NATION
Nominee in Trouble (Take 20)
The odds against Dr. Henry Foster becoming the next Surgeon General seemed to grow steeper as his nomination bogged down in a controversy over the number of abortions he had performed during his career-a dispute that once again put the White House in the embarrassing position of having to explicate a sloppy vetting process. Appearing on Nightline, Foster said he had performed 39 abortions-an upward adjustment from the “fewer than a dozen” he said he had previously told the White House about. Many antiabortion Senators questioned Foster’s candor, leaving many proabortion-rights lawmakers fuming over the White House’s failure to get Foster’s record straight from the start and thus letting the debate devolve into a numbers game. For his part, the President vowed to fight for Foster’s confirmation, as did Foster himself.
Yes to a Line Item Veto
By an overwhelming vote of 294 to 134, the House approved a measure giving the President the power to exercise a line item veto over spending bills and some tax measures. Democrats warned, to no effect, that the legislation gives too much power to the President, and might even be unconstitutional. The bill now goes to the Senate, where approval is less certain.
Maybe to a Balanced Budget
The Senate, meanwhile, continued its lengthy debate over a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution, defeating a Democratic proposal that would have forced sponsors to specify how the deficit would be cut under the amendment. Republicans say they still remain just shy of the two-thirds majority needed for passage.
Crime Fighters
House Republicans moved aggressively to rewrite the Clinton crime package enacted by last year’s Democratic Congress. Among the new tougher prescriptions voted for by large majorities: a requirement that federal criminals pay restitution to their victims; a measure that would allow illegally seized evidence to be admissible at federal trials if police acted in “good faith”; further restrictions on federal habeas corpus appeals; and a prison-construction bill that would steer federal aid to states with tough sentencing laws.
The Battle of the Budget
President Clinton formally sent his proposed $1.6 trillion 1996 budget to Congress where, as expected, it was promptly pronounced dead by Republicans, who said its $144 billion worth of cuts over the next five years were not enough; nor were its projected deficits ($200 billion yearly through the end of the century) deemed acceptable. As yet, however, the G.O.P. leadership has proposed no official alternative.
Carns for the CIA
President Clinton named retired Air Force General Michael Carns to head the cia, which remains demoralized by the Aldrich Ames spy scandal. A decorated Vietnam War veteran and respected administrator, Carns was chosen, in part, because he is an outsider to the intelligence community. Initial reaction on Capitol Hill was positive.
Premature Coup Rumors
Did a couple of key Republicans try to topple 92-year-old Strom Thurmond from the chairmanship of the Senate Armed Services Committee? Reports surfaced-unconfirmed or denied by the principals-that Senators Trent Lott and John Warner had approached majority leader Bob Dole and complained that Thurmond was no longer up to the task of running the panel. But meeting with Thurmond, Dole called him an “excellent Senator.” Thurmond himself simply brushed off the matter: “It’s just a little power play, and there’s nothing to it.”
The Feds’ Terrorism Cases
In a surprise development at the terror-plot trial of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and 11 other men in New York City, one of the key defendants in the case, Siddig Ibrahim Siddig Ali, changed his plea to guilty and agreed to cooperate with the prosecution. Stunned attorneys for the remaining defendants immediately asked for a mistrial, but the judge denied the request. In a separate but related development, Pakistani authorities captured one of the U.S.’s most wanted terrorist suspects, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, in Islamabad and returned him to the U.S. for trial. Prosecutors allege that Yousef was the mastermind of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, for which four other men have already been convicted. Yousef pleaded not guilty in New York City.
Another Dropout
Claiming he wanted to “put our family first,” former Vice President Dan Quayle announced that he would not run for the presidency in 1996. Political insiders said Quayle faced bleak fund-raising prospects.
The Simpson Case
The prosecution moved on from the issue of O.J. Simpson’s alleged spousal abuse to the actual crime of murder. Prosecutors sought to assemble a detailed chronology of the murder night with a parade of witnesses that included Mezzaluna restaurant employees and neighbors of Nicole Simpson’s. Also, the first police officer to arrive at the crime scene gave testimony-accompanied by grisly photos-as to what he saw. Earlier in the week Judge Lance Ito excused one of the jurors, replacing her with an alternate because she had been treated by a doctor who is expected to testify for Simpson.
Cutting Words
Angry demonstrators at Rutgers University interrupted a basketball game between their New Jersey school and the University of Massachusetts to protest remarks made by university president Francis Lawrence about the allegedly inferior “genetic, hereditary background” of blacks in regard to standardized-test taking. Lawrence, who has been on the defensive ever since his rambling remark became public, apologized at a news conference, insisted that the misspoken words do not represent his views and vowed not to resign. Following a raucous public meeting, the university’s board stood by Lawrence but condemned his words.
Keeping the Skies Safe
Hoping to improve airline safety in the wake of a series of recent crashes, the FAA and the airline industry agreed to collect and share flight-recorder data from routine flights to detect possible flaws or mistakes that might later lead to accidents. To reach the deal, the FAA agreed not to use the information to punish pilots or carriers.
WORLD
Middle East Impasse
Meeting at a joint Israeli-p.l.o. command post inside the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and p.l.o. leader Yasser Arafat failed to reach agreement on how to begin expanding Palestinian authority without compromising Israeli security. Rabin continued to insist that Islamic extremists must be controlled before there is any more discussion of Palestinian self-rule. And he refused to lift the three-week closure of the occupied territories that keeps tens of thousands of Palestinians from their jobs in Israel.
Another U.N. Mission
The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to send 7,000 peacekeepers to Angola to monitor the cease-fire in that country’s civil war that was signed last November. The mission is expected to cost $380 million.
Hunting the Zapatistas
Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, who has been under intense pressure to end the year-old rebellion in the southern state of Chiapas, dispatched hundreds of troops and police to capture the leaders of the uprising. For the first time, Zedillo identified the elusive guerrilla commander, known as “Subcomandante Marcos,” by his full name: Rafael Sebastian GuillEn Vicente.
BUSINESS
New U.S.-China Trade Talks
Eager to avert an all-out trade war with the U.S., China agreed to resume discussions in Beijing this week on the piracy of U.S.-made goods, including movies, music and computer software. The overture, which did not mention any specific proposals, came less than a week after Washington slapped stiff tariffs on Chinese products worth more than $1 billion. The levies are due to take effect on Feb. 26.
Payback in Orange County
Officials of California’s bankrupt Orange County came up with a plan to repay 186 municipalities 77¢ for every dollar they had sunk into the county’s ill-fated investment pool. The county, which lost $1.7 billion in a failed high-risk strategy, would also issue 15-year recovery notes to cities, water and school districts, and other public agencies.
THE ARTS AND MEDIA
An Existentialist’s War
A long-lost notebook detailing French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre’s army experiences during World War II was published in Paris. The work, titled Notebook from the Phony War, describes the renowned existentialist’s boredom and exasperation with army life and contains affectionate references to “my dear Beaver”-that is, his mistress and close companion, the writer Simone de Beauvoir. Scholars hailed the book as the most interesting of Sartre’s wartime writings.
SPORT
Baseball: Still on Hold
With spring training scheduled to begin this week, the 1995 baseball season remains in jeopardy. When a federal mediator and the President of the U.S. both struck out in their efforts to achieve a settlement of the six-month strike, the White House tossed the issue to Congress. But many lawmakers are reluctant to intervene in labor-management fights that do not involve national security. “We maintain our view that Congress is ill-suited to resolving private labor disputes,” said a statement from House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senate majority leader Bob Dole.
A New French Hero
The great Gallic tradition of adventurous athleticism turns out to be very much alive. Guy Delage, 42, (known as the “mad swimmer”), waded ashore on the Caribbean island of Barbados after swimming across the Atlantic from the Cape Verde Islands. Delage swam for 10 hours a day, then crawled aboard an accompanying raft to rest. Afflicted by seasickness and often spurred on by the presence of hungry sharks, he completed his 2,400-mile journey in less than two months.
–By Kathleen Adams, Lina Lofaro, Alice Park, Jeffery C. Rubin, Alain L. Sanders and Sidney Urquhart
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