COVER

The Rockies: Sky's The Limit (Cover Story)

The Rocky Mountain home of cowboys and lumberjacks has become a magnet for lone-eagle telecommuters and Range Rover-driving yuppies. So far, it's been a booming good time.

NATION

Say 'Good Night,' Paul. Good Night, Paul. (The Week)

NBC has recently threatened legal action if David Letterman takes some of the comedy bits he made famous on his NBC show and uses them on his new late-night show on CBS. NBC has made a fuss with CBS o

Map (The Week)

WORLD

A Country Held Hostage (Nicaragua)

Former contras and ex-Sandinistas are both at war with the Chamorro government

Bright Life, Dark Death (South Africa)

A color-blind American scholar eager to hasten democracy loses her life to racial violence

Shamed By Their Nation (Nigeria)

Nigerians are fed up with rulers who squandered their patrimony and killed a dream of greatness

SCIENCE

Gorby the Green Warrior (Environment)

Moving from the cold war to global warming, the former Soviet leader searches for a new role

Lost In Space

A $1 billion satellite is gone, and so is another chunk of NASA's reputation

HEALTH & MEDICINE

Prognosis: Fewer Jobs (Health Care)

Clinton may not know it yet, but his advisers predict job losses from health-care reform

SOCIETY

Snared in The Terrorist Web (Crime)

The feds charge Sheik Abdel Rahman as mastermind of a vast Islamic conspiracy to bomb, kidnap and murder

Michael Jackson: Who's Bad?

An age of innocence may be at an end as Michael Jackson, the Peter Pan of pop, confronts accusations that he sexually abused one of his young friends

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

BUSINESS

Geared to The Max

Why settle for ordinary sports equipment when you can get a high-impact modulus-polymer-visco-graphite version? Americans are gaga for gadgetry.

How Low Can They Go? (The Economy)

Falling interest rates have become the most powerful force in a balky economy

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Bluegrass Saga (Theater)

Out of a son's death and a backwoods journey comes a Pulitzer prizewinning look at the dark U.S. past

Hot Damn,He's Good (Cinema)

Rancher, polo player, champion eyeballer -- and now the Southwest Bogart

TO OUR READERS

ESSAY