DEBATING ‘FRANKENFOOD’: Genetically engineered fruits and vegetables, nicknamed Frankenfood, are lauded by some for their herbicide-resistant qualities but feared by others because of what potential harm they might pose for humans and the environment. When covering the debate between consumer groups and the agricultural industry, the San Francisco Examiner turned to UW Professor of Technical Communication Philip Bereano. A regular contributor to GeneWatch, a publication of the Council for Responsible Genetics, Bereano was quoted as saying, “People have a right to know what they’re buying in a transaction. . . . If there’s a lot of uncertainty, the prudent course of action is to assess the product before sending it out for mass consumption. The burden of proof should rest on the proponent of the new technology.” (http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/archive/1999/07/11/NEWS13146.dtl)

HEART ATTACK TREATMENT: Media outlets around the country, including The New York Times, took notice when UW researchers reported that angioplasty is a better treatment than clot-dissolving drugs for elderly heart attack patients. In a Times article, Professor of Medicine Nathan R. Every, one of the researchers, is quoted, saying, “More attention needs to be paid to treating elderly Americans with these life-saving techniques.” The complete results of the study were reported the July 28, 1999, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

RETHINKING THE SCHOOL BOARD: A Wall Street Journal article exploring the rise of charter schools and school vouchers and the changing role of school boards included a theory on school governance being developed by Paul Hill, UW professor of public affairs. He proposes that school boards award contracts to education providers with the stipulation that the contract would be withdrawn if academic performance or student enrollment declined to unacceptable levels. Hill is heading a study of this concept for the Education Commission of the States, a group that tracks and examines school issues for governors.

STRAIGHTENING OUT MALE LOVE: C. Stephen Jaeger, professor of Germanics and comparative literature, was the subject of a Q&A in The Chronicle of Higher Education. The article discussed nonhomosexual public declarations of love between men in the 11^th century, as explored in Jaeger’s new book, Ennobling Love: In Search of a Lost Sensibility (University of Pennsylvania Press). “For straight men,” explained Jaeger, “the language of love was an opportunity to show the mastery of passion. The gesture removed the relationship from any sexual interpretation.”

Newsmakers is a periodic column reporting on coverage of the University of Washington by the national press and broadcasting services. Most links to Web sites containing the original articles summarized here could not be provided because access is not free or is limited to subscribers only. ¶