Fifteen percent of children are coping with mental or emotional problems. Parents and friends can help them. According to the National Mental Health Association, about 8.1 million children in the United States suffer from mental-emotional disturbances. This week, National Mental Health Awareness Week, reminds people of the problems facing our citizens, including 15 percent of our children. "T

Catherine Yronwode's company publishes informational trading cards, including sets about the savings and loan scandal, Medal of Honor winners, the history of communism in Russia. One set, True Crime trading cards, has angered many people who say the cards violate the privacy and feelings of victims' families by glamorizing murderers. In a telephone interview from Eclipse Enterprises in Forest

Damien Center tries to make life pleasant for people with deadly disease. David Hudson has watched 227 people die of AIDS in the four years he's been at the Damien Center in Downtown Indianapolis. When he first started there as a social worker in 1988, the center had 28 clients. Now, four years later, there are more than 1,000 people, all of whom have been diagnosed as HIV positive. These are

WRITE TO THE MAYOR Mayor Goldsmith encourages kids to write to him with their suggestions for Indianapolis and problems that city government should address. You can write him at 2501 City-County Building, Indianapolis, Ind. 46204. Or write to Children's Express. Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith has four children. His son and stepson, ages 10 1/2 and 10, attend private school; his 6-year-ol

"Yes, because you'll get a better education and a better career." April Keller, 11 Wanamaker Elementary Indianapolis "Yes, because you'll get to accomplish more things in life." Nicole Box, 12 George Rogers Clark School Vincennes "I think college is important so you can get an education and go somewhere in life. You can get a PhD and become a doctor." Brett Addy, 11 Moores Hill

14-year-old hemophiliac would like to eliminate ignorance about AIDS. Paul Conley is 14 years old. He likes to put together car models and listen to country music. His favorite school subject is working with and playing on computers. He follows football and baseball closely, though he can't play. The reason is that Paul was diagnosed as being HIV positive at age 10. Blood given to him during

For Oklahoma resident Sarah East, a "beanpole" allows her to feel the ground. That beanpole is her prosthetic leg, which allows her to play basketball, softball and tennis, and to dance, run, ride her bike and do most things other 12-year- olds do. Sarah's myoelectric leg works like this: When she puts pressure on her foot, sensors send an electric shock to electrodes on her remaining limb, l

WTHR (Channel 13) anchorman Tom Cochrun, who won an Emmy Award for exposing the Ku Klux Klan, says he sees a new kind of racism emerging in this country. "I think that what has occurred is that some people, regardless of whether they're black or white or yellow or red, are becoming increasingly captured by the idea of what makes them different as opposed to what makes us all the same."