Attention readers! In our second CE InfoLine poll, the question was: "Do you think lyrics have an effect on kids?" There were 264 calls for YES, and 40 for NO. The calls were taken over three days. Incidentally, only 4 percent of the titles since 1990 (when advisory labels were put into effect) have gotten explicit lyric labels. Interestingly enough, a local retailer states that between 15 perc

Do you think children should be aware of U.S. politics? "Well, yes, because if some people didn't know anything about (politics) they wouldn't be able to carry on a decent conversation when they get older." Rebecca Whitesell, 16 Greensburg Christian Academy Columbus, Ohio "Yes, so they know what's going on in the world." Penny Moffitte, 13 Carroll Junior High Fort Wayne, Ind. "Yes, becau

Hugh Haynes lives in Indianapolis and is a penciler for Marvel Comics. "George Bush is trying to make a kinder, gentler nation in his campaign speeches," said Hugh Haynes, penciler of Marvel Comic's Punisher. "But that's about the only place there's a kinder, gentler nation going on anywhere. The actions (of society) do not reflect that, and the people do not reflect that." Haynes feels that

Stan Lee has spent 50 years working in the comic publishing field. Comic books are more violent today than they've ever been, Stan Lee says. "But I think that you'll find that in everything today," said Lee, publisher of Marvel Comics. "I think you'll find that movies are more violent, television is more violent. . . . I think that the comics in a sense probably reflect the world around us." T

"For one, they'd have to be drug-free. They'd have to be pretty smart. They'd have to have like a high grade point average all throughout their life in school. They'd have to have the right know-how." DJ DeCosmo, 15 Plains Junior High School Pennsylvania "I would think they should be very smart and have a lot of common sense and not goof off. David Phelps, 11 Allisonville Elementary

BAAD isn't bad anymore. In the case of Northrop High School in Fort Wayne, BAAD is good. BAAD stands for Bruins Against Alcohol and Drugs. It's a new program at Northrop whose main purpose is to reward kids who don't use drugs or alcohol by giving them discounts at area stores, according to Sue Beerman, assistant principal at Northrop High School. Beerman explained how the program came about.

Each day, 3,000 teen-agers become regular smokers, according to Dr. Antonia Novello, U.S. surgeon general. Patrick Reynolds, founder of the Foundation for a Smoke- Free America, is trying to stop that trend. "Twenty-six percent of people in our society smoke," Reynolds said. "Smoking is causing 390,000 deaths every year in America." In addition to the health risks, Reynolds said, "Smoking cig

Lisa Schubert, 11; Sam Perry, 13; Jade McGillem, 12 The Invent America program helps children develop creative, innovative thinking skills by teaching them to create their own inventions in order to solve everyday problems. It is an educational program developed by the non-profit United States Patent Model Foundation. This is the fifth year of the national competition, which took place in Was