National Agenda

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton took office wanting to focus on the economy. Television had a different agenda.In the first three months of the year, the number of stories on Bosnia by the major TV networks was almost double that on Mr. Clinton's economic package, according to the Center for Media and Public Affairs, a nonprofit research group in Washington.The trend intensified after April 1, the center said, and culminated in the graphic broadcasts three weeks ago of refugees fleeing a horrific Serb attack on the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica.

WASHINGTON -- The new Republican majority in Congress is clear about its formula for putting America back on track: Cut welfare, fight crime with more police and prisons, slash taxes, gut social programs, shrink government.That formula alarms many African-American leaders and analysts, who believe it carries a troubling racial undertone because it threatens programs that disproportionately benefit blacks and members of other minority groups."I think there was an us-and-them scenario underlying this election and this agenda," said Robert T. Starks, a political scientist at Northeastern Illinois University.

CHICAGO -- The Rev Jesse L. Jackson, surrounded by representatives of national civil rights and social justice organizations, opened the annual conference of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition yesterday with the promise to weld those organizations into a force capable of "setting the agenda" for the next presidential election."

WASHINGTON -- Maybe the fiscal advisers of the Almighty should be credited with the idea. The notion of a flat tax, which according to some polls has made Steve Forbes the hot Republican candidate in the early stages of this year's presidential elections, is not new.If Mr. Forbes, who is the front-running Republican candidate according to some polls, had set the rate of his proposal at 10 percent, he could have called it the tithe -- the Church's flat tax...

WASHINGTON - The nation's largest breast cancer foundation honored Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat, with a lifetime achievement award yesterday for more than a quarter-century of work on breast cancer and women's health issues. Mikulski, who in 1992 sponsored a new initiative setting national quality standards for mammographies, accepted the award from the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation at its annual conference. The architect in 1990 of a law to provide low-income women with Pap smears and mammograms, Mikulski followed up in 2000 by helping to push through a measure that allows Medicaid to cover treatment for women with breast or cervical cancer.

Lois M. Shofer, an administrator at Essex Community College, has been approved for a second term as president of the National Association of Governors' Councils on Physical Fitness and Sports.Shofer has been a volunteer member of the Maryland Commission on Physical Fitness for the last 10 years.Upcoming on the national association's agenda is the observance of National Employee Health and Fitness Day May 15.This date will be marked locally with the mailing of information packages to local employers.

Yetso helping develop anti-cancer agenda Brock Yetso of the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults was one of 25 experts selected to travel to Austin, Texas, last week to help develop a national agenda to address cancers that affect adolescents and young adults. The National Cancer Institute, in collaboration with the Lance Armstrong Foundation, has established an Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology Progress Review Group to develop the agenda. The group will examine the National Cancer Institute's research on these cancers and identify scientific priorities and resources needed to make progress toward their management and cure.

The Johns Hopkins Health System and the Johns Hopkins University announced yesterday a reorganization and expansion of home health care services, including the addition of home care for children and the terminally ill.The new services, to include the renting of equipment such as wheelchairs and beds, allow Hopkins to benefit from a growing trend away from long hospital stays and toward a system of treating patients at home with special help.The hospital and medical school said its services would be delivered by three companies, all under a new holding company, the Johns Hopkins Home Care Group.

Washington. -- Even though it is not mentioned in the United States Constitution, there can be little doubt that constituent service by members of Congress is a valuable part of our system.This is particularly true because in this country we have a large and powerful bureaucracy which is capable of arbitrary conduct and non-responsiveness to legitimate concerns.In addition to checking into bureaucratic abuses in individual cases, members of Congress performing constituent services may learn about problems which make them better qualified to carry out their primary work of oversight and legislation.

Andy Harris hasn't made it to Congress yet, but his House career already has an expiration date. Harris pledges to leave by 2023, highlighting term limits in his campaign to unseat Democratic Rep. Frank M. Kratovil Jr. "Americans are losing their confidence in their elected officials," said the Baltimore County state senator. "I think more and more people are thinking the Constitution should be amended for term limits." With anti-government anger rising, congressional candidates across the country are running as reformers, attacking earmarks and calling for limits on House and Senate terms.