European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 16, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday november 18, 1993 . The stars and stripes Page 5 puerto Rico narrowly rejects. I i. M san Juan puerto Rico Flag waving puerto Picans voted against pursuing statehood choosing instead to remain a . Commonwealth in the first ballot on the Island s status in More than a Quarter Century. Sunday s vote turned Back the Strong est movement this Century for full Union with Washington. Gov. Pedro Rossello who spearheaded the Campaign for puerto Rico to become America s Slot state conceded defeat but urged supporters to continue the cause. Commonwealth supporters danced in the streets and said they would press for a redefinition of the Island s ties with the United states. Although the margin of Victory for Commonwealth status was less than 3 percentage Points this was a Clear repudiation of statehood said Miguel Hernandez Agosto a senator who leads the pro Commonwealth popular democratic it is a vote against assimilation and in favor of All that we puerto Picans love and value. Commonwealth received 823,258, or 48.4 percent of the vote statehood 785,859, or 46.2 percent and Independence 75,253, or 4.4 percent. Turnout was higher than predicted with 73.6 percent of puerto Rico s 2.3 million registered voters casting ballots. It was the first vote on the Island s status in 26 years. Commonwealth celebrants jammed traffic honking horns waving puerto rican flags and tooting trumpets. Ethnic Pride and economic concerns puerto rican gov. Pedro Rossello drops his ballot into the Box at a school in Guaynabo on sunday during the Caribbean Island s vote on its political future. Were among the main issues in the non binding referendum. Commonwealth supporters contended the Island s culture and Spanish language might be lost and said becoming a state would mean puerto Picans would have to pay Federal taxes. The Island also would no longer have been Able to offer the tax break that at tracts Industry and has helped give it one of the highest standards of living in the Caribbean and latin America though still Well below that of the poorest . States. Statehood supporters said it would bring billions of additional dollars in fed eral Aid and played to puerto Picans fears by saying their . Citizenship might be lost if they stayed a common wealth. Political status has been hotly debated in puerto Rico almost since the . Troops captured the Caribbean is land from Spain in 1898. The interest in the Issue was reflected in a High voter turnout despite heavy rain. Celeste Benitez Campaign director of the popular democratic party credited a party Campaign of calling 20,000 support ers a Day to bring out the Commonwealth vote. Sunday s results May stall the recent momentum toward statehood which had the support of former presidents Reagan Bush and Ford. The vote was called by Rossello after his election last year. Puerto Rico became a Commonwealth with some autonomy in 1952, two years after puerto rican nationalists tried to assassinate president Truman. Xxx the vote then was 80 percent for Commonwealth and 12 percent for statehood. The Commonwealth support fell to 60 percent in the last plebiscite in 1967, and statehood increased to 39 percent. Rossello characterized the narrowness of the loss As an indication that his move ment is gaining. The vote he said came closer to the truth than Ever  Ruben Berrios of the Small Independence party took the opposite View say ing that statehood support had Bee growing steadily and we have stopped that tendency  the race was closely watched by District of Columbia residents also in Lin for statehood As Well As the . Main land s 22 million hispanics 2.6 million of them puerto rican. As a Commonwealth puerto Rico elects a nonvoting representative to Congress and has no vote for president. Statehood would have allowed it to elect at least six representatives As Well As two senators. Graduate test moves from paper to by the Washington Post the biggest change in standardized academic tests since their introduction More than 50 years ago was announced monday a new computer approach that could make Pencil and paper tests obsolete. Currently More than 400,000 students applying to graduate schools sit in Large groups to take the Grad uate record examination which is offered five times a year. But beginning monday students could sit at com Puter terminals instead and take the tests in Small groups almost any Day. Other major exams including the Scholastic aptitude test taken by College bound High school students Are expected to follow suit. At $93, the computerized version is almost twice the $48 fee for the paper test but the results Are available the instant the exam is done. More important according to the educational test ing service the new Jersey based company that de signs and administers the exam the new Gre will pro vide a better measure of a student s ability. When a question is answered correctly a tougher one appears on the screen. An incorrect answer brings up an easier question. The goal is to quickly Zero in Ona student s highest ability level and direct most of the questions there in the Hopes of measuring it More precisely. It is hard to imagine that in the next decade mos testing will not be done this Way said Nancy s. Cole president elect of the educational testing service. It snot just that the test is glitzy Chic and computerized it s that the assessment is going to represent them  the Best students will finish the computer test Muchmore quickly than the 3v4-hour paper test because they won t Nave to bother with easy questions. Right answers to difficult questions earn higher scores. The same grading scale of 200 to 800 Points will be used. Two weeks ago teachers discarded their no. 2 pencils and began taking their licensing exams on computer. In april the nursing licensing exam hits the com Puter age too. Because 1.8 million High school student stake the sat each year logistical problems of accommodating so Many students in Small groups for that test still must be worked out. The Pencil and paper version of the Gre is expected to be phased out by 1997. . Campaign aides must face democratic query on Black vote Newark . A a Federal judge monday ordered  Christie Whitman s Campaign Man Ager Edward j. Rollins jr., and two other Campaign directors to submit to questioning under oath by demo cratic party officials. The democratic National and state committees sough the order after Rollins described a $500,000 Republican Effort to suppress the Urban Black vote during the gubernatorial election. Whitman denies it happened. Lawyers for the Republican state committee an people for Whitman initially opposed the request say ing they already were cooperating with Federal an state probes. Others looking into the matter include the . Attorney in Newark the Fri and the state. When . District judge Dickinson Debevoise said he was going to Issue the order the gop lawyers said their clients would cooperate As did a lawyer for Rollins. Debevoise refused to Grant the democrats request to link the matter with a previous Case he handled concerning Republican tactics to intimidate voters in the 1981 gubernatorial election. The order will become part of the lawsuit the democrats filed Friday to invalidate the nov. 2 election. In addition to Rollins the democrats will be Able to question Whitman s brother and Campaign adviser Webster Todd and John Carbone an attorney who worked for the Republican state committee. On nov. 2, Whitman beat democratic gov. Jim Florio by 26,600 votes the second smallest Victory in state history. Rollins told reporters nov. 9 in Washington that re publicans had paid Black ministers not to encourage peo ple to vote and democratic workers to stay at Home on election Day. Rollins retracted his remarks a Day later. Rollins remarks sent Whitman on a Fence mending Mission to the Black Community sunday. At two Black churches Whitman and her husband John listened As ministers told their flocks How much anguish her Campaign manager created with statements that Money was Given to Black ministers. The heart and soul of the african american Community is the african american Church the Rev. Reginald t. Jackson told about 300 worshippers sunday att. Matthew african methodist episcopal Church in Orange. This last week has seen much pain and suffering inflicted on the african american deity and comm  73 cubans granted Asylum after plane reaches Florida opa Locka Fla. A a Small plan loaded with 13 people fled Cuba on monday and landed in the United states. After it was detected by radar the biplane believed to be a crop duster was intercepted by . Customs service plane and escorted to the Airport in the Miami suburb of opa Locka said customs spokesman Tom Bowers. The cubans were interviewed by immigration officials and then received political Asylum said Mario Miranda a cuban american National foundation official. Nearly 3,000 cubans have fled the Caribbean Island this year amid widespread shortages brought on by the economic crisis facing Fidel Castro after three decades of communist Rule. During the past two years three cuban air Force pilots seeking Asylum have flown their rus Sian built Mig Jet fighters to . Soil. In de Cember 1992, a cuban Pilot flew his Airliner with 53 people aboard to Miami. Meanwhile about 40 people thought to be haitians swam ashore on key Biscayne and near by Virginia key Early monday then were detained