BRIEFS

INTERNATIONAL

Russian politician steps down as head of parliamentary

Associated Press
MOSCOW - Former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov announced yesterday that he was stepping down from his post as leader of a parliamentary faction, but didn't say why or where he was going.

Primakov, who served as prime minister from September 1998 to May 1999 and was once considered likely to succeed Boris Yeltsin as Russian president, headed the centrist party Fatherland's faction in the State Duma, or lower house of parliament. He said he was stepping down as leader, but would continue to sit with the party in the Duma.

"This does not mean I'm leaving big politics," he told reporters.

Primakov, an Arab affairs expert and a former foreign minister and foreign intelligence chief, has been acting as an informal Kremlin adviser and envoy in recent months. In June, he traveled to the Middle East on what he called a fact-finding mission and delivered a message from President Vladimir Putin to the governments of Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.

Some observers said that role might be formalized now.

"Primakov is more comfortable representing the interests of the country than the interests of a small group of deputies," said Sergei Markov, head of the Moscow-based Institute of Political Studies.

Fatherland emerged as a powerful opposition bloc in 1999, but was overshadowed by Putin's rise to Kremlin heights. Putin, who was appointed prime minister that year, quickly became the most popular politician in the country, and Primakov opted not to run against him for president in 2000.

Since Putin's election, Fatherland has supported Kremlin-sponsored initiatives in the Duma. Its main branch outside parliament, headed by Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, recently concluded a formal alliance with the pro-Putin Unity party.

"Primakov doesn't want to fight with presidential administration, but he doesn't want to lead a puppet faction either," said Vladimir Pribylovsky, head of the Panorama think tank.

A deputy head of the faction, Vyacheslav Volodin, was chosen as Primakov's replacement yesterday.

Wisconsin researchers develop first human blood cells

Associated Press
WASHINGTON - For the first time, researchers have used embryonic stem cells to produce human blood cells, a step that could lead to a new source of cells for transfusion and other therapies.

Primitive human blood cells, known as hematopoietic precursor cells, were produced from human embryonic stem cells by researchers at the University of Wisconsin, led by James A. Thomson.

Similar work has been done in mice, but this is the first time human blood cells have been developed from embryonic stem cells, said Dan S. Kaufman, one of the authors of the study appearing in today's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Embryonic stem cells are the basic building blocks for the 260 or so cell types in the body. During development, stem cells transform into heart, muscle, brain, skin or other tissue.

Researchers hope that by guiding this transformation in the laboratory, they can coax stem cells to make new cells that could be used to treat diabetes, Parkinson's disease, heart disease or other disorders.

While development of these cells holds promise for the future, Kaufman stressed that it will take years before they can be developed to the point of use in people. "I don't want to raise any false hope," he said

In addition, embryonic stem cells have become the focus of debate because they are derived from blastocysts, one of the earliest stages of human embryos before they become implanted. Opponents of the research argue that it destroys a human life.

President Bush has ordered that federal funds be made available only for research on cell lines that were in existence on Aug. 9, restricting the establishment of new lines.

STATES

Former homeless man wins McDonald's random drawing

Associated Press
HOLLY HILL, Fla. - A former homeless day laborer had a happy meal at a McDonald's over the weekend.

McDonald's corporate managers awarded Patrick Collier with a $1 million prize they said was randomly given out as part of the restaurant chain's effort to restore consumer confidence in its sweepstakes promotions.

Managers approached Collier, 35, and his fiancˇe, 29-year-old Sandi Fabian, as they sat down just after 10 a.m. on Saturday to have breakfast. "I thought I had done something wrong, but I was confused when they handed me this certificate telling me I had won a million dollars," Collier said.

Collier and Fabian had been frequenting the restaurant for about six weeks and lived across the street in a hotel room they shared with Collier's mother. Just months ago, they were homeless, sleeping on cardboard boxes and earning $50 a day as laborers when they could find work.

McDonald's said the restaurant in Holly Hill, about five miles north of Daytona Beach, was one of five selected at random to distribute five $1 million grand prizes. Fifty people will also be given $100,000 awards during the giveaway.

McDonald's announced the promotion in the wake of an FBI investigation last month, which found that an employee of a marketing company contracted to run McDonald's Monopoly game allegedly stole more than $13 million in winnings.

Nancy Izquierdo, a McDonald's spokeswoman, said team members choose someone to receive the prize without any criteria. "It's just a matter of being in the right place at the right time," she said Sunday.

Collier said he already has super-sized plans for the money. "I'm getting a Harley," Collier said, "and a couple of houses."

"And one for me. He always said he'd buy me a house," added his mother, Judy LaBounty.

LOCAL

State ranks low for pay, but there's promise

Associated Press
PHOENIX - Arizona has kept pace with the nation in personal income growth, even though it outpaced most of the country in job creation during the past decade. Arizona remains 37th in the nation in average wages, according to figures by the federal government. A third of the state's working families lack sufficient income to cover all their basic needs, according to the Economic Policy Institute. The nonprofit think tank ranks Arizona as having the 10th-worst poverty among the 50 states. Still, experts say a lower-than-average cost of living helps stretch the dollar a bit further. New research also indicates that Arizona is gaining more high-paying jobs. One major factor why Arizona lags behind in pay is the state's relative youth, said Tracy Clark, an Arizona State University economist. "Our population tends to be younger than the nation's average," Clark said. "Everybody has this image of Arizona being a mecca for retired people. But the median (age) is lower. The younger you are, the less you tend to be paid." Arizona's median age is 34.2 years, compared to the United States' 35.3 years, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Some observers say wages are kept down by Arizona's "right-to-work" law, which allows individual workers to decide whether they want to join a union rather than making it mandatory. Figures from September 2000 show wages for unionized industries in the Phoenix-Mesa metro area averaged $17.75 an hour, compared to $15.04 for unorganized workers. Clark said Arizona's standard of living is better than others places with higher incomes. "In other areas, you have people making two- and four-hour commutes,'' Clark said. "Excuse me, but that shoots the quality of life to hell." Metro Phoenix's cost of living ranks slightly lower than the national average at 97.7 percent, compared to the rest of Arizona at 92.7 percent, said Elliott D. Pollack, a Scottsdale economist and developer who tracks employment. He said his research disputes the notion that the area continues to be flooded by jobs that pay lower than average. Nationally, high-wage sectors, those where the average job brings in $40,000 annually or more, grew 2.3 percent nationally between 1989 and 1999, according to the most recent data available. In Arizona, these high-paying sectors, including manufacturing, finance, insurance and real estate, accounted for 15.8 percent of all new jobs. "We got more of the high-wage growth jobs, and we have received our fair share of the low-wage jobs," he said.