected by the voters to do a Job for them at City Hall not to provide Public entertainment a she said laughing. Quot but i found out differently and i suppose after about four years i concluded that Public entertainment was part of my  pleads guilty in luxury car swindle Tacoma Wash. Apr one member of a family accused of swindling businessmen out of $17 million in a luxury cars scheme has pleaded guilty to Federal charges. Fllicita Morales Ortiz pleaded guilty in Federal court in Tacoma to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and to interstate transportation of Money obtained by fraud the . Attorneys office in Seattle said. Her son Carlo is scheduled to go on trial in the Case Jan 27. Her husband. Alejandro Ortiz committed suicide while in custody in Switzerland after the family s arrest in Geneva in december 1990, the . Attorneys Soltice says the Orizes bilked Seattle and Tacoma businessmen out of $5 million ostensibly for the Purchase of Mercedes and Ferrari cars at Low prices. Charges filed by the . Attorneys office describe the Orizes As orchestrating a fraud beginning in 1986, involving two in Acoma businessmen the family claimed to have close ties with chief executive officers of Daimler Benz . In Germany and of Fiat which controls Ferrari in Italy. The Orizes delivered several ferraris and Mercedes at prices Well below the Market Price the court documents state to Quot confirm the illusion of having special connections. Assistant . Attorney Kurl Hermanns said that about $7,5 million had been recovered and returned to victims of the family a ploys. Whitmire says she has t decided what to do after a Long vacation but has no plans to run again for mayor. She Hasni to decided whether to accept a teaching offer from Harvard University a Kennedy school of government. �?o1 am very interested in Public issues and i m very interested in Houston a future so i do expect to still be around and in a sure that everyone will hear my views in the future one Way or the other a she said. What she wont miss is the Media Given the possibility of regaining some of her privacy. A Well let me just say perhaps a new relationship with the press will be better a she said. Perhaps her biggest disappointment is failing to achieve Reform of the states civil service system a priority since her first term. Existing Laws a make it illegal to consider whether someone did a Good Job when it comes Down to promotions and pay raises. That s a ridiculous system and it by Boyce Rensberger the Washington Post tonight millions of americans Are planning to consume Large quantities of a substance whose molecules will quickly reach their brain cells and reprogram the electrical connections that determine How their minds work. The molecules will seek out specific channels of communication among neurons nerve cell selectively weakening the links among some cells while strengthening others. In effect the molecules will temporarily rewire the brain so that it processes information in abnormal ways. Though alcohol is a simple molecule known for thousands of years As a powerful disturber of mental function scientists Only recently have established that this is How it works. Quot we be made a lot of Progress in the last couple of years in figuring out How ethanol the Type of alcohol in Beer wine and liquor does its thing Quot said Forrest f. Weight of the National Institute on alcohol abuse and alcoholism. Using a novel technique whose inventors won a Nobel prize last year weight and his colleagues have isolated individual membrane structures called Ion channels and observed How they function in the presence of alcohol at concentrations like those that reach the brains of humans having a drink and of humans getting plastered. Needs to be changed a she said. Whitmire a past president of the . Conference of mayors also takes Pride in helping to expand the role of women in government. Quot i had other women such As former mayors Annette Strauss in Dallas and Jane Coggeshell in Galveston Tell me specifically when they were elected that my service in office had helped them to be Able to win their campaigns so i took a lot of Pride in that a she said. She brushes off criticism that she stayed in office too Long taking whatever political stand necessary to ensure her own re election. A there were always new issues. The issues changed and i Felt that my administration had to change to keep up with them Quot Whitmire said. Quot i think that a what the voters expect. They done to want to just elect somebody who is Frozen in time and can Only Deal with the issues of 1982. They expect the mayor in 1991 to Deal with the issues this year and to be looking to the , Clear he has found that the Ion channels that become altered at the lowest concentrations of alcohol Are those that play a role in the highest Levels of conscious mental activity. A alcohol is usually listed As a cons Central nervous system depressant but that s an oversimplification a weight said. A at some lower concentrations its a  at somewhat higher Levels different Ion channels thought to be involved in learning and memory become disrupted. This May explain Why people often can to remember what happened to them while under the influence. At much higher Levels of alcohol still other Ion channels a those that help maintain consciousness a become crippled. In other words if you drink enough alcohol fast enough to disrupt these Ion channels you pass out. The Ion channels of women Are More Likely to be triggered by a Given dose of alcohol than those of men. The reason is that women a stomachs done to make As much of the enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase that Breaks Down the alcohol molecule. In men about 20 percent of the alcohol consumed is destroyed in the stomach it never passes into the Small intestine from which it is absorbed into the bloodstream. The female stomach digests almost no alcohol. Given the typical difference in body size Between the sexes one drink puts about the same concentration of alcohol in the brains of women As two drinks does in men. For a functioning new keep your Ion channels