Handouts

You don't have to tell Lorraine Franchi how important the U.S. Census is. This time she doesn't want to be overlooked, as she was in the 1990 count. So yesterday, when she saw the hip and colorful Census 2000 truck in North Philadelphia, Franchi, 40, gladly accepted a bag full of census memorabilia and information. That typical response made the job a lot easier for census workers charged with motivating the masses to take the census as seriously as voting or paying routine bills.

The admonition "Do not feed the bears" has long been drilled into vacationers visiting national parks. Now at Grand Canyon National Park, there's a new mantra: Do not feed the condors. Officials at the Arizona park have taken emergency measures to keep visitors away from endangered California condors that have been seen landing in areas frequented by people. Authorities aren't happy about that - they're afraid if the big birds grow used to the contact, or, worse yet, start to rely on handouts, it will hurt their chances of survival.

The wild waterfowl of this small borough are getting a big dose of tough love: The borough has outlawed feeding the ducks and geese that have made the Paint Works lake their year-round home. "It's for their own good," said Mayor Ed G. Campbell 3d. A new ordinance, requested by the owners of the lake and passed earlier this month, is meant to discourage the well-meaning people who feed the fowl bread crumbs and other snacks in the fall - a situation that has the unfortunate effect of fooling more and more of them into thinking they should spend the winter at the lake.

State Education Secretary Eugene Hickok yesterday rejected the idea that extra money from Harrisburg would improve schools in Pennsylvania's poorest districts. Increased funding would only result in increased teacher salaries, he said. Rather than looking for handouts from the state, districts should look hard for ways to trim spending, he said. In return, Hickok said, the state would search for ways to reward schools that showed academic progress and place sanctions on those that failed to improve.

Last week, Washington's air was blue with oaths swearing an end to the Energy Department - and vowing a long, hard look at the future of its network of high-tech, high-priced national laboratories. "Like disco dancing, pet rocks and mood rings," said Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R., Kan.), the department created to respond to the 1970s energy crisis had seen its time come and go. He was not, as they say, alone. Energy's demise is at the top of the hit list for the GOP's new turks. Indeed, one charge fueling the drive against the department (and Commerce and Defense, as well)

It's early morning and I am surfing. The remote control in my hand is traveling swiftly across dozens of television channels. But the same wave is breaking on every network news show. It's Phil Gramm on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN. Ever since the Texas senator decided to run for the White House, he's been on more channels than O.J. The Gramm who faces me across the bedroom this morning is hard to take before coffee. His appearances could be used as aversion therapy for someone trying to kick politics.

They came, nearly 200 strong, wearing business suits and kente cloth, driving Mercedes-Benzes and Hyundais. They hugged and ate and collected business cards. They sang and prayed and talked about the need for change in the African American community. Then they listened as New Jersey Secretary of State Lonna Hooks told them that the way to bring about such change - especially now that the political tides have turned - was to re-establish a black presence in the Republican Party.

For the first time in almost 30 years, and at the behest of President Clinton, Latin American and Caribbean heads of state (except Fidel Castro of Cuba) are meeting this weekend in Miami with their North American counterparts. Inter-American relations have undergone a sea change in these three decades, especially in the post-Cold War years. Thirty years ago, security considerations prevailed in the way the United States interacted with its southern neighbors. Today, economic considerations top the list.

The young man with stringy blond hair sits slouched on the sidewalk on 16th Street, holding a paper cup with a dollar bill and few coins inside. "Got any change?" he asks a passer-by, doing what he's done for the last four years in Center City. A stranger asks if it's any tougher to get handouts these days. "Yeah, man," he says. "Since about a year ago, when them posters and all went up. " The man is evidence, however unscientific, that a coordinated campaign to discourage panhandling and clear the homeless from Center City sidewalks has had some effect.

HARD WORK, NOT HANDOUTS, IS KEY TO SUCCESS - IT'S NOT A RACIAL ISSUE The woman who wrote the letter, "Whites have it all" (April 19), wanted to know why blacks shouldn't feel free to accept handouts. Why would you want something handed to you that you didn't deserve? Wouldn't the satisfaction of knowing you worked for what you had outweigh the means it took to get there? I guess to her it wouldn't! She also noted that black people do not own businesses. Through whose fault?