NATION
Out with a Thud
Hoping for Democratic blood in the upcoming November elections, Republicans used a barrage of procedural tactics to kill what was left of the Clinton legislative agenda as Congress moved to adjourn. A stringent ban on gifts from lobbyists perished in the intense last-minute partisan warfare, as did an overhaul of the Superfund law that would have speeded cleanup of toxic-waste dumps. Miraculous survivors were: a California desert bill that creates the largest wilderness area outside Alaska and an education bill that redirects more federal aid to poorer communities. Clinton assaulted the Republicans for their "stop it, slow it, kill it or just talk it to death" obstructionism. The G.O.P. retorted that bad laws were better dead than alive.
Espy Goes
With a none too subtle push from the White House, Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy announced his resignation from his Cabinet post following the disclosure that his girlfriend had received a $1,200 scholarship from a foundation run by Tyson Foods, the Arkansas poultry firm with political ties to the Clintons. Though the woman eventually returned the money, the episode was the latest Tyson gift imbroglio involving Espy, whose conduct is being investigated by an independent counsel. Espy said he left to overcome "the challenge to my good name."
The Supremes Reconvene
Joined by new Justice Stephen Breyer, the U.S. Supreme Court began its 1994-95 term by facing a light -- though politically potent -- docket. Among the cases the high bench plans to decide in the months ahead: whether states can impose term limits on members of Congress, whether the federal child-pornography statute is constitutional, whether Congress has the power to ban guns from the vicinity of schools and what kinds of federal minority-preference programs are legal.
Mandela in Washington
In his first visit to the U.S. as President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela came calling at the White House and Capitol Hill to thank America for its help in overthrowing the South African apartheid system and to seek pledges of economic help. President Clinton responded by announcing a series of economic initiatives that could boost U.S. aid to South Africa to more than $700 million during the next three years.
Starr Takes Cover
The already complicated Whitewater investigation got even thornier when independent counsel Kenneth Starr, appointed by a judicial panel to probe the propriety of the Clintons' financial affairs, announced the hiring of an ethics counsel to watch over the integrity of his own legal work. Complaints about Starr's past Republican partisanship and the objectivity of the judges who picked him prompted him to hire Samuel Dash as a watchdog. Dash is the former chief counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee and an exemplar of Democratic probity.
Abortion Violence