Cuomo, Miss America to attend mayor’s conference, Clinton on TV

Thursday, May 28, 1998 | 3:46 a.m.

Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo and Kate Shindle, the Miss America 1998 who has stirred up controversy with her efforts to combat AIDS, are scheduled to address the mayors in person during the 66th annual conference June 19-23.

Clinton will release the second annual State of the Cities Report in the satellite address to the mayors from the White House on June 19, spokesman Chip Brown said in a statement from the conference headquarters in Washington D.C.

Cuomo will open the plenary session on June 20 and elaborate on the findings of the joint Conference of Mayors/Housing and Urban Development report.

Shindle has drawn controversy for advocating needle exchange programs as a way to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. She has criticized many sexual education programs in schools as "grossly inadequate" in teaching students about AIDS and how to protect themselves from the HIV virus.

Shindle said restrictions set by local and state school boards sometimes prevent her from speaking freely about the topic.

During a recent visit to South Carolina, she said she was given a list of words she was forbidden to say. Among the taboo words: condoms, needles, alternative lifestyle, heterosexual, homosexual, gay, straight.

"Other than that, I could say anything I wanted about HIV prevention - it's laughable but it's also very scary," Shindle said during a speech last month at American University in Washington D.C.

Conference President Paul Helmke, the mayor of Fort Wayne, Ind., and Reno Mayor Jeff Griffin are hosting the conference.

Other topics on the agenda include the strength of metropolitan economies, electronic commerce and Internet taxation, technologies in local government, biological warfare, handgun safety and at-risk youths.