News Briefs

December 15, 1995
Web posted at: 1:30 p.m. EST

Baboon bone marrow recipient 'feeling great'

SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- An AIDS patient who received a transplant of living cells from a baboon was in good condition Friday, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

"I'm feeling great," Jeff Getty was quoted as saying as he drank a cup of French roast coffee. In a historic operation, doctors transplanted bone marrow from a baboon into the 38- year-old Oakland man. The procedure was an experimental treatment to determine if the marrow will save his life or kill him.

It may be months before doctors know if the treatment worked. Baboons are resistant to HIV and doctors hope the cells will help restore Getty's natural immune system.

"This is not a cure. There's no way that this particular approach will eliminate HIV from the patient's body," Dr. Steven Deeks of San Francisco General Hospital said Thursday.

But Getty, who underwent a radiation treatment that virtually assures his immune system was destroyed before the transplant, was upbeat Thursday.

"I know that there's risk but for me to do nothing is more risky than for me to move ahead, for me to sit here and think I'm gonna get better is a joke," he said.

Getty will stay in the hospital for at least three weeks, long enough to make sure he's not showing obvious signs of carrying a virus that could infect someone else because doctors warned that baboon illnesses could cross over.

Doctors said the procedure could help AIDS patients and possibly others suffering from other diseases.

"I enjoy life. I love life, but I learned with this disease if you don't take some chances, you won't survive," Getty said.

AIDS patient survives baboon marrow transplant

Barbieri says she dumped Simpson on day of murders

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- O.J. Simpson's ex-girlfriend, model Paula Barbieri, testified Thursday that she left a message ending her relationship with the former football star just hours before his ex-wife and a friend were killed.

Barbieri was the first to give a deposition in the wrongful death civil suit filed by the families of Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson against O.J. Simpson.

Michael Brewer, an attorney for Goldman's mother, said that Barbieri testified she left a "Dear John" message on Simpson's answering machine on the morning of June 12, 1994. Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson were slashed to death that evening, and O.J. Simpson was subsequently charged in the slayings.

Another source told CNN that Barbieri said that she and Simpson resumed their relationship after he was jailed on murder charges, but the relationship ended permanently shortly after his acquittal.

Simpson was present for Barbieri's deposition. A hearing in the civil case is scheduled for Tuesday; the trial itself is set to start April 2.

Mill owner will pay workers after fire

LAWRENCE, Massachusetts (CNN) -- The owner of Malden Mills Industries, Inc. will continue to pay 1,800 employees put out of work by the fire that destroyed the mill complex in Methuen Monday evening.

Aaron Feuerstein announced Thursday that he would pay the employees for the next 30 days, and keep up their health insurance benefits for 90 days while he tries to get the mill running again.

"That's unbelievable," said worker Luis Gutierrez, who came with several hundred fellow employees to a high school auditorium to hear Feuerstein. "It's unexpected. I thought they were just going to tell us, 'Look for another job.'"

Three of nine mill buildings burned to the ground in a fire authorities suspect started from an exploding boiler. Thirty-three people were injured in the blaze, and eight remain in critical condition.

Federal Reserve Board member denied credit

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal Reserve Board member Lawrence B. Lindsey got some shocking news last month: Toys R Us deemed him a shaky credit risk and rejected his credit card application.

A computer threw out Lindsey's application because "there had been too many requests of my credit history by banks," Lindsey told the audience at a forum on credit card problems. Those requests, he said, came from recently refinancing his mortgage.

Lindsey rejected an offer from the credit card's issuing bank to belatedly issue a card with $15,000 line of credit. Lindsey earns $123,000 a year and has good credit.

Ironically, Lindesy was testifying Thursday about banks' aggressive marketing of credit cards, and the growing problem of consumer debt.

"At least they are turning somebody down for credit cards," he said.

Kato reveals little in Playgirl

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Former O.J. Simpson houseguest Brian "Kato" Kaelin graces the cover of Playgirl magazine's January issue.

Kaelin does not bare all in his layout, but is captured in seductive poses. "Well, I'm not going to show my butt without a reason," he said in the magazine.

Kaelin also discusses Simpson's acquittal ("The media circus is over..."it is finally time for the families to grieve"), his 11-year-old daughter, and losing his virginity.

The magazine is also sponsoring a contest to win a date with Kaelin. To enter, female readers send in a photograph and a 50-words or less statement explaining why "Kato's so sexy." Playgirl will pick up the tab for the date.

EPA says 40 percent of U.S. waters unfit for swimming

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Nearly 40 percent of U.S. rivers, lakes, and estuaries are too polluted for swimming or fishing, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

In a report released Thursday, the EPA said water quality surveys done in 1992 and 1993 showed that "more work is needed if waters are to be made clean and healthy in all communities."

The report was based on surveys of 17 percent of the nation's rivers, 42 percent of its lakes and 78 percent of its estuaries.

Polluted waste from rainstorms and melted snow was the leading cause of contamination.

Five killed as Amtrak train hits pickup truck

PONCHATOULA, Louisiana (CNN) -- Three children and two women were killed when an Amtrak passenger train crashed into their pickup truck Thursday afternoon at a railroad crossing in a small Louisiana town 40 miles north of New Orleans.

Amtrak's "City of New Orleans" was northbound and passing through Ponchatoula, a town of about 5,500, at 3:15 p.m. CDT when the accident occurred, according to Amtrak spokesman Bobby Brooks.

No passengers or crew were injured, and the train itself sustained little damage. It continued on its way to Chicago about three hours after the accident, Brooks told CNN.

Ponchatoula Police Chief Tim Gideon had campaigned unsuccessfully for several years to get an automatic rail crossing signal installed at the site of the crash, according to one of his assistants.

The track is owned and maintained by the Illinois Central Railroad.